In this special episode, PKP went live at the Calgary International Film Festival! Indian filmmaker Shlok Sharma and screenwriter Shilpa Srivastava sat down with Ankur and Raeesa to chat about their film Two Sisters and a Husband (2022), their experience working with Anurag Kashyup, and all things Indian cinema! This episode of PKP was recorded on …

WELCOME BACK TO A NEW EPISODE OF PARDE KE PEECHE!!! In this month's episode hosts, Raeesa Farooqi & Ankur Desai, sit down to discuss depictions of Nationalism & Patriotism in Indian Cinema. We discuss the evolution of the depiction from the Pre-Colonial origins, to the modern Right-Wing Jingoistic turn in Indian Films. ARTICLES Devadas, Vijay. “The…

Happy Summer! In this episode of PKP, Ankur and Raeesa are taking a trip through Bollywood's depiction of travelling, featuring the works of the sibling duo the Akthars.Par Parde Ke Peeche

It’s Cannes season, baby! This year in what is a first, the Cannes Film Festival has chosen India as the official “Country of Honour”. But India has not always played a huge role in the 75 year history of this international festival. In this episode of PKP, hosts Raeesa and Ankur explore India’s relationship with Cannes, the Eurocentric nature of t…

The influence of William Shakespeare on cinema is well known & far reaching. Since the dawn of cinema The Bard’s work has been adapted, or provided inspiration, in cinematic works from Griffith, Kurosawa, and Julie Taymor. The influence has also touched Indian filmmakers as well, providing rich, complex, and beautiful stories for filmmakers like Vi…

The 94th Academy Awards are on Sunday March 27, a night of prestige and glamour in the international film world. The documentary Writing with Fire, directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, has been nominated this year and is the first Indian-made film ever nominated in the documentary feature category in the history of the Academy Awards. In fac…

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF PARDE KE PEECHE! Since this is the month of romance & love, in the new episode hosts Ankur Desai & Raeesa Farooqi, sit down and explore romantic films in India. They chart the history of depictions of romance in Hindi films from the early fifties such as Aawara (1951), Guide (1965), all the way to more contemporar…

In the first episode of season 2, PKP hosts Ankur and Raeesa explore the rich and vast history of documentary cinema in India, from pre-Independence to current times. Follow along as they uncover the historical events, themes, and political pressures that have shaped the Indian documentary landscape, as well as notable figures in the genre such as …

Happy Halloween! This month’s episode explores the fantastical tale of the Ramsay Brothers. Not averse to filmmaking families in the Hindi film Industry, the Ramsay Brothers stood out from the Kapoors, Chopras, Akhtars, etc. since they focused on economical pulpy horror films. Their reliance on keeping their budgets small did not stop the Ramsay br…

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF PKP In this special episode, PKP went live at the Calgary International Film Festival! Lead Programmer Brenda Lieberman sat down with Ankur and Raeesa to chat about the festival, the two Indian films -- Dug Dug and Last Picture Show. This episode of PKP was recorded on site at the Calgary International Film Festiv…

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF PKP!. On this month's episode we explore the mysterious genre: Indian Film Noir. Though hard to define, either as a genre, a style, or just a vibe, we try to understand what makes a Film Noir by discussing three films: BAAZI (1951), ARTICLE 15 (2019), & RAAT AKELI HAI (2020).…

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF PKP! This month, hosts Raeesa and Ankur catch up with the last three Indian films they watched during the lockdown. Tune into see what they had to say about the Netflix originals 'PAGLAIT', 'AJEEB DAASTANS', and Malayalam film 'ESTHEPAAN'.Par Parde Ke Peeche

One of the greatest hallmarks of Indian cinema is the use of song and dance to convey story and emotion, but it is quite different and much more popular than the musicals found in Hollywood. In fact, India’s “filmi music” industry accounts for around 72% of all music sales in India. So where did it come from and why is it so popular? Hosts Ankur an…

Coined by film historian Amrit Gangar, “cinema of Prayōga” is a conceptual framework used to describe experimental and avant-garde Indian cinema, and to locate it within an ancient history of pre-modern tradition of innovation -- of prayoga. In this episode, PKP turns the lens onto India’s experimental film scene: how it differs from North American…

Hosts Raeesa and Ankur sit down with Calgary-based filmmaker Amair Javaid to discuss his new short film Hafiz (2020), which was selected to be part of the Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals. They also discuss Amair’s filmmaking journey, cultural responsibility & representation, identity, and other topics around being a filmmaker in the Canadia…

WELCOME BACK to another episode of Parde Ke Peeche! This month we have a special episode for our listeners! We reached out to the Calgary-based South Asian Youth Mental Health (SAYMH), to discuss the depiction of alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder, in Bollywood. Films mentioned include Devdas, Dev-D, Aashiqui 2, and Kabir Singh. Thank you so much …

With the on-going Black Lives Matter protests erupting in America and across the world, an interesting response took place in Bollywood. While many of the stalwarts of Indian cinema showcased their solidarity with the protests, many fans were quick to highlight the hypocrisy underlying their support. Due to many of these film stars either promoting…

WELCOME BACK! We hope you are safe and healthy during the COVID-19 quarantine, and to make your social-distancing a little more bearable, we got a new episode of PKP for you! ANKUR & RAEESA once again take a look at the past and discuss a selection of films that were influential in their love, appreciation, and understanding of Indian cinema. Films…

Raeesa and Ankur take a deep-dive through the film industry of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the second largest film industry in India after Bollywood. They explore the beginnings of Tamil Nadu's film industry, the classic film "Chandralekha", and the industry's relationship with Bollywood.Par Parde Ke Peeche

WELCOME BACK to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! The 2010s in Hindi cinema were marked by big changes such as the introduction of digital streaming, the #MeToo movement, and the election of Modi and the BJP Party. Amongst all the changes, there were some wonderful films to be released over the past 10 years. @raeesafarooqi & @grfx_asd end of their…

WELCOME BACK to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! The 2010s in Hindi cinema were marked by big changes such as the introduction of digital streaming, the #MeToo movement, and the election of Modi and the BJP Party. Amongst all the changes, there were some wonderful films to be released over the past 10 years. Raeesa and Ankur narrowed their TEN fav…

WELCOME BACK to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! For the first episode of 2020 we decided to look back, and discuss our favourite Bollywood films from 2019. Even though Bollywood did not have the best of years, hosts Raeesa Farooqi & Ankur Desai narrowed their FIVE favourites from 2019, discussing why those films stood out from the rest, their lik…

Welcome back to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! So far, we have focused on the development & popularization of Hindi cinema in India. However, just as there is no one language in India, there is no ONE cinema in India. For today’s episode, we explore how Bengali Cinema culture, with its focus on social realism & consciousness, emerged during the …

The final episode of our three-part series exploring Hindi cinema's transition to Bollywood. In the first two episodes we looked at how India transitioned from a post-colonial country in the late fourties & early fifties, to a tumultuous era of political oppression in the seventies. With today’s episode we are finally examining how the liberalizati…

Further exploring Hindi cinema's transition to Bollywood, hosts Ankur Desai & Raeesa Farooqi explore two classic seventies films: Yaadon Ki Baarat, and Deewar. Both films are seminal in exploring the times they were made in, and how they fit into the grander narrative of Hindi cinema to Bollywood. Show Notes Released: June 4, 2019 ​Intro & Outro mu…

Hindi cinema wasn't always known as Bollywood. In fact, the term "Bollywood" only started in the 1970s and came to represent a completely different type of Bombay-based filmmaking than previously existed. So when and why did it change? In this first part of a three-part series, Ankur and Raeesa explore the Golden Age of Hindi cinema (1940s - 1960s)…

(Note: This is the first-ever episode of PKP!) WELCOME TO PARDE KE PEECHE! Our podcast is dedicated to looking at the various cinemas of India, through a critical and academic lenses. In our very first episode we look at the fascinating relationship between the stage and screen in India, with a special focus on Bollywood/Hindi cinema. India being h…