review

Movies / Snow White and the many missed opportunities

If you’re a big Disney fan or simply curious, you might still want to give it a watch. It is, however, advisable to go in with low expectations.

Daredevil: Born Again shows the MCU can deal with real-world issues

Despite a few weaknesses, like the pacing issues and inconsistent episode quality, Daredevil: Born Again is a fantastic show with compelling characters, a narrative that strays away from the standard superhero fare in favour of realistic world building.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a timeless masterpiece about the passage of time

The passage of time can be cruel, but there is so much beauty in the little moments shared with each other as you live. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End encapsulates and explores this very idea – and it does so masterfully.

Video Games / Silent Hill 2 remake: A love letter to an already perfect game

Silent Hill 2 is a fruitful amalgamation of powerful, atmospheric storytelling and entertaining puzzles and riddles.

Uzumaki: A faithful but flawed adaptation of Junji Ito’s classic manga

After years of anticipation, the long-awaited anime adaptation of Junji Ito's Uzumaki has finally arrived. While it largely adheres to the unsettling source material, it unfortunately carries some notable flaws.

Pachinko Season 2: Mostly lacklustre, sometimes effective

The story resonated with audiences, from this part of Asia in particular, because the resilience and struggle of first-generation settlers portrayed in the series are things most of us can relate to as they are reflected in most of our parents or grandparents.

ESSAY / Manufacturing praise

Sometime ago, a writer reached out to me with a request. His debut novel was being published later in the year and he was wondering if I would be open to reviewing it. I was aware of the book, having read it when it was still only a draft. The author was not someone I only knew, either, but a mentor who had supported my writing in many ways, even through monetary means. Refusing him, then, felt tantamount to betrayal. But I had to in the end, and though he understood, I still came out of the exchange feeling guilty of being unhelpful or, worse, ungrateful.

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is still a confusing mess

Revisiting this album months after its release, I take away even less than when I initially listened to it front to back.

July 5, 2023
July 5, 2023

The pirates of Madagascar

In this posthumous effort, 'Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), Graeber posits, in characteristic fashion, that the Enlightenment would not have happened if not for the pirates around the Malagasy coast.

March 29, 2023
March 29, 2023

Jimin strips off all filters to reveal his true self in debut solo album "Face"

For a debut album, Jimin doesn’t struggle at all to establish the escape he aims for.

March 15, 2023
March 15, 2023

Miley Cyrus captures L.A. vibes in “Endless Summer Vacation”

Endless Summer Vacation seems to signal the end of Cyrus’ experimental era and establish herself in a sound that is unmistakably hers.

February 19, 2023
February 19, 2023

Journey through the centre of Cunk - A review of Cunk on Earth

The show essentially gives you a bite-sized glimpse into the history of Earth with Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed journalist.

January 12, 2023
January 12, 2023

Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2023: A must-have experience

Bangladeshi people love going to fairs, be it the Ekushey Book Fair, Baishakhi Mela, or the Dhaka International Trade fair taking place right at the peak of winter. Even record low temperatures this time around is no hindrance as people crowded the Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre at Purbachal and became part of the quintessential trade fair experience. So how is the fair going this year? Let us find out.

January 10, 2023
January 10, 2023

FC Barcelona: A New Era portrays the club’s route to resurgence

The documentary is an attempt to regain the fans’ trust who have been frustrated with the club’s condition.

December 23, 2022
December 23, 2022

Love does not die in Maitreyi Devi’s 'Na Hanyate'

While talking about rebels wanting to liberate the country from the British, the author cannot help but ask the question of who will liberate the people—people like her and her mother who, even after being in the most progressive of the families, could not do what their hearts desired and were perpetually subdued.

November 24, 2022
November 24, 2022

Hope over fate

Finding himself at the epicentre of the disaster, Abed realised that a large number of deaths (an estimated 500,000) in the “world’s deadliest known tropical cyclone” were not necessarily caused by the natural disaster.

November 19, 2022
November 19, 2022

Tales of a development sector doyen

The book doesn’t only become a memoir of the writer’s life as a development worker, but also a tribute to the late Sir Abed and his magnanimity as a human being and a visionary. 

October 15, 2022
October 15, 2022

Love, fate, and age-old curses: 'The Book of Magic' by Alice Hoffman

The familial bond portrayed in the novel makes it easy to sympathise with the characters and they rarely seem woven in a piece of fiction; rather, their attributes are more lifelike and one may just find someone like Franny or Gillian Owens among their kith and kin.