MAD Magazines (and Moghul Library, Hyderabad)

Comics were an important part of my childhood like my first blogpost which was dedicated to ACK comics showed.

MAD called itself a ‘magazine’ and was fairly popular both in the US and India and this success in itself was a surprise.

HUM PAANCH on ZEE TV

Ekta Kapoor is the doyenne of Indian television, a brand in herself – creator of the successful Balaji Telefilms that now produces various kinds of content from feature films to TV serials to webcontent. She is most famous (or notorious depending on your viewpoint) for producing ‘Saas-Bahu’ daily soap operas the most famous being ‘Kyunki Saas bhi kabhu Bahu thi’ about 2 decades earlier and in the process also creating many super star talents.  These were for primarily the satellite television but Ekta had been doing TV series for DD earlier a lot of them equally successful.

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series

There are very very few books converted into TV series or films where you can say the TV series/ film was as good or better than the book. 

IMO the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister TV series is one such rare example.

Sai Paranjpye and her “Jaadu ka Shankh”

If you belong to my generation or the prevous, there’s a good chance that you have seen and enjoyed the works of Sai Paranjpye but an equally good chance that you barely knew who she was. Since DoorDarshan was the only channel available those days, and Sai Paranjpye somehow had cracked how to deal with bureaucrats from both the films division departments as well as the Doordarshan, she did a lot of work with them which we got to see on television and boy was it good!.

Coffee, Tea or Me?

You need to be of a certain age to know this phrase – and also to have to know that this is the title of an absolutely wonderful book (for adults and mature audiences).

It also belongs to a different era and unlikely to be popular or even relate-able – seriously in terms of the advances and fast pace of change we are witnessing, it truly is a snapshot of the glorious past.

There are several reasons I liked it, one of them primarily because it was written in the glory days of airline travel when it still was a luxury and for the privileged few.  In fact when I read it, it already was two decades old.

The Golden Girls – an absolute delight

I had first seen an  episode of the Golden Girls at my colleague’s home when we were doing some project work outside office and she invited us home. The TV series used to come on daytime, and I got to see it, and loved the episode and remember all of us laughing out loud, though almost all of us were seeing this for the first time.  I promptly forgot about this as I didn’t have access to TV those days

Conan the talkshow host

there is so much irony in this post.


To begin with I never had actually liked Conan's brand of humour in the early days. 


...And today IMHO I think he's possibly the best talkshow host

The genius of Mindy Kaling

Dr. Mindy Lahiri (created and played by Mindy Kaling) inhabits a parallel universe created solely by herself - and I really badly want to get in!! 

Its a charmed life and she is reveling in every moment of it, and surprisingly its worked as the Mindy Project is one of the most popular series of recent times.

                                 

The film companion by Anupama Chopra

This one I think already has a lot of fans and me too.

The film companion is a Youtube channel by the film critic Anupama Chopra, and has some good material in short capsules, and I recommend checking this out once every few months as you can then spend a quarter of an hour updating yourself on interesting stuff at one go.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro – the alltime best movie ever – my favoritest

I am careful about a lot of lists, or claiming to know the best in music or movies or even food, but this one I will take a shot at and say that Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (JBDY) is my favouritest movie ever.

I had seen it in my  college days and at that time, it already was nearly five years since release, and saw this several times after wards, but each time would be as great a viewing as the first time.

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT)

I know I know – the series has tanked.  It’s a bloated turkey weighed down by itself, and the high expectations and boy, it currently beats even soap operas with its facile treatment .

But it used to be good once upon a time – and those times live on thanks to repeats as well as those DVDs and Youtube uploads.

There’s a lot going for the big bang theory. In recent times its possibly IMHO one of the most creatively written comedies I have experienced.  (somehow 30 rock and HIMYM just didn’t tickle me and I got supremely bored in some episodes – I mean, I’d rather watch the current episodes of TBBT)