Vikramaditya Motwane’s AK vs AK asks more questions about reel and real than any other film in recent memory. How much of real life inspires cinema? How far can cinema piggyback on what’s happening in the outside world? By Urmi Bhattacheryya

What’s The Chakkar? Episode 4: We’re watching Welcome Home and Indian horror; listening to When Chai Met Toast; reading Aravind Adiga and Balli Kaur Jaswal. Featuring Prateek Santram, Ady Manral, and Shaista Vaishnav. Hosted by Karan Madhok.

After the birth of his son, Rajat Mittal began the Boyish project, a series of essays to challenge traditional aspirations of Indian masculinity—financial success, physical strength, and a lack of empathy—that have been emotional hamstrings to men for generations.

In the late 2000s, Karan Madhok left home to travel alone around India, living off a backpack, sleeping in trains, searching for more of his country, and finding more parts of himself. In a photo-essay, he recalls why this ‘bharat darshan’ was the best experience of his life.

Rohena Gera’s Sir (2018) is a romance that challenges the societal taboos of class in India, and deftly explores the story of two individuals who the barriers between them. With delicately-crafted moments, the film strips off our biases to ask “Is love enough?” By Harshita Murarka

Winter comes in Delhi and the city’s tone changes. The mood is usually sombre, the sky is grey, shrouded under fog. From the ongoing tradition of Kabootar Bazi (pigeon racing) to the calm of Yamuna Ghat, Siddharth Jain photographs Old Delhi in the coldest months

90% of India’s workforce remains informal and unaccounted for. Until more of our small businesses and employment contracts are formalised, this vast majority will not have access to the rights and protections that should be afforded to all citizens. By Shefali Saldanha.

Golchakkar Series - The February panel of our virtual literary talk features Sarita Jenamani and Rosalyn D’Mello: Indian Dispatches from Europe.

An isolation hospital, a raging bull, a love rock, and many more stories come together in Eleven Stops to the Present, a new children's book on the history of India’s Silicon Valley - by Barkha Kumari

A poem by Sonya Nair: “My grandfather lay / leaving daughter and a son / and their assorted children / in his wake”

The White Tiger (2021) is a dark and explosive rags-to-riches Indian story, cooked to be palatable to Western tastes. The adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel sticks too close to its source, losing on screen what was gained in text. By Karan Madhok

The OTT vs. theatre competition isn’t a challenge, but a delightful opportunity, writes Sanchit Gupta. We can have the best of both worlds: both the mediums need equal space to grow where different films with different objectives can find their home.