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Movie review: Brick Mansions - a solid disappointment
The untimely demise of celebrities often generates a lot of interest in their final projects. And that is perhaps the biggest (and quite possibly the only) draw of action thriller Brick Mansions, the...
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Book review: The Game Changer - a zero-sum game
Television in Pakistan has come a long way since the launch of PTV in 1964 and now offers a wide range of content from sensationalist rating-driven news shows to drama serials that spawn legions of...
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Simple 'pattern' making?: Design(er) dreams
Every individual has a role to play in society. It can either be positive or negative but collectively these contributions transform into a homogeneous whole and influence the quality of life for...
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Just a text message away: High end enterprise
Gone are the days when you had to frequent the dark, clandestine alleys opposite University Road, Karachi, for your fix of hash. The transaction is no longer swift or panicked and the drug peddler is...
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Karachi: The Musical
If you live or have lived in Karachi at some point, it is hard not to have been party to nostalgic conversations recalling the heydays of the city when music spilled late into the balmy evenings and...
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Movie review: Maleficent - Fair(l)y Average
Over the decades, Disney has seen both critical and commercial success of its princess movies, many of which have become timeless hits, leaving a lasting cultural imprint. It is one of these classics...
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Show review: Broadchurch - Small-town saga
Broadchurch begins like a picturesque nightmare: a man walking down the street to his own rhythm, greeting his neighbours; then a woman discovering the body of her 11-year-old son at the beach. The...
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Fateh Muhammad Malik: Dodging criticism
Upon reading the inscription “Malik Fateh Muhammad, Talagang” on the cover of a manuscript, the staff of a literary magazine tossed it aside as the name and place sounded ‘un-literary’. This was the...
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Rataul’s ripe ambitions
The small green ripe Rataul mangoes have a sweet taste but tangy history. From the eponymous village in northern Uttar Pradesh began the journey of this fruit that has sealed the fate of three...
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Travel: Singapura, oh, Singapura
For someone who was greatly impressed by Singapore’s efforts to conserve nature in the face of a growing concrete invasion, I was baffled as to why it was referred to as merely a ‘fine’ city. It took...
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Karachi's heritage: Qawwal gali
In a cup-sized chai dhaba, off a constantly flowing street near Shoe Market in inner Karachi, a deal is taking place. Agents of event organisers are talking to young men who have barely grown facial...
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Book review: Things a little bird told me - the Biz-ness of Twitter
You’d expect the founder of Twitter to be a dry, donnish computer whizz, having obscure essays to his credit — not an art school dropout with a flair for creative writing and graphic design. But...
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Movie review: Million Dollar Arm - not your typical fare
Hollywood’s newfound fetish with India-oriented films continues. With films such as The Namesake, Bride and Prejudice and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, emotional family dramas and ‘exotic’ cultural...
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Alzheimer's: Blurred lines
Memory slips are common with age but sometimes they could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia. According to the World Alzheimer Report 2013, the total number of older...
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Karachi Zoo: A thousand unspoken words
If you are tender-hearted, the Karachi zoo is not a place for you to visit. The general callousness towards the animals will scar you for life. While zoos across the world attract hundreds of millions...
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Collector by the sea: Shell-shock
They say that the seaside has a way of seeping into the soul and remaining there. This could not be truer for Muhammad Usman Khan. When his father, a doctor, was deputed to Abu Dhabi in the early...
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Ramazan 2014: Healthy fast food
Come Ramazan and household kitchens go into overdrive. Samosas and pakoras are downed by the dozens and ghee-soaked parathas are consumed to last us the day. The cravings from the day-long abstinence...
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Book review: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - mind games
Haruki Murakami is probably the only writer who can pull off a complex novel like The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. The English translation of the 1990 Japanese novel, which is perhaps Murakami’s most...
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Movie review: How To Train Your Dragon 2 - unusual connections
Unexpected liaisons, such as those between humans and dragons, lead to fascinating outcomes. In the sequel to How To Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox, in collaboration with...
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Show review: True Detective - the gritty truth
The new HBO series, True Detective, comes as a breath of fresh air amid the onslaught of sappy romance dramas and constructed reality shows appearing on television these days. With just its first...
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