Poonam Saxena is the national weekend editor of the Hindustan Times. She writes on cinema, television, culture and books
Articles by Poonam Saxena
Can I have a katha or kahani, please, says Poonam Saxena
Malayalam, Bengali, English... stories from a range of languages are on our screens. What will it take for producers to tap into the trove of Hindi treasures?
Updated on Sep 21, 2024 02:00 PM IST
A master of the fractured narrative: Poonam Saxena on Bhisham Sahni
He is best-known for his Partition tale, Tamas, adapted for TV by Govind Nihalani. But there is a lot more to discover, or revisit, 20 years after his death.
Updated on Aug 10, 2024 04:34 PM IST
Dialling up the nostalgia: Poonam Saxena on the rotary-dial telephone
What a thing it was: an object to marvel at in the home, a medium of drama in films and books. How strange that now, when we can call any time, we seldom talk.
Updated on Jul 27, 2024 07:11 PM IST
A queen of hearts: Poonam Saxena on Bridgerton,Regency romances, Georgette Heyer
Long before Julia Quinn and #Polin, there was Heyer. Look closely and you see signs of her impeccable research, down to the slang of the time, on screens today.
Updated on Jun 29, 2024 04:21 PM IST
Another great showing at Cannes: A look back at Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar
It was a different Grand Prix that he won, from the one Payal Kapadia brings home, but how richly layered his allegorical film was nonetheless.
Updated on Jun 01, 2024 03:32 PM IST
And then what happened...?: Poonam Saxena, on posthumous publications
They thrill and frustrate me, Saxena says. A recent such work by Marquez reminded me of Mangalsutra by Premchand, and of so many others.
Updated on May 04, 2024 04:24 PM IST
We had no camps, apps or even TV, but we had the best summers,says Poonam Saxena
Train journeys with home-made aloo-poori, afternoons spent lounging with cousins and comic books. Saxena takes a fond look back, in this week’s The Way We Were.
Updated on Apr 06, 2024 05:19 PM IST
The mastery and mystery of Hindi’s first woman novelist, Mallika
She wrote about desire and hope at a time when most women couldn’t read. Then she disappeared. I wish we knew how her own story unfolded, says Poonam Saxena.
Updated on Mar 09, 2024 07:23 PM IST
A different time, a different kind of love: Poonam Saxena in The Way We Were
The world has changed, moved forward, opened up to new possibilities. But a tale of lost love by the Hindi writer Kamleshwar still haunts me.
Updated on Feb 10, 2024 10:59 PM IST
I wish there was more of the Delhi I knew, on celluloid: Poonam Saxena
A certain long-gone Mumbai is preserved in movie after movie. One must hunt much harder, to revisit the Capital of the ’50s to ’70s.
Updated on Jan 13, 2024 03:30 PM IST
Pushpa Bharati’s ‘Yaadein, Yaadein! Aur Yaadein’ breaks mould of memory-writing
The 2016 work and winner of the 33rd Vyas Samman chronicles 20 luminaries from Harivansh Rai Bachchan to her late husband, the formidable Dharamvir Bharati
Published on Dec 25, 2023 12:37 PM IST
Code name - Blockbuster: Poonam Saxena on Bollywood’s infatuation with the spy
Secrets, lies, guns and gizmos… the spy captivated the box office this year. But the infatuation began 55 years ago, with a hit film by you’ll-never-guess-who.
Updated on Dec 09, 2023 10:25 PM IST
Celebrating the jump-scare: A Bollywood Halloween list by Poonam Saxena
Horror may still be a niche genre in Hindi cinema, but there’s plenty one can revel in. Start with these.
Updated on Oct 28, 2023 09:05 PM IST
Starry, starry knight: The Wknd Dev Anand tribute
He was a superstar, social commentator, even – briefly – a politician. Dev Anand would have been 100 this year. How has his legacy unfolded? Take a look.
Updated on Sep 29, 2023 09:49 PM IST
The way we were: Poonam Saxena looks back on the magic of Star Trek
The Original Series sparked such a frenzy when it was aired on Doordarshan in 1984, that crowds gathered before public TV sets on Sunday mornings.
Updated on Sep 23, 2023 04:54 PM IST
When the rules of engagement change: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena
The song Kudmayi, from Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, bears within it echoes of a very different world.
Updated on Aug 19, 2023 11:51 AM IST
Hindi film’s Cupid: Poonam Saxena on the bhawara, or bumblebee
In song after song,the bee marks the birth of love, drawn irresistibly to the flower. It is a symbol of passion, yearning; but of a fast-fading and fickle kind.
Updated on Jul 22, 2023 04:10 PM IST
Flooded cities, burning trains: Poonam Saxena on the lure of cinematic disaster
2018, a Malayalam film set during a flood, calls to mind Bollywood’s first such effort, set on a burning train. Both tales spotlight fear, hope, humanity.
Updated on Jul 27, 2023 04:52 PM IST
Before they peaked: Poonam Saxena on hill stations in classic literature
The hills promised romance, excitement, experiences outside one’s mundane life. Revisit two Hindi stories of fleeting encounters, love lost amid the mountains.
Updated on Aug 03, 2023 02:34 PM IST
High on drama, low on decor: Poonam Saxena looks back on the living room
Today’s homes are designed with an eye on every detail. But there was a time when the TV set and glass-fronted showcase full of knick-knacks ruled front rooms.
Updated on Jul 27, 2023 11:29 PM IST
Master filmmaker Yash Chopra and his working girls
He is known for his sweeping love stories, but even in these, the women had meaty roles. Many had jobs, built their own lives. The best example may be Chandni.
Updated on Aug 03, 2023 11:33 PM IST
Fierce, fearless, fun: Poonam Saxena remembers Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
Her stories capture the mood of the early 1900s. But it’s in her lifelong friendship with poet Mahadevi Varma, amid giggles, that her spirit shines.
Updated on Aug 04, 2023 12:13 AM IST
Too many screens have timed out: Poonam Saxena on cinema halls
What I miss most about the grand old theatres, Saxena says, are the large crowds, low prices, and their promise of dreams and fantasy escapes for all.
Updated on Aug 04, 2023 12:53 AM IST
Capital letters: Rereading Andhere Band Kamre,an ode to Delhi,with Poonam Saxena
Set in the tumultuous decade after Independence, Mohan Rakesh’s novel explores a marriage that crumbles as a city is reborn.
Updated on Dec 20, 2022 12:45 PM IST
Baiju Bawra deserves an encore, says Poonam Saxena
There’s drama, music, love, in this soaring tale of a legend who once challenged Tansen to a vocal duel. And who better than Sanjay Leela Bhansali to remake the 1952 classic?
Updated on Oct 29, 2022 04:41 PM IST
Poonam Saxena on Gandhi’s early brush with death
On his 153rd birth anniversary, a look at Gandhi’s early displays of courage at a forced quarantine in Durban and a brutal mob attack in 1897
Updated on Sep 30, 2022 10:55 PM IST
A BA, a cough: How Bollywood clichés can unlock our past
There are clues in tropes from the ’50s and ’60s to diseases once feared, achievements once prized. The world changed, but they remained. Poonam Saxena does a little decoding.
Updated on Sep 03, 2022 05:44 PM IST
When writing wears down the sole: A tale of Premchand’s torn shoes
The great Hindi writer was always short of money. He sometimes couldn’t afford shoes. As his grandson puts it, it seems scarcely credible now, that he should have leaned into the wind as he did.
Updated on Aug 05, 2022 06:35 PM IST
Help! I’m seeing double: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena
Actors playing two roles, three roles, even as many as nine: An ode to a trope that harks back to the days of old Bollywood.
Updated on Jul 09, 2022 01:54 PM IST
A writer, a mystery, a quiet tragedy: The tortured genius of Bhuwaneshwar
The experimental Hindi short-story writer, poet and playwright was hailed by Premchand, but then slipped into obscurity, vanished and died, impoverished, at just 45. His work deserves to be remembered and revisited, says Poonam Saxena.
Updated on Jun 11, 2022 04:43 PM IST