Why Agneepath needed a remake
Some movies just need to be there, embedded in our memories. We shouldn’t attempt to refresh its memory by trying to watch them again. I now regret having watched Agneepath…Continue Reading →
My school leaving certificate spells my name as Soumyadip Choudhury (সৌম্যদীপ চৌধুরী), some call me The Chaiwallah. I work and live in what is generally referred to as Delhi NCR (work in Noida, stay in Ghaziabad).A part of my work profile labels me as a journalist (of the Internet kind) and my areas of specialisation includes technology. The Internet is the primary area of personal and professional interest and I also build products for the Web. I am currently with Network18 as Technology Editor and Product Manager at IBNLive.com. In over nine years of employment, I have worked with HT Media, Career Launcher, The Times Group, NDTV and Network18 in various capacities. As a chronicler of popular culture via advertising, movies, photos and more, I maintain a popular blog, Cutting the Chai, since 2005. The blog also doubles up as a digital archive of India's popular culture.Have been hard-wired to everything tech since childhood, I have a penchant for making and repairing (and occasionally breaking) things. My wife and family suspect that I am secretly married to my laptop.Was born and brought up in Shillong and that is the place I still call home (in the physical world).
Some movies just need to be there, embedded in our memories. We shouldn’t attempt to refresh its memory by trying to watch them again. I now regret having watched Agneepath…Continue Reading →

At Surajkund Fair, Faridabad, Haryana on February 4, 2011. It was sometime in the afternoon, the clock wasn’t showing the…

The script of the new ad for Amrutanjan Roll-On balm reads like one straight out from a Savita Bhabhi comic…
Peeved with the constant noise blaring from the loudspeakers in the kanvaria vehicles passing through the highway close to my home, dug out this old post from August 2005. August…Continue Reading →

(Dil Chahta Hai was released on August 10, 2001. This post was first published in 2011) Summer of 2001. Bhopal.…

कीचड़ में ही कमल खिलते हैं (Kichad mein hi kamal khilte hain) Out of the mud, the lovely lotus blooms…
Pamphlet advertising, one of the oldest forms of advertising, is still alive and vigorously kicking. They come tucked inside our morning newspapers, are handed to us by disinterested looking people…Continue Reading →
A print advertisement from the 1950s for Castaroma hair oil endorsed by actress Waheeda Rehman.
It was an altogether different age, when having a telephone at home was a status symbol. And the waiting list…
It may not be the best looking car on the roads but the advertising campaign tried to brand it as ‘the blue eyed boy’. Now Maruti Suzuli’s brand manager will…Continue Reading →
The manner in which Ramdev was evicted from his protest venue was indeed stupid. I expected better from the people…
Phones were never a status symbol for me. In fact nothing is. I am an utilitarian, the kind who is…