Lounge Loves: ‘Rise of the Half Moon’, ‘Colours of Kollywood’

Shades of cinema 

We are taking really long to accept that we are the dark-brown people,” says actor Mia Maelzer. “And our industry at least should not be doing this weird thing.” The weird thing Maelzer is referring to is the repeated casting of fair-skinned actors, especially women, in Tamil cinema. Colours of Kollywood: A Melanin Deficiency is a biting new documentary short, written and directed by Paro Salil, which investigates this phenomenon with the help of clips from popular films and talking heads that include famous practitioners like K. Hariharan but also activists and regular folk who don’t see themselves represented in their own cinema. The double standard of plenty of dark-skinned male stars in Tamil film and hardly any female ones, as several of the interviewees point out. Watch it on the Neelam Social channel on YouTube. —Uday Bhatia

The power of imagination 

In a water-locked village, Chairman Amin has banned TV, computers and mobile phones. He says they are haram and calls them sinful devices invented by the West to trap everyone. Then Kumar babu gets a television set, and Amin has no counterargument when the schoolteacher points out that his religion does not forbid him from watching TV. Streaming on Hoichoi, Television is a 2012 Bangladeshi film by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. It is beautifully framed, juxtaposing lush greenery with men clad in colourful lungis and shirts. There is a scene where Kumar and his family are watching TV, and neighbours are peering inside from windows on both sides of the room. A love triangle adds a touch of lightness to this social satire. Farooki was recently appointed an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh.—Nipa Charagi

Also read: ‘I Want To Talk’ review: Living on a thin line

Windows of pearl 

A few months ago, on walking tour of Saligao, I came across oyster shells slotted into the windows of beautiful old Portuguese-style homes. Long before glass was easily available in India, these little translucent shells from the inside of oysters were used to create windows that filtered in light and maintained privacy. Most of these 200-300-year-old homes are empty, but the windows are like little works of art with the ovals of shiny mother of pearl or nacre still intact in crumbling frames. Use of these shells is banned as the oysters are dwindling. With the houses abandoned and waiting for buyers—since most of their owners live abroad, my guide Adolphina of Soul Travelling said—it’s likely these windows of art have a short life. —Shalini Umachandran

Moonstruck in November 

If you went to the Google homepage on 21 November, instead of the usual Google logo you might have seen a Google Doodle game called Rise of the Half Moon, an interactive card game where players must connect the phases of the lunar cycle to earn points. It’s a great way to learn about the phases of the moon as players match lunar phases to create full moons, and can be played across three levels, with each level played on a larger board than the previous. You may need to play a few games to really get the hang of it, but the delightful, moon-y graphics and soothing music had me hooked as I tried to match cards, create full moons, and place cards in the order of the lunar cycle. Better than Temple Run, for sure! —Shrabonti Bagchi

Also read: YouTuber defeats world's baddest man, Netflix wins