Almost all the Shahrukh Khan in One Place


 

Because many people have been asking me, I'm collating links to most of my writing on SRK here. I say most of, because I don't even remember now how many types of things I've written on the subject and also, one short story which draws on his persona is not online so. And there are columns I wrote that I can't remember the names of, so I can't actually find them. A life of plenitude can be a life of chaos I guss! But for the rest..


2013

On Chennai Express and how SRK makes space for different kinds of women

Heroine Express

2015

On Sharukh Khan and the politics of love as a conceptual frame in my Mumbai Mirror column How To Find Indian Love

Who is Worth Loving?

On an alternative interpretation of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, which builds on that same thought, on the film's 20th anniversary 

DDLJ Bees Saal Baad

 2016 

A long essay commissioned by Amrita Dutta for Indian Express Eye's special issue on 25 years of liberalisation in India, looked at what it meant to think of SRK as a psychological companion to liberalisation.


Tracking SRK’s film journey is to map the growth of the Indian middle class

2020

A conversation between fans (Raza Rumi, Faridoon Sharyar, Gurmehar Kaur and Paromita Vohra) for SRK's birthday on Naya Daur TV

 

2021

An essay for an Outlook special issue on SRK, examining how he symbolises Indian-ness

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani: Ways of Being Shahrukh

 

2023

On the release of Pathan in my Sunday Mid-day column Paronormal Activity

Mausam Ki Jankari


And also a long meditation on Pathaan as a play of memory and the assertion of what the popular can be as a third political space for Doing Sociology's special issue on Pathaan.

Vasantasena’s Lychpin, Memory Games and Re-Membering in Pathaan: A Reading in Three Scenes


Of course on Jawan too :) which interestingly played out some of the themes I spoke about in the Pathaan essay, of double roles and the potent work of amnesia in Hindi films.

 

Who's Your Daddy?


And generally....

Dreaming of Shahrukh among other dreams...

Sharing our dreams is an act of intimacy too, but a different shade of romantic.

 The other day my friend excitedly called me to announce she had dreamt of Shahrukh Khan. Understandably, as we both know, that though she too loves Shahrukh, this is my domain, my copyright, even if (ha ha) only in my dreams. “Well then!” I exclaimed, “it’s obvious that really you dreamt of me!” We laughingly fell to analyzing the dream, neither doubting that at least one thread of our mutual love for each other gave the dream its shine.


Some pieces which have small sections on SRK or a connection to the set of ideas I explore through his figure - of love politics, masculinities and gender, Indianness and popular film histories

 Automatic bodies: masculinities, mobilities, nation, and the Bollywood body

The Final Word on Why Women Love Fawad Khan

An interview with The Spool where we discussed why I love SRK

 


 





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