Ep 230: Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

His writing is self-reflective, his humour is self-deprecatory, and he's one of our finest writers on cinema. Jai Arjun Singh joins Amit Varma in episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how he to came to love cinema -- and how that love changed shape as he did. Also check out: 1. Jabberwock -- Jai Arjun Singh's blog. 2. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron: Seriously Funny Since 1983 -- Jai Arjun Singh. 3. The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee -- Jai Arjun Singh. 4. Popcorn Essayists -- Edited by Jai Arjun Singh. 5. Seeing is believing? An essay about encounters with religious cinema -- Jai Arjun Singh. 6. Meandering thoughts on the consumer-art relationship, glorification vs depiction, etc -- Jai Arjun Singh. 7. In praise of “commercial” acting -- Jai Arjun Singh. 8. One Moment Please -- Jai Arjun Singh's column for the Hindu. 9. Jai Arjun Singh at Mint Lounge, Scroll and First Post. 10. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 11. Lessons in Investing (and Life) -- Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 12. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 13. A Writer Learns to See -- Episode 215 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Annie Zaidi). 14. Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide 1991. 15. Amit Varma's Twitter threads on the MAMI festival from 2018 and 2019. 16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 17. The House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 18. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock. 19. The 1980s films mentioned in this episode: Meri Jung, Mr India, Parinda, Tezaab, Eeshwar, Awaargi, Karma, Chameli Ki Shaadi, Saaheb, Teri Meherbaniya, Ghulami, Hathyar, Arjun. 20. Dogme 95 (on Wikipedia). 21. Sholay -- Ramesh Sippy.22. Jai Arjun Singh's many writings on Sholay. 23. We all live in a Cannibal Holocaust -- Amit Varma. 24. Ghost Stories -- Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee & Karan Johar. 25. Eyes Without a Face -- Georges Franju. 26. Amarcord & I Vitelloni -- Federico Fellini. 27. Moonlight -- Barry Jenkins. 28. David Dhawan and Krzysztof Kieślowski on Wikipedia. 29. Piku -- Shoojit Sirkar. 30. Jai Arjun Singh's writings on Piku. 31. Jai Arjun Singh's talk at TEDxNSIT. 32. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 33. Louie -- Louis CK. 34. Kabir Singh, Leni Riefenstahl & The Birth of a Nation. 35. Films, Feminism, Paromita -- Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 36. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavita Krishnan). 37. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World, hosted by Vasant Dhar, featuring Jonathan Haidt. 38. The Philadelphia Story -- George Cukor. 39. The Wire -- created by David Simon. 40. Dekalog -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 41. Casey Neistat on YouTube. 42. Alan Moore's books on Amazon. 43. Biwi aur Makan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 44. Ace in the Hole -- Billy Wilder. 45. The Magic Faraway Tree Collecton -- Enid Blyton. 46. Mrutyunjay -- Shivaji Sawant. 47. The Unconsoled -- Kazuo Ishiguro. 48. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire -- Luis Buñuel. 49. Cinefan diary: Jean-Claude Carriere -- Jai Arjun Singh. 50. Pauline Kael on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Wondrium. Check out their series, How to Look at and Understand Great Art. For free unlimited access for 14 days, click here. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.