Breaking Bad

I miss authentic comic books in the country, rooted in culture and science fiction. Growing up, I realised a lot of them were inspired by western comics but they still had Indian authenticity to them even after deriving from western comics books. A few comic book companies remain, and they publish sporadically but a lot of stories in them now lack the depth they once had. Comic book reading and comic collecting is an expensive hobby and one of the reasons I gave up reading comic books after my teenage years. I tried to reignite the interest later, and I had kind of kept myself updated about comic book ecosystem, but then Indian comics got obliterated from the scene by middle of 2010s, which was interesting because a lot of new comic book companies, and some containing names like Shekhar Kapur, were launched in late 2000s and early 2010s. During corona lockdown, people started sending each others PDFs of old 90s comics and it led to formation of new groups on Facebook, and even on small scale, reprinting of old comic books. These small communities are alive now, and some of 90s kids in these communities have restarted collecting comics, and since a lot of them have kids now, they are even exposing their kids to is comics. As far as Indian comics at present, early 2010s was the last time they had depth. They don't have depth anymore and it's probably because their creators don't have depth. Old creators have either been silenced or they have willingly given up creating identifying the current political situation of this country. Superficiality is being actively promoted in the country, and reading is being centrally discouraged. You can see the state of Bollywood, and guess what's going on. It took me a bit of time to understand the bollywood of present, but I realised that increased realism in Bollywood at present, a trend that started in early 2010 is not a product of acute societal observation, which artists do but of technological voyeurism. These motherfuckers are stealing your life from you and reselling it to you, and that's why South movies are becoming popular in North because they are keeping emotions and actual storytelling alive. There is not one good director in present bollywood. I have my favourites as far as Bollywood goes but they all were in past, like Manmohan Desai, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, David Dhawan and Priyadarshan. I don't like so much the auteurs like Satyajit Ray, but I would recommend a short film of him called Two. It is available on YouTube. The directors I listed no matter the kind of persons they maybe in real life, in their art, treated human relationships and condition with dignity even if in comedy. The motherfuckers who are making content for Bollywood and OTTs at present, are not artists. Artists have a human element in them. I used to like Raju Hirani, but I realise that a person like him would know the present situation of the country and yet he chooses to make the movies he makes just makes him a sanctimonious asshole. I love Imtiaz Ali, but then I realise that this motherfucker also created the Netflix series She, kind of ruins it to realise your favourite director sold his soul. I would prefer gritty realism and absolute truth of Anurag Kashyap anyday over sanctimonious bullshit. You know when bollywood was good last? When they used to make us escape, though escape does not mean lying through the teeth. Last time it was when you heard the song Bahara. Only promising directors at present are Raj and DK not because they are good directors as talent is a dozen a dime, but because their intent is right. If you want to watch a show watch Bhabi Ji Ghar Pe Hain, and see how that show manages to maintain innocence and dignity despite being full of dirty jokes.