Kiwi born and raised by my Anglo-Indian Dad. Over the last 5 years have developed an inexplicable and incurable attachment to old Hindi films and the lovely music therefrom. Have also formed a deep and abiding loathing of modern Hindi drek, and hope that SLB and KJo come back as dung beetles for at least their next 6 incarnations. If Raj Kapoor, Shashi, Waheeda or Nargis is in it, and if Rafi, Manna Dey, Kishore, Asha (or her screechy elder sister) sang it, I probably want to watch it. If it's got a filmi qawwali, I DEFINITELY want to watch it. At the opposite end of the cinematic scale, if Nandita Das is in it, even if it's just reading the phone book (or, as is more likely in her films, being beaten over head with a burning phone book), I want to own it. For personal reasons, Earth:1947 is my all-time favourite movie of hers.

Apart from Hindi cinema, my main interests are a very lazy and dilettantish interest in language and linguistics, and a 25-year devotion to Arsenal Football Club. Hence my tagline.