Popcorn Essayists : What Movies do to Writers

A sparkling collection studded with wit, passion and insight, the essays are personal reflections on genres of cinema: Hollywood blockbusters, Hindi noir, horror — and any other kind you may have sat through wide-eyed in a million small-town halls or metro multiplexes — and the effect they had on individual lives.

Ranging from the sparse, undemonstrative work of Finland's Kaurismäki brothers to a boisterous Punjabi masala movie that may or may not be about a foot fe- tish; from a writer's first — and hilarious — experience of watching a film in a theatre, to one who performs a Helen dance in drag at a Brooklyn square … each of these essays reveals to readers a completely different side of their authors.

Edited by journalist, film and book critic Jai Arjun Singh, these recollections are what every movie-goer-- and book-lover--should read.

Includes essays by: Rajorshi Chakraborti, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Namita Gokhale, Anjum Hasan, Amitava Kumar, Madhulika Liddle, Jaishree Misra, Manjula Padmanabhan, Kamila Shamsie, Jai Arjun Singh, Manil Suri, Sumana Roy, Sidin Vadukut

About the Author
Jai Arjun Singh is a freelance writer and journalist based in Delhi. He has worked on the literary beat for years but cinema is his first love, and his popular blog Jabberwock (http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com) is a storehouse of his writings about movies, books, evil water tanks and many other things. His book about the making of the cult film Jaane bhi do Yaaro was published by Harper Collins in 2010. He can be contacted at jaiarjun@gmail.com.