Share

NL Hafta
The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap Ep 102: Oscars, Grammys, World Radio Day & more
•
In this episode of Awful and Awesome, Rajyasree Sen and Abhinandan Sekhri discuss the Oscar line-up (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Wife, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Green Book), the Grammys, state of radio in India, Mere Pyaare Prime Minister and more.
The duo first talk about The Wife. Rajyasree gives a spoiler-free review of the film, “You have to watch the film to see this relationship. There is a mystery, there is a twist. It’s not a relationship film, but it is extremely well done.”
Abhinandan then brings up Green Book. He expresses his liking for the film, but also adds that there were parts which were too simple. Rajyasree praises the performances in Can You Ever Forgive Me? but critiques the pace, “I really like slow films, but I felt somewhere it loses the momentum...Your interests fails a little.” The last film discussed is Bohemian Rhapsody. Rajyasree says in praise that she realised “how well they make biopics in the States...they show the characters with their greys and blacks.”
On the occasion of World Radio Day, Abhinandan talks about the dismal state of FM radio in our country. He says, “For all the political incorrectness and the wildness that finds its way into television and print...no community of presenters is as dumb, ignorant and unknowingly offensive as radio jockeys.”
Rajyasree then speaks about the Grammys, which she found to be excruciatingly long. For this and more, listen up!
More episodes
View all episodes

Chota Hafta 585
17:08|This week on Hafta, Manisha Pande and Raman Kirpal are joined by Anuradha Nagaraj, founder of The Migration Story, and Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 584
18:20|This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by Bashir Ali Abbas, Research Associate at Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) and Amit Kumar, executive editor of East Mojo. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 583
15:07|This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain and Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute. The panel dives into the high-stakes 2026 assembly elections across Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 582
01:44:30|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Manisha Pande are joined by The New York Times journalist Mujib Mashal and Aishwaria Sonavane, research analyst for Pakistan studies at the Takshashila Institution.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Priyali Dhingra and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 581
19:28|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by independent journalist Nidhi Suresh and Mridul Dudeja, a freelance technologist who has been engaged with queer-trans community spaces in Mumbai and across India for over 15 years. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Sourav Ranjan and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 580
01:50:57|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan discuss three big themes: Nitish Kumar’s succession politics in Bihar, religion creeping into sport, and the ethics of euthanasia.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with production assistance from Saif Ekram and Abhay Kumar. Sound by Naresh.
Chota Hafta 579
22:46|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by AFP’s chief US correspondent Shaun Tandon and Aditya Ramanathan, research fellow at Takshila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.Produced by Amit Pandey with Production assistant by Saif Ekram. Sound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 578
19:50|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by academic and columnist Fahad Zuberi and Kallol Bhattacherjee, the foreign affairs editor of The Hindu.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Amit Pandey & Priyali DhingraSound by Anil Kumar
Chota Hafta 577
17:02|This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Amba Kak, a tech policy expert and researcher, and Alex Travelli, the South Asia business correspondent for The New York Times.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Ashish Anand & Amit Pandey. Sound by Anil Kumar