The Brunch round-up: The week and how it made us feel

Is there no end to Ranbir Kapoor’s jibes at his wife, Alia Bhatt? He called her fat when she was pregnant. He’s shared, unasked, that she has let go of her personality after marriage. Now, he’s told the media that she didn’t know who Kishore Kumar was. Why is this couple’s love language embarrassment? Why involve us? It feels like we’re in a group chat with a toxic couple.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light (2024), the first Indian film to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, is finally in theatres. The shows are full of solo-but-determined viewers. But really, go with your bestie. The film is about the family we leave behind, and the family we build when we move to cities. It’s a darkened movie hall, but we all feel seen.

Women are twice as likely as men to listen to true-crime podcasts, says a study that offers no surprise. They polled American women, but isn’t true here as well? The real research is in trying to find out why men aren’t interested. Most violent crime is perpetrated by men. These are cautionary tales for everyone. Why don’t men care as much?

Look, we’ve been around since MSN Messenger. We’ve seen MySpace, Orkut, Facebook... We know that if a social platform is dead, it’s dead. We know that X/Twitter is broken. None of the alternatives measure up. Not Mastodon, not Threads. Bluesky is trying now. We’re guessing it will fizzle out too. RT if you agree.

Kim Kardashian has acquired Optimus, Tesla’s new humanoid robot. She posed with the bot in a sexy shoot. Of course, the trolls immediately began bemoaning “the downfall of society” and how it was “dehumanising” (For her or Optimus? It wasn’t clear). Duh! It’s obviously a promotion for Tesla. But a man who listens and obeys your every command? Sounds like a dream, TBH.

What’s better than one big black-and-white panda? Ten little Red Pandas! The Darjeeling Zoo, which runs a conservation centre for the endangered animal, will soon release its tenth one into the wild. There are only 10,000 of them in jungles, so every release counts. Their programme is up for the global conservation award by the WAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums). All the best.

For the first time, every one of the top 10 highest-grossing Hollywood films worldwide is a sequel. Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. And Moana 2 is almost here. Looking for originality? Good writing? They’re on the OTT platforms. The popcorn’s cheaper at home, too.

Season 2 of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein (2022-) is as nuts as the previous one, in which the ‘90s Bollywood love-triangle was remixed into a murder thriller. This time, the only mess is that there are two hot men fighting over a woman and only one is trying to kill her. We’re loving Tahir Raj Bhasin, Arunoday Singh and Gurmeet Choudhary. What good is a cliché if you can’t plot its demise, right?

Cruel Intentions, which released 25 years ago, gave Reese Witherspoon her breakthrough role (and Ryan Phillipe his last good one). It’s a toxic movie, and there was so much to build on for the series version, which just came out. But, all it does is try to be woke and inclusive, losing the plot. Everyone knows about honeytraps in 2024.

Those #WomenInMaleFields Reels are all over the place. Women are asking men the same sexist questions they’ve had to endure: “Why are you so emotional?”, “Why are you putting your career before your family?”, “Why can’t you adjust to your in-laws?”. And once again, men are missing the point, and getting triggered. It’s almost like a 10-second video, even 100 of them, can’t change centuries of patriarchy. #DoBetter.

Cambridge Dictionary’s Word Of The Year is Manifest. For Oxford University Press, it’s Brain Rot (no surprise there). For Collin’s Dictionary, it’s Brat. Others in the running: Yapping, Romantasy, Looksmaxxing, Lore, Demure, and strangely enough, Resilience. We love brain rot, here at Brunch. Mostly because we haven’t managed to manifest our way out of doomscrolling.