India, Sept. 11 -- Of late, Instagram has suffused my timeline with clips of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman talking about Practical Magic 2. The two lead actors seem as surprised as the rest of us that there's a sequel to their 1998 film about a family of witches.

Practical Magic (based on Alice Hoffman's 1995 novel of the same name) starred heroines rather than heroes, and wasn't afraid to explore grief and trauma within a romantic comedy. It also had a climax that culminated in 12 women sweeping a house clean.

But it bombed at the box office. Twenty-eight years later, the sequel is out and, regardless of how it fares, I'm delighted we're in an era when actresses aged 62 (Bullock) and 59 (Kidman) can star in a romantic comedy and get...