Yep. There are times when server-side is the right thing to do (mainly content-based sites - especially if SEO and accessibility are major concerns) and times when client side is (SPAs and the more 'app-like' end of the spectrum).

PJAX is a great compromise between the two approaches: https://github.com/jacobian/django-pjax https://readthedocs.org/projects/django-easy-pjax/