Arts/Literature

Documentary on Kandhamal by K.P Sasi released on YouTube

This year there was international outrage when a frail 84-year-old Jesuit priest with Parkinson’s disease, Stan Swamy, died after being held in an Indian jail in inhumane conditions, on flimsy charges. When he was eventually moved to hospital, he tested positive for Covid and went on to suffer a cardiac arrest. He had devotedly served the poor and defended their[Read More...]

Karnan: A cinematic resistance to caste system

Southern superstar Dhanush’s Tamil film ‘Karnan’ has been released on OTT platform on Amazon Prime Video. The film had earlier been released in cinemas. The film, which was screened in Corona, is getting huge response from the audience. The most interesting thing is that breaking the linguistic wall, the film is being favored from south to north. This has been[Read More...]

The contribution of Ancient Greek culture to the Modern Age 

With the discovery of fossils, artifacts, and ‘destroyed’ cities, archaeologists and historians have uncovered the hidden mysteries of events and cultures that preceded society. Ancient Greece (Greek: Romanized Hellas)  was a similar ancient culture dating back to the 12th century BC (9th century BC) to the 9th century BC (600 BCE). The Greeks made significant contributions to the four fields[Read More...]

Nithin Lukose Film, Paka (River of Blood), Makes it to Toronto Festival

As the City of Toronto is less than a week away from the ‘Festival of Festivals’ Indian Cinema has nothing much to write home about except two movies, although the total number of films selected for screening is one-third of its usual strength. And that too not from the major filmmakers. Nithin Lukose’s PAKA (River of Blood) and Ritwik Pareek’s[Read More...]

Resurrecting The Memories of “The Kid” in the centenary year

This year in January we commemorated the centenary of Charlie Chaplin’s1st motion film ‘The Kid.’ No doubt such a film would be outdated today, in the days of high tech,artificial intelligence, mechanisation or  automation. However it still has significance when the forces of globalization are tightening their noose in every sphere of life and putting a stranglehold on all democratic[Read More...]

Parables, flying scrolls and fiction: What is evil?

It is easy for derivative theoreticians who cannot creatively comprehend the deconstructive nature of creative texts to dismiss creative processes and their decentered layers and structures by highlighting a single element of a creative text, ignoring the fact that there are innumerable elements in the texts that act on each other to produce multiple levels of meaning and experience. ‘Walking[Read More...]

Riot: A Short Story by Somen Chanda (1920-1942)

A man was crossing the platoon-fields fast. Up ahead lay the level-crossing. He was aiming to cross the railway yard adjoining the level crossing. Perhaps, he had thought that he would be safe once he reaches the Nazia Bazaar area. No one can be seen near or far away. Everything is empty, like a desert.  At a distance lay a[Read More...]

Art of the Oppressed: Politics of Existence

Why Sarpatta Parambarai holds an important place in Tamil film history? It not only has convincing arguments for Dalits and women but raising questions against the dominant images and ideas.   A Tamil film, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi  (‘you can do it brother’ ) released 33 years ago,   directed by a prominent dialogue writer cum director K.Balachander, who directed hundred films[Read More...]