Facilitator: – The decision of Lord Curzon to partition Bengal on 16 October 1905 provoked a great deal of public discontent and in 1908, it generated wave of public outrage. Lokmanya Tilak wrote two articles against the government on 12 May 1908, ‘The country’s misfortune’ and on 9 June 1908, ‘These measures are not sustainable’. Incidentally on April 30, 1908,[Read More...]
Meena Kumari was without doubt one of the most sensitive, creative and impactful actresses ever to have flashed on the Hindi silver screen. Sadly she left the world too early, not even living half of a complete life. The story or theme of her life was all about tragedy. I place her amongst the greatest Hindi film actresses ever, in[Read More...]
In whodunnits, two universal patterns can be seen as emerging. First, The murderer is suggestive of the vicious society at large; that s/he is part of the system that normalises killing. Then, the killer’s vengeance was not indeed aimed at the victims, but at the world which has already symbolically murdered him or her. These patterns, subtly different from each[Read More...]
It is surprising India does not figure in the Venice architecture biennale exhibition, perhaps the most important architecture international event. It is on currently, it opened last month. With all its aggressive posturing on the Central vista project, the Indian government should have showcased the project to the world. Even small countries are participating ,ranging from Albania to Uzbekistan. Our[Read More...]
The tree reaches…the way a hand Reaches–towards the sky, sunlight, rain, the moon; Towards all things known…and yet to be. Upward, Outward…towards our better selves…and others’ Better selves; towards new and old “realities”– What may be, and what has been. We can’t grasp All there is to grasp…but, open-hearted, We can reach all that is attainable. Wales’ tallest tree had[Read More...]
When I saw Umberto D. recently I was so complete engrossed in it that I completely forgot where I was for some time. What is it that makes a senior citizen in India today identify so completely with the elderly character of a film made in Italy and that too about seven decades back in 1952? I may be at[Read More...]
He is an old man, truly a very old man, and the sudden crashing into splintered smallness of his life is playing out on a tightrope, a fraying tightrope, sawed at along a razor’s edge. Tense he is and dread-beset between vulnerable tears and collapse and imploding rage. He is an old man clutching his palsy hands, with a broken[Read More...]
I have never before detested a character like Sudhakaran in THIMIRAM (Cataract) in my movie-watching experience! And, that’s irreconcilable by all means. Actor K K Sudhakaran confuses the audience by calling the lead character the same name through a film, THIMIRAM, recently released on an OTT platform, NeeStream. K K Sudhakaran is not an actor new to Mollywood movies but[Read More...]
In the modern era no actress has gone into the skin of a character in such magnitude of depth or given as much justice to a role as Shabana Azmi.,who turned 70 last year. She may not have embezzled the beauty of an Aishwarya Rai or Madhuri Dixit ,of the liveliness or joie de vivre of Kajol or Sridevi.However none[Read More...]
With singer-songwriter Bob Dylan turning 80 on May 24, it seemed like an appropriate time to reflect on the artist’s enduring relevance. Writing furiously at his typewriter, cigarette in his mouth and the legendary Joan Baez by his side or in the background, a prolific young Dylan tapped into the spirit of a burgeoning counter-culture with his folk-inspired work. Performed[Read More...]
