The Comfort Amid Art: My Time at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2024
From the ind.igenous desk I am a loner. Most of the nice things I do in life, I do all by myself – attending concerts, exhibitions, watching films, plays, staring at a sunset. I’ve grown to become quite skilled at the art of solitude. I was invited to the 9th edition of the Serendipity Arts […]
Reframing Power: Sheba Chhachhi’s Decolonial Vision in Visual Culture
By Sukhmani Basra For over three decades, Sheba Chhachhi has been a transformative force in Indian visual art, challenging entrenched narratives about activism, agency, and the historical roles of Indian women. Currently showcased at the Barbican’s new exhibition, The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975– 1998 (on till January 5, 2025), her work offers a vital […]
A Longing for Home: An Interview with Theja Rio
From the ind.igenous desk In a small, idyllic village in Nagaland, two young boys skip Sunday school to explore on their own. Ade (On a Sunday), a delightful short film in the Tenyidie language shot on 16mm that premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, has lately been making its presence felt at film festivals […]
Love and Loss: In Bhaskar’s Light
By Debmalya Bandyopadhyay It is June, 2015. I am sixteen and I wear a rabbit’s heart. I ride an auto early each Monday morning to arrive at my mathematics tuition before anyone else. Our tutor is pleasantly surprised by my recent prowess in the subject. No one knows this yet, but there is someone in […]
History as Memory: Dibakar Banerjee’s Tees
From the ind.igenous desk ‘I am being rowed through Paradise in a river of Hell:Exquisite ghost, it is night. The paddle is a heart; it breaks the porcelain waves.It is still night. The paddle is a lotus.I am rowed- as it withers-toward the breeze which is soft asif it had pity on me. If only […]
Camera Indica in the New Millennium
As World Photography Day approaches, we take a look at the shifts in Indian photography over the past decade. By Sourajit Saha Christopher Pinney, in his book The Coming of Photography to India, makes a very interesting statement – ‘If nineteenth-century Indian photography’s paradigmatic location was the Himalayan foothills, in the twentieth-century photography’s preferred location […]
For the Love of Acting: An Interview with Prashansa Sharma
Actor Prashansa Sharma has lately been in the limelight for her powerful performances in two of the most popular shows on Indian OTT in recent times – Mirzapur and Dahaad. In Mirzapur, her character Radhiya is a fly on the wall, but has been much-discussed over the three seasons of the show. Rooted in theatre […]
On Being Misfits: Charachar and the Cinema of Buddhadeb Dasgupta
From the ind.igenous desk A bird catcher who loves birds too dearly to keep them caged. Strong, yet gentle hands quietly open the doors of cages, and the birds flutter out into the vast, blue skies – one by one, sometimes in swift motion, and sometimes nudged softly by the very hands that caught them. […]
Ishqnama, or Why I Love Wajid Ali Shah
By Soumyadeep Roy I’ve spent the last 7 years researching and learning about 19th century Lucknow and one person in particular, its last artist-King— Abul Mansoor Meerza Muhammed Wajid Ali Shah. It’s longer than any romantic relationship I’ve been in, my friends joke. And that too with a dead person from a dying culture. But […]
Women by The River: A Beloved Portrait by Renoir
By Aliyah Banerjee At times, Renoir holds up a mirror so close to my face that I cannot not look at myself, at Harriet, Melanie, and Valerie on screen. Young girls coming of age- so much spoken about the matter in film, literature, and life. And yet, words get lost in the silent river that […]
