Trijya: The Heaviness of Being

By Babli Yadav It is 4.45 pm and the sun has just hit the neighbour’s window. It is glowing, almost as if telling me something private. I wonder if anyone else can see what I do. The descending sun’s reflection on windows and walls between 4.30 to 5 pm is one of my best discoveries. […]

Of Modernity, Civilization, and Identity: Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk

By Anuska Guin Agantuk (The Stranger) is Satyajit Ray’s last film, released in 1991. The year 1991 is significant because it marks the beginning of liberalization reforms in India. The opening up of the Indian economy led to the rise of a ‘new middle class’ in India, as argued by Leela Fernandes. As the film […]

Baksa Badal: Satyajit Ray the Scriptwriter of a Delightful Bangla Rom-Com

By Suchetona Pal For a few years now, I have nurtured a habit of returning to the literary texts from which many of my favourite films have been adapted. Reading such a text invariably leads to attempts at mapping it to the film’s independent interpretation of it. I remember being fascinated when I first watched […]

Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas: Mrinal Sen’s Short Films

On following Mrinal Sen’s filmography, one notices a change around the 80s. From sharp socio-political commentaries to self-introspection, there is a gradual shift from looking outward to looking inward. With his earlier films, he earns for himself the title of being a ‘political filmmaker’, while his later films situate themselves within the spaces of the […]

On ‘Shauq’ and Songs that Undo Us

By Anandi Mishra (Cover image: Dust storms in Delhi, Raghu Rai, circa 1986) Ki aankhon mein teriRaat ki nadiYeh baazi toh haari haiSau feesadi Lately, all of us mortal beings (at least the Hindi film buffs) have succumbed to the cascading waves of melancholia that Amit Trivedi’s latest, and so far his best, Hindi music […]

My Moonwashed Horizons: Moheen and I

Guest Author: Debmalya Bandyopadhyay The first month of college was lonely. Fresh out of school, I was suddenly in a place filled with strangers and had no one to really talk to. As I tried to leave my shell to make friends, I somehow got invited to ‘Music and Lyrics,’ a collaborative event by the […]