Love, Lost: Revisiting Basu Bhattacharya’s Marriage Trilogy
The 70s and the 80s were a vibrant time for Hindi cinema, with Bollywood churning out action-and-adventure-packed blockbusters of glitz and glamour with tales of characters who were very distinctly in the black or the white, the growth of the parallel cinema movement in sync with the cinema of other Indian languages like Bengali or […]
Marriage of Nuruddin: The Magical and the Mundane in the World of Abanindranath Tagore
Guest Author: Soumyadeep Roy “Those who have a hunger for stories..of kings and queens, of Badshahs and Begums…(they) maybe seated on the floor or a torn mat; they may pay their bakshish with smiles and tears (I don’t want gold medals and certificates), them who will gaze with dreamy stares and sighs, as I narrate- it […]
The Poet in Translation: Six Poems by Shankha Ghosh
On the poet’s first death anniversary, Debmalya Bandyopadhyay translates from the Bengali, six poems by Shankha Ghosh. Ever since I started reading, poetry has remained my metaphorical breadcrumbs to scatter on the path of time. I have learned to mark my days, weeks, and months with the poems I had read and been moved by, […]
Baba, Music, and Us
On what would’ve been poet and filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s 78th birthday, her daughter, music composer Alokananda Dasgupta looks back on the music that shaped her – from that of her father’s films to the works of contemporary artists. Baba and Ma (Kuntala Dasgupta, who passed away in 2009) introduced me and my sister Rajeshwari to […]
In the Twilight of the Mind: Revisiting G. Aravindan’s Pokkuveyil
‘Somewhere within your loving look I sense,Without the least intention to deceive,Without suspicion, without evidence,Somewhere within your heart the heart to leave.’ ‘Interpretation’, Vikram Seth A lot of who we are is shaped by the people around us. We become friends, care, and love – and each of these social acts builds us; even in […]
Ganesh Pyne: A Dreamer of Darkness
Guest Author: Debmalya Bandyopadhyay One of the first artworks I have an active memory of viewing was Ganesh Pyne’s. I was about 10, browsing through an art magazine tucked away in a corner of our house. The ensuing article had used big words such as “surrealism” and “chiaroscuro” to speak of the artwork, and of […]
Woman or Goddess? The Politics of the Female Body Based on the Short Film Devi
(Readers’ submissions: Celebrating one year of the Indigenous Blog) . By Arpita Chowdhury Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati…Kathua Hathras, Unnao – Do these names sound familiar? Every day, scanning through the newspapers, at least 40% of the news articles talk about the violence against women, whether it’s rape, sexual assault, eve-teasing, or domestic violence. The horrific tales […]
Shadows and Sunlight: Chhaya Surya, Remembering a Forgotten Classic
(Readers’ submissions: Celebrating one year of the Indigenous Blog) . By Piali Bose Chhaya Surya (1963), (pronounced ‘Chayasurjyo’ ) – a Bengali film based on a short story by the famous litterateur Ashapurna Devi, is a poignant tale of a girl who is ostracized by her own family because of her dark complexion and her […]
The Woman’s Mind: Satyajit Ray and his Feminist Storytelling
(Readers’ submissions: Celebrating one year of the Indigenous Blog) By Anisha Roy While Indian cinema was well known for its over-the-top portrayal of the ‘angry young man’ archetype which mostly used women as tools for a man’s self-actualization, some beautiful minimalist films were being made around the same time by one of India’s finest, Satyajit […]
The Perspective of Framing in Ankur: Revisiting Shyam Benegal’s Storytelling
(Readers’ submissions: Celebrating one year of the Indigenous Blog) By Banhi Sarkar “Cinema is a social medium, unlike the medium of painting. And because it is a social medium, somewhere along the line, a sense of social responsibility does creep into it.” Shyam Benegal (Benegal, 2017) Cinema as a medium has various tools in its […]
