Arun Kale
Film Review: Noukadubi
It is not uncommon to have a Bengali filmmaker pick on Tagore’s novels as a subject for his vision. Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, and Tarun Majumdar did it. It is not surprising then that one of the most acclaimed Bengali filmmakers of our time also turns to Tagore’s
Playing a Losing Game
Curious things are written about love. It is transformed into bottomless objects and never-ending rainbows in the sky. It is given more avatars than all our gods, and it definitely has more believers. Being in love is that feeling one can’t fathom, and yet, it drives most of one’
Book Review: The Girl in the Garden
Kerala is not a labyrinth, nor is it a black hole. Yet, time and again, stories have been smuggled in, weaved into the backdrop and awkwardly hoisted up as a frame. Once a character has been transported to a place that, like any other, is deeply embroiled in its own
The Radiowalla
The sun sulks gloomily behind the clouds, prowling far beyond similar looking drapes and windows, its powerful strides now like a ritual dance that has lost its function. The gaze of its tired eyes has grown so weary behind the bars that when it finally pierces the darkness of a
ACK! #1
Film Review: John & Jane
When you watch John & Jane for the first time, you wonder whether it is a work of fiction or if the people and their stories are for real. The angst and aspirations of the central characters, their cynicism and hope, their weaknesses and strengths, are all so authentic that
Song Review: Quest
Acclaimed mridangam player Vivek Rajagopalan has been garnering a lot of attention thanks to his unique mix of Carnatic, Hindustani, jazz, folk and electronic music. Fusion has become a bit of a dirty word in the independent scene thanks to a plethora of inane acts that use the fusion shtick
Book Review: The Eighth Guest & Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries
Madhulika Liddle has walked the streets of Delhi and reworked her way back to 1656, conjuring up a Mughal Dilli where each square inch has been relabelled for our benefit and sketched down to its carpeting and the artefacts that line the walls. This is a Dilli where marriages are
CD Review: I'm with You
Five years after their mammoth double-disc offering Stadium Arcadium, L.A. rock veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers return with I’m with You, their tenth studio album in their twenty-eight-year-long(!) career. Naturally, tenth albums of any band (except Radiohead, of course) are met with a certain dearth of expectation, and
Testimonial Comics #13
The Dawn of Opinion
In a world where the media explodes every morning, afternoon, and evening in your living room, even as up-to-the-minute news and views are delivered to whatever new-age gizmo you’re partisan to, it becomes increasingly evident that we live in times when more and more people are realising the importance