Nandita Dutta's F-Rated is a book that examines Indian filmmaking through the eyes of eleven women directors who have been central to the industry across decades. Dutta speaks with influential filmmakers from Farah Khan to Mira Nair and Alankrita Shrivastava about being leaders in a male-dominated field, their
The first time we see him in Madhu C. Narayanan’s Kumbalangi Nights, Shammy (Fahadh Faasil) is trimming his abundant moustache, looking admiringly at his own reflection in the mirror and calling himself ‘the complete man’. In this film about men and the contending representations of masculinity, facial hair understandably
Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker International Prize-winning novel offers a rich, poetic, and profound gaze into the culture of Oman, told through the complex stories of three generations of a family in the village of Al Awafi. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Purchase) Subtlety is often lost in translation, but
Amrita Mahale’s debut novel Milk Teeth takes you on an engaging journey through the crowded streets of '90s Bombay: its vendors, hawkers, and crammed buildings, the redevelopment and consequent oblivion of an old city, and the searing aftertaste of the communal riots. Juxtaposed with this setting are the
Bystander is an ambitious new project conceptualised by the minds behind Kadak, an inspiring collective of South Asian women who work with graphic storytelling that traverses the personal and political, questions culture, and examines subculture. An anthology of graphic narratives, Bystander will gather works created by a diverse group of
The path to the American dream is paved with nightmares in Indian-American filmmaker Sonejuhi Sinha’s Stray Dolls, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month. A moment stands out early on in the film. Una (Cynthia Nixon), the Polish owner of a motel in Poughkeepsie, is introducing Riz
Following its brief prologue, Tishani Doshi’s sprawling new novel Small Days and Nights opens by saying, “return is never the experience you hope for.” That idea is reinforced throughout the book in ways large and small, as its characters seek the illusory promises of homecoming. In particular, Grace, its
Loneliness and loss, the ways in which people perceive absence, and the choices that emanate from them are some of the themes filmmaker Sudipto Roy explores in his new film Kia and Cosmos. Truth and its potentially harmful and liberating qualities as well as the struggles of modern single parenting,
Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, Vandana Singh’s latest collection of short stories, brings together thirteen previously published works and one new, haunting piece, 'Requiem', that serves as an exploration of language, climate change, and resistance. A finalist for the 2019 Philip K. Dick Award, the stories in
Easterine Kire’s new novel A Respectable Woman effortlessly weaves together generational family narratives with chapters of Nagaland’s tumultuous history, beginning with the Japanese invasion of Kohima during World War II. Through the eyes of a mother and daughter, this unflinching feminist work explores the lives of characters fighting
The Helter Skelter Anthology of New Writing: Volume Six. Helter Skelter Magazine's New Writing section was started in 2012 as a way to promote emerging writers and poets in India; to create a space for original, fresh short fiction and poetry.The first five volumes of New Writing
In January 2015, following intensifying protests against his book Madhorubhagan (tr. One Part Woman), Perumal Murugan declared his death as a writer. Poonachi, published in Tamil in 2016 and in English in 2018, is his first novel written since his dramatic declaration, marking his resurrection from self-imposed literary exile. In