Actor and producer Sanjay Suri is a quiet, enduring presence in an industry that thrives on noise. As the producer on the cusp of the release of his new projects including the internationally acclaimed Chauranga, he looks back at the years when he was still discovering what it means to be a part of the […]
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Innocence In The Time Of War
Fifty years is not a short period of time. From a 12-year-young girl, I have turned into a 62-years-old woman. But the memories of those summer days that made the young mind wonder what was happening around us and why there had been so many changes made in our daily routine, are still so fresh. […]
Sunil Shanbag: The Tireless Idealist
“The point of theatre is to create a microcosm and connect it with a macrocosm so that a story means something to everyone.” Director, actor and theatre doyen Sunil Shanbag is holding forth in the Ranga Shankara cafe between rehearsals of Stories In a Song, the play that played to a full house on November 7. Over […]
Of Bhardwaj, Gulzar And Haider
When I was a kid I had a favorite TV show, called Jungle Book. It was a time when India and Doordarshan had good shows, even animations or adaptations. Jungle Book was an animation of the celebrated book ( directed by none other that Fumio Kurokawa) and since the book was written in India, perhaps […]
Born To Be Broken-Hearted
I’ve always been interested in stories. I guess it began with the bedtime stories crafted by Papa when we were kids. Carefully personalized for children. So there was He-Man, running alongside the warrior goddess, Teela Radhika . Stories of Himalayan heroics by grandfathers. Growing up in Bengal meant the inevitable fascination for the Durga Ma, the Mother Goddess, […]
Crushed Grapes and The Scent Of a Song
A dear friend recently went to Switzerland and took a chiffon saree with her just in case a Yash Chopra moment struck her. And she is not even a Hindi film aficionado like me. Just goes to show, doesn’t it? How in a moment when memory meets reality, a snatch from a loved film comes […]
The Definitive Heroine?
Every film loving generation in India has had a definitive Hindi film heroine. Suraiya was possibly India’s first female superstar and was a perfect fit for the cinema of 40s and the 50s that was rich with Urdu poetry and elemental stories of passion and sacrifice. She was the reigning queen of the developing Talkie […]
Jab Tak Hai Jaan: Fearless Sentimentality
There was a bit of Yash Chopra in every one of his heroes. Like some of them he believed in an ever-after. In the integrity of emotion. Whether that emotion was hate etched like a tattoo on a wrist or anger over the betrayal of a father. Or lost love that a poet mourned […]
An Omnibus Of Reflections…
Let me start off by stating that it is through JP Das’ writings and narrations I have known and grasped the different aspects of Orissa’s history, traditions and its people. His writings remain focussed on the ground realities .And he is one of those bureaucrats who have had the grit to take premature retirement from the […]
Why Fear Is Not The Answer…
(Pic courtesy sify.com) A few months ago, on a Facebook thread, I read a few comments against North-Eastern women, about North-Eastern people and their irrelevance to India, to a city like Bangalore. I was teaching at that time in a college and many of my students were North-Eastern, some of whom had already shared […]
An Unboxed Year…
So in a snazzy Internet centre where am sitting and filing this, a young shop assistant asked his senior, “So what happened to that Anna Hazare thing?” The senior shook his head confusedly and gestured that he had things to do. That more or less sums up what has happened if not to the anti-corruption […]
The Long Goodbye
2011 made us bid goodbye unwillingly and sorrowfully to… (Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/12/satyadev-dubey-the-resilient-cactus/) Satyadev Dubey who wrote film dialogues like he was unaware of all the cliches and conventions that do not let cinematic characters breathe. And produced and directed theatre with a fierce passion that sought and demanded nothing but absolute attention and commitment from those […]