In 1979, Basu Chatterjee made Baaton Baaton Mein and unobtrusively brought to us the dating and courtship rituals of a community that was till then either caricatured or just overlooked in Hindi cinema. Nancy Perreira and Tony Braganza…
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Matriarchal manipulation in a patriarchal world is depicted unsparingly in Usha Priyamwada’s Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein (Now playing on Prasar Bharti). The mother resentful of her lecturer daughter’s comfortable life in her college residence because the younger daughters…
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“Start with hope..always start with hope. We went from being a shitty team to become one of the biggest dynasties in the sport and all it needed was one match to light this fire,” says Michael Jordan at…
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In 1947, my grandparents brought three children and the remains of an uprooted life from Pakistan to India in a train. One of those children was my mother. I grew up hearing a lot of stories about the…
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Three documentaries streaming right now show the ultimate culmination of the Bois Locker Room culture. And what happens when one gender is taught to mistrust its instincts of self-preservation and the other does not even learn something as…
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In Sudip Sharma’s Paatal Lok (Now streaming on Amazon. Co written by Sharma, Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra. Directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy), India’s disowned inhabit the headlines we turn away from. A young…
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When the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi had hosted a retrospective exhibition of Jehangir Sabavala, one of India’s most distinguished figurative artists, in 2006, the 84-year-old had regaled his audience with a fabulous one liner: “There was a time when I was paid a few hundred rupees for my work and that too […]
Love is blind, they say. Or is it? Your first love is your last love, most believe. But does love last forever? Love should be celebrated at all times, and everywhere, we’ve been told. What happens when this emotion begins to destroy, sometimes cruelly? Love is perhaps the one word that has been so oversimplified […]
There was a time not so long ago when the royal courts of Lucknow shimmered to the lilting melodies of thumri. Around 1847, the Nawab of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah and his court singer Sadiq Ali Khan are credited with developing thumri into a popular style to which the courtesans danced. It is to revive […]
Purists may yet dismiss the emerging trend in art practice, namely use of technology, acceptance of new media and a growing market for artefacts, as ‘dumbing down’ of traditional art forms, but this trend has undoubtedly spurred the process of demystifying visual arts and bringing it within the reach of the common man. The […]
Next time you look at a damaged CD, a mangled video tape or even an obsolete walkman, show some respect. Or at least, that is what NID alumnus and artist Haribaabu Naatesan will compel you to do, especially after you have been to his latest art outing at Art Positive in New Delhi. Electronic waste […]
Every artist spends a lifetime pursuing immortality through his art. Very few, however, in the face of imminent death, craft a language that is full of hope, courage and dignity. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary the country celebrates this year, was one such artist who penned 15 hauntingly serene poems during the […]
When a gallery moves out of its premises – to host a show at an external venue – for the first time in 56 years – one knows for sure that the show has to be something rare and important. Kumar Gallery, which is one of the oldest galleries in the city having started in […]
When Khoj Studios, an NGO located in Delhi’s Khirkee Village, announced a day long workshop at their premises to introduce the concept of ‘augmented reality’ in art, and requested the participants to carry their own smart phones, the first reaction was of confusion. Not because one didn’t own the gadget, but for the fact that […]
While the Indian art industry continues to expand, with hundreds of artists and scores of galleries making their debut every year, some organisations are also facilitating an important behind-the-scene action. By providing scholarships and giving grants to emerging artists, the intent is to develop a holistic art market with not just commerce, but also inspiration […]
Kanchi, Chicklet, Son Pari, Parachute, Pitcher, Gol Chakker, Chunniwala, Mickey Mouse…wondering why we are rambling about these unrelated words? Well, these are just a few names out of the 40 odd games that children of Khirkee village – a semi-urban area of South Delhi – have invented as part of outdoor playing. Nothing unique about this, […]
When a play has been declared ‘Housefull’ two weeks before it is being staged, you know its fame has preceded it. I would not have got to watch Atul Kumar’s The Blue Mug either (The last ticketed show is today at Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium), if it had not been for the intervention of a common friend […]
Typically, they arrive after finishing high school or college. But their aim is not to do the typical backpacker trail of visiting Jaipur and Agra and return with a bagful of pictures and stories about Indian exotica. Foreign students, who come into India on work visas as part of global youth organisation AIESEC’s international […]