We have had countless guests in Godiwala Bungalow but the memory of one stands out above the rest. Ritwik Ghatak Sometime in the early ’70s a Bengali gentleman landed up unannounced at home. He looked like he had seen better days. His entire demeanour was one of defeat, someone at the end of his tether. […]
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Society Man is a political animal. So reflected Aristotle. He went a step further to see politics and culture as by-products of nature. Man is given speech and moral reason as natural, inborn, gifts. So, any further device, or design, such as politics, must be natural, Aristotle thought. History is an interesting play of power […]
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Ever since the Venice International Film Festival, the oldest in the world, blew the bugle in late 2020, announcing with much bravado that it would be held on time, cineastes all over the world have breathed a ray of hope. Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale di Venezia, said on the eve of the festival, […]
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The influence of media on people is unexplainable. It starts from simple mundane things as buying a pen, but extends to extremes of life changing decision making and so on. When we speak of media it includes every aspect of it, beginning from the newspapers to the cyber world that we are in right now. […]
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Kaifi Azmi — the Poet of Love, Revolution and Regeneration Aaj ki raat bahut garm hava chalti hai Aaj ki raat na footpath pe niind aa.egi Sab uTho, main bhi uThun tum bhi uTho, tum bhi uTho Koi khiDki isi divar men khul ja.egi (A sultry wind blows tonight, Sleep won’t visit the footpath […]
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Saeed Jaffrey — the Transcultural Beacon “I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea.” -Alfred Tennyson, ‘Ulysses’ Literally in […]
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Entertainment industry eyes a Phoenix post pandemic The global entertainment juggernaut that was having a great gambol run was arrested in its stupendous stride with the Ides of March bringing in its wake the world’s deadliest virus, quickly christened Covid-19. As ‘Social Distancing’ became the new lingua franca, the entertainment industry, which had witnessed robust business […]
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In the long history of Indian cinema there have been very few film directors who could be called as being possessed of genius minds. Dada Sahib Phalke was in that realm. He founded the film industry in India, stamping his image in all departments of film making. Satyajit Ray was another person. SS Vasan, in […]
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Shyam Benegal: the Affable Auteur “Weave a circle around him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.” -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Kubla Khan’ The most endearing aspect of Shyam Benegal as an individual and a director is his unassuming demeanour. He is an […]
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Sharmila Tagore ‘From the east to western Ind, No jewel is like Rosalind. Her worth, being mounted on the wind, Through all the world bears Rosalind. All the pictures fairest lined Are but black to Rosalind, Let no face be kept in mind But the fair Rosalind’ –Shakespeare, As You Like It (Act III, scene […]
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