When ‘Criterion’ released the eclipse DVD series of Kobayashi’s films, the title given was ‘Against the system – Masaki Kobayashi’. The caption tells everything about him. A perfect tagline. Director Masaki Kobayashi’s heavy traumatic experiences in the Japanese military regime, and the ramifications of its inhumane treatment towards its own soldiers fueled his rage, modified […]
We have read histories of languages tracing their origins, growth and status. But no one so far has written a biography of a language. David Shulman has reason to write not a history but a biography. The reason is very simple. For him Tamil is a living being and one does not write the history […]
The term “Devadasi” can be translated as “female servant of God”. Devadasi is one of the most contested terms in Indology, Sociology and Gender Studies. The system was (and is ) condemned as a machination in the guise of religious ritual to exploit women and turn them into mere bodies designed for the pleasure of […]
I am always arriving late! Last time, I wrote on football world cup a good 3 weeks after the tournament ended. By the time I started this one, all teams had finished 4 matches each! But better late than never and one could always use the early results as a pointer for things to come. […]
The long-list for Man Booker prize 2018 has been announced and it has included a graphic novel, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, for the first time in the award’s history. Graphic novels were never my cup of tea, yet I loved Persepolis and Blue is the warmest color (you know the reason!). It was coincidental that […]
‘Salo’ fame Italian director Paolo Pasolini was filming a dream sequence. A stud of horses drive into the sea against the harsh wind. Their hooves, smacking the waves, are glittering in the sunlight. As they gallop into the ocean of green, gathering all of their bounding energy into one, the lethal array of waves are […]
I Thoothukudi. A polluting factory. Years of sporadic protest, culminating in a sustained 100-day mass protest, leading up to police firing on the last day. 15 people reported dead. Probably more. With the factory closed, for now, and with all the dead cremated and long gone, we may forget who the protestors were; forget whether […]
America and India, the world’s oldest and largest democracies, are at crossroads of what it means to be a liberal and secular democracy. If liberalism as an idea is under threat in America it is the idea of secularism that is under assault in India. If an opinion is sought today in India to determine […]
The original pictures of the Ten Ox Herding date back to a Ch’an master in the Sung dynasty in China (1126-1279 AD). It has its spiritual roots in the early Buddhist texts in China. The stations depict an imagery of an illusion that needs to be subdued before attaining enlightenment by an ardent seeker, a […]
To put it simply, football is the undisputed king of sports in terms of viewership at 3.5 billion views per world cup. Olympics, is a distant third after Tour de France at 2 billion views. O jogo bonito or the beautiful game is the most popular sport in the planet and the simplest to play. […]
What to read and what to watch is subjective. But any gentleman would say, “Suggestions are welcome”. Sicario, Day of the Soldado has already released in Chennai. I loved the first part of the series and the trailer of second part was also promising. As I haven’t watched it yet, please wait till August! So, […]
Why do people consider a lying demagogue – someone who deliberately tells lies and breaks publicly-endorsed norms while appealing to private prejudices – as authentic? The 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections presented us with this puzzle. It is no surprise to any of us that politicians lie and that they often do so to further their […]