Never mind

I was a bit disappointed with Dev D, for its quintessentially a Bengali story and Anurag Kashyap moved it to Punjab. When the movie started I felt uneasy and it was hard for me to stomach the Jat landscape in which he transplanted the bhadralok's drama. But as the frames proceeded I stopped thinking about it, and truly speaking its a great movie. And its essence is beautifully brought out in the end credits which are first, shown upside down and then inverted to bring them in the right position. Basically, that's what this movie is about- a topsy-turvy retelling of the Bengali melodrama.

this, when indians are dying for entertainment!

"dispatches took root on an olive farm in Provence, flourished on a Kashmiri houseboat, and was toasted into reality with champagne at the East Gate of Angkor Wat. Its founders are a photographer who believes his lens should not filter out humanity, a reporter who feels real news can only be seen from up close in its historical perspective, and a pharmaceutical executive who thinks entrepreneurs should do more than make money."



the Indian masses are only learning to handle a life that begins and ends with sound bites and breaking news pieces. And there's no doubt that they're game for more. this adrenaline-rush model where news items come into the public consciousness and go out of it only to be replaced with more news at the speed of sound, if not light is nothing new: its new only for us.

Anyway, what I’m talking about here is this new venture,or adventure rather since the American Journal Review characterises it as bucking the trend (. At a time when attention spans are falling from mins to secs to nanos to..., this group of gamblers brings out a piece of journalism that would seem counter intuitive to the dominant logic of market.

Even though papers, in the West, are becoming redundant, TVs endangered and Web seems to be calling the shots, or would be doing so, they really believe that they'll be able to pull off without the virtual resources. I won't say anymore, read it for yourself:

"Yet what matters still is what when news was chipped on cave walls and then scratched on parchment: the message."

Rejected!

"Long before any such understanding can be reached, the eyes of men begin to turn towards the distant light of the new age. Discernible at first only by the eyes of the man of genius, it must be focussed by him on the speculum of a work of art, and flashed back from that into the eyes of the common man."
-GBS, Preface to Plays Pleasant

Unfortunately, India as a nation-state has shown little enthusiasm for an artist's vision of the times to come. Instead, we have been much eager to dissociate ourselves, and even try and do away with our artists. To what extent India as peoples have been successful in tolerating them might be debatable, but is still, I think, full of hope. For attempts to garrote the creative voices, even though successful to some extent, have deeply divided our society-and its not just the intelligentsia that has taken up the cudgels.The common man was never ready to acquiesce to their leaders in such matters, otherwise the most popular leader of this country, Gandhi could have easily ensured that all 'obscene' sculptures around the country à la Khajuraho were removed from the imagination of this country, and the world, once and for all in the Bamiyanesque fashion. Husain might not be able to live in this country, but certainly he lives in the hearts of the artists of the nation, as well as in those who understand that life may not be for art but indeed, life couldn't be without art, too. Besides, even after what Husain suffered, if Baroda could happen then we needn't fret and whine. I have heard people talking derisively about Nasrin's literary standards in college, but even if someone thinks Penthouse a better read, I'd prefer Nirbachito Column under my pillow. And before anyone thinks my attitude as puerile, let me make myself clear that I don't dream of a day with unbridled freedom of speech where no one even cares what another says, forget offence. For such a heaven would be boring. As for offence, Ashish Nandy put it pithily when he remarked about Arundhati Roy-"It is the right of every independent thinker to think irresponsibly and hurt the sentiments of the majority on any issue."