As with biopics these days, Kangana Ranaut's films may be less about telling the story of a dark chapter of Indian history and more about giving fodder to those who seek to defend or justify government highhandedness today, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
'Nehru remains central to the polemic between the Congress and the BJP, or stated ideologically, between secular and Hindu nationalism.' 'The reason is that Nehru represents what is optimally possible as a secular politics along with liberalism and democracy in a country like India.'
Utkarsh Mishra's impressions of the Narendra Modi roadshow in Varanasi.
With the kind of money and talent that has gone into making this movie, a really good biopic of a personality like Savarkar could be made. But this film is lost in polemics, as is the case with almost every biopic and period drama today, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
As Ae Watan Mere Watan and Swatantra Veer Savarkar release this week, Utkarsh Mishra takes us down history and reminds us about India's freedom struggle.
'On hard cases like this one, the Supreme Court has only episodically stood against Parliament and the executive government.' 'I worry that this decision sets a precedent where President's rule is imposed in another state... and during the operation of President's rule, the state is fundamentally altered.'
'Hinduism meshed with his sense that the world was paradoxical and puzzling.'
On Jawaharlal Nehru's 134th birth anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra recounts incidents where the first prime minister showed exemplary courage, bravery and integrity.
'The relationship between Kashmiri Pandits and Article 370 is vexed.' 'Sentiment in Jammu towards Article 370 was largely unfavourable and Jammu resented being lumped with Kashmir and placed on a different footing from the rest of India.'
'Article 370 laid down the edifice of the relationship between J-K and the Union of India.' 'If you look at the Article, what is there now is a provision which states that all provisions of the Constitution of India applies to J-K.' 'The veto that the state could exercise previously on most Union laws has ended.'
Rediff.com's Utkarsh Mishra visits the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, which is fast being turned into another mandir-masjid dispute.
Oppenheimer is a very politically significant film for our time, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
Hope this film would be able to teach Indians the value of their rights and the perils of exchanging those for 'economic development' or promises of a better future by some populist leader, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai reminds us that we haven't run out of instances where even the most vulnerable can secure justice against the mighty, applauds Utkarsh Mishra.
A movie that seeks to explore an 'alternate history' cannot be so superficial, sighs Utkarsh Mishra.
What works for Trial By Fire is Rajshri Deshpande's and Abhay Deol's portrayal of the distraught parents who struggled and toiled for justice for over two decades, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
Ariyippu drives home the point that nothing can force you to leave the path of righteousness, discovers Utkarsh Mishra.
An entertaining spy thriller with world politics bunged in: Utkarsh Mishra endorses Jack Ryan, Season 3.
'The war of 1962 exposed the hollow intellectual foundations of Nehruvian foreign policy, especially vis-a-vis China and that is why it was such a shock.'
'Aurangzeb supported construction of the Kumarswamy math and the reconstruction of the Kedar temple and supported the Jangambadi math in Banaras.'
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