A year after the RG Kar rape-murder Swarupa Dutt/Rediff look at the city where it happened, Kolkata -- its study in dichotomy, at once the self-proclaimed cultural capital of India as also a petri dish for a peculiar rage that breeds crimes against women.
When you declare 12th Fail as the Best Film and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani as the Wholesome Entertainer of the year, you have somehow narrowed the range of the awards, suggesting, in effect, that the entire spectrum of possibility in Indian cinema extends from the Filmfare Awards winner for the Best Film to the Filmfare Awards winner for the Best Film (Critics), points out Sreehari Nair.
'When you are a pioneer and someone who's put on a pedestal, but then the pedestal gets dusty, people don't look at the statue anymore.' 'They would say, 'Yes, yes, of course I know Bimal Roy. He made Do Bigha Zamin.'.'
The world is celebrating Raj Kapoor's birth centenary, but when was the last time you watched an RK film?
'I am not a mother and never had an abortion either, so I had to understand motherhood and child loss from anecdotal experiences of others.'
'The pain of not having a home is bearable, but the pain of having one -- and not finding peace in it -- is far worse.'
Bandyopadhyay, eminent playwright and director, said in a statement that he is returning the award conferred on him earlier this year by the Paschimbanga Natya Akademi and the Rs 30,000 monetary grant.
'I often wondered while watching the film/trilogy, what if Durga had lived. What if Ray made The Durga Trilogy.' Sandip Roy looks back at Pather Panchali's Durga and the woman who brought her alive, Uma Dasgupta.
Norman Pritchard: Colonised India's first athlete to win 2 medals in same Olympics
'A great loss for the fraternity. Your work will be missed & cherished.'
Kolkata hangs its head in shame as the hope of a government with a moral compass and a heart in the right place recedes into the distance, notes Payal Singh Mohanka.
'Where Pratidwandi is concerned, there are very few men standing.'
There is a world that Satyajit Ray created in his films that I wanted to be a part of -- as Durga bathed in the rain to Ravi Shankar's music; when Charulata sat on the swing regretting she never had a child; and Aarti stood up in defence of her colleague. Aseem Chhabra shares interesting memoris of Satyajit Ray on the latter's birth centenary on May 2.
'I don't know about being superstar, but one day if I become like Shah Rukh Khan, I will not mind that. If I get the kind of films that I really want to do, and if I manage to survive in this industry, I will become somebody like that.' Sushant Singh Rajput talks movies.
Indian society may be more advanced than we think it is, notes Ajit Balakrishnan.
Debates on changing the name of India to Bharat continue to spark a crisis of identity without answering moot questions that stare us in the face. Ramesh Menon asks a few of those questions that do not have easy answers.
This is an alternate list of 10 screen roles that saw Soumitra Chatterjee, a paragon of gentility, venture beyond his comfort zone and deliver masterclasses of subtlety and depth, lists Saibal Chatterjee.
'How do you expect me to tone down my anger when the most prominent culture in India today is the culture of corruption, in every sphere of life?'
It is to Vajpayee's credit that he told Dilip Kumar to ignore Thackeray and to follow his own conscience. But the episode -- as indeed, the manner in which Dilip Kumar has been made to pay for being a Muslim throughout his life -- shames us all as Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
Here are 10 things you need to know about veteran writer and activist Mahashweta Devi.
'He always seemed one of us, part of the great aspiring middle class -- his values, his simplicity, even the intellectual snobbery which he could barely hide,' observes Mousumi Sengupta.
Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, was not just a poet, playwright, dancer and patron of the arts, says Payal Mohanka. He was a royal who hand-created his personal calendar.
Hercules Singh Munda's father used to open the gates to a forest. Today, Hercules leaves for London to open the gates of his many dreams.
A group of academics and scholars on Friday expressed their outrage and anger against the "assault on academic and constitutional freedom", joining the recent protests by writers, artistes, filmmakers, historians and scientists over "rising intolerance".
The West Bengal government wants to replace hand-pulled rickshaws with battery-operated ones. But the rickshaw pullers are apprehensive that they will lose their livelihood
Economist and author Devaki Jain mourns the loss of her good friend, Girish Karnad.
Single mother Gauri Sawant hopes to change the way people view transgenders in India.
Monica Sindhwani left Rangoon for India at 20. Married to a retired Indian Army officer, she relives her memories of the pagodas, greenery and the home she left nearly 40 years ago.
Nilanjana S Roy compiles a list of the most eagerly awaited books next year.
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