Poetry by Sutputra Radheye: ‘my poems will be drunk, truthful / and blunt like your beauty that cuts / through my skin and draws graffiti / on my bones like tattoos’
Personal Essay by Devanshi: ‘Your favourite movie is probably not your favourite movie because it was the best film you have ever seen. It is your favourite because Zee Cinema played it a zillion times in the summer of 2014 while your mother folded clothes in the next room, and you unconsciously absorbed its dialogues through domestic osmosis.’
Personal Essay by Kinjal Sethia: ‘Some lanterns burned outside this huddle of bhajans and stories. As kids, we kept close to the elders. It would be hauntingly dark outside this circle, and we pretended to conjure witches waiting in the inner rooms or imagined that the screech of the fruit bats was the call of the spirits.’
Welcome to ‘Nation of Auteurs’, a series composed of critical essays by academics, filmmakers, historians, and cinephiles, to examine the deep diversity of Indian film auteurs and illuminate the country’s wider cinematic landscape. By Ashish Dwivedi