The Grand Cinema of Taking Offense
Considering the polarizing socio-political climate in the country, Sneha Bengani examines censorship and outrage in Hindi cinema, and the consequences of heightened intolerance towards this democratic, transformative medium.
No Monkeying Around
Despite its acclaim abroad, the fate of Dev Patel’s Monkey Man still hangs in a limbo in India. Afreen Kabir writes about the certification board’s controversial decisions and the Indian state’s larger attitudes towards artistic dissent.
Art, Defanged
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the films that hit the big screens, the books showcased on the windowfronts, and the music crawling into our ears, has mostly sung the songs of propaganda. It’s art without dissent; art that rages for the machine. By Karan Madhok
Short story by Debi Mukherjee: “Unlike the little girls I see outside temples, draped in their pano bhaju’s stringing garlands of Marigolds, I dare not play with the flowers in our garden. Papa cautions me against the rows of Mogras, Shoe-flowers, Frangipanis and a multitude of others. He says that I must not be lured by a flower’s fragrance.”