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
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’
Poetry by Preeti Manaktala: ‘Sparrows line up on a hanging / electric wire in the distant // chirping and waiting to dry their moist feathers, / but the sun seems incapable today / amid the fog.’
In a recent visit to Ladakh, Navjot Khosla aims for a gaze beyond the touristy cliches, to be transformed instead by the sustainable models of growth, natural preservation, and the cultural heritage of the bioregion. By Navtoj Khosla