The problematic representation of women in many recent Telugu blockbusters like Peddi and the Pushpa films have stoked controversy. When mainstream commercial cinema consistently turns the sexualisation of women into entertainment, who should be responsible for the world these images help create? By Sumithra Prasanna
Poem by Anju Devadas R D: ‘someone once said / the soul is lighter than breath / but the soil keeps secrets / the sky cannot hold.’
How does one introduce a child to the art of Raja Ravi Varma without being bogged down by the mounds of effusive praise and harsh criticism that have accumulated for over a century? Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan grapples with the question in Prince with a Paintbrush: The Story of Raja Ravi Varma.
Bena Sareen, winner of the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize, speaks about her latest honour and the “huge responsibility” of designing a memorable literary cover. By Chittajit Mitra