Culture & Heritage
9 min read
477

Interview with Srikar Raghavan: Exploring Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka in Rama Bhima Soma

January 27, 2025
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Author Srikar Raghavan reveals that the book is a personal journey more than a comprehensive survey. | Photo Credit: Faisal Ahmed Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka by Srikar Raghavan is a work of astounding audacity as it delves into the complicated cultural world of modern Karnataka, using a

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Culture & Heritage
7 min read
483

In Mumbai, An Exhibition of Atul Dodiya’s Paintings Revives the Golden Era of Hindi Cinema

January 27, 2025
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In the 1949 film Dulari, India’s beloved playback artist Mohammed Rafi sang: “Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge” (The golden night has faded, who knows when you will arrive). While a salve for the pining heart might not have been found as yet, the artist Atul Dodiya has

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Culture & Heritage
6 min read
506

Game Changer Review: Is the 2-Hour Film Starring Ram Charan for the Instagram-Reel Generation?

January 24, 2025
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To watch films like these is to see cinema emerge not from the scene but as some haphazard, cumulative, misshapen thing. In picture, director Shankar and actor Ram Charan from the sets of the film. | Photo Credit: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Riddle me this. You say you are making a

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Culture & Heritage
1 min read
519

INTERVIEW | We Wanted to Understand the Civilisation we Come from: Minister Thangam Thennarasu

January 20, 2025
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WATCH | R.K. Radhakrishnan in conversation with Minister Thangam Thennarasu Minister Thennarasu says the younger generations of Tamil Nadu are keen to know about their history. | Video Credit: Interview by R.K. Radhakrishnan; Camera: Mridula V and Samson Ronald K.; Editing by Samson Ronald K.; Produced by Saatvika Radhakrishna On

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Culture & Heritage
4 min read
519

Manu Pillai: How the Roots of a Defensive Hindu Identity Developed | Frontline At 40 at The Hindu Lit for Life 2025

January 20, 2025
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Manu Pillai in conversation with Vaishna Roy at The Hindu Lit for Life festival 2025 held at Sir Mutha Concert Hall in Chennai on January 19. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B “The ease and enthusiasm with which Hindus in India were able to appropriate that term [Hinduism] shows that

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Culture & Heritage
5 min read
557

The Role of Women in the Rise of the Chola Empire | Book Excerpt from Anirudh Kanisetti’s ‘Lords of Earth and Sea’

January 20, 2025
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Women had played a central role in the rise of Chola power but as their power faded, so too too did the status of their women. Chola royal women practically disappeared from the historical record from the early twelfth century, as the dynasty shifted from a sprawling empire to a

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Culture & Heritage
7 min read
545

Book Review: “Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre” is a Guide to North Malabar’s Captivating Folk Ritual

January 18, 2025
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Theyyam, a captivating folk ritual of North Malabar, encompasses hundreds of variations: most performed annually, others intermittently, and a few as rarely as once in many decades. Deeply rooted in Malabar’s folk religion, this belief system involves local deities and spirits manifesting on earth by possessing men. This belief system

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Culture & Heritage
7 min read
143

The Disposable Woman: How Indian Cinema Uses Sexual Violence to Build Male Heroes

January 13, 2025
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A girl gets raped in Baby John, the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Theri, a crime that is repeated in Bagheera, Kannada cinema’s most successful film this past year, as also in Maharaja, starring Vijay Sethupathi, another Tamil blockbuster. In the Rajinikanth-starrer Vettaiyan, again, it is a woman who is assaulted, raped, and murdered. In Pushpa

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Culture & Heritage
10 min read
111

INTERVIEW | Through Paintings, I Tell Stories of Those Who Are Being Erased from the Dominant Narrative: Labani Jangi

January 12, 2025
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Labani Jangi says her award came at a time when she was being questioned by many about the validity and nuances of her art. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement Labani Jangi was born in Dhubulia, a village about 40 km away from Plassey, in the district of Nadia in West

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Culture & Heritage
5 min read
123

One and Three Quarters Book Review: A Tale of Cats, Corruption and Political Ambition

January 12, 2025
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Serendipity brought One and Three Quarters by Shrikant Bojewar, translated by Vikrant Pande, to your reviewer who, over the years, has found and loved books about cats. Most are Japanese, though there are scattered gems in the West, like Edgar Allen Poe’s memorable short story, “The Black Cat”. However, even Kathryn Hughes’

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