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Cinema cover
In this issue
18-10-2013
42 STORIES
POLITICS
New Gujarat model
The BJP replaces its Chief Minister in Gujarat—bringing in a member from the resourceful Patidar community—and the entire Cabinet in a damage-control
K. Balachander
The KB school
Cinema's century
Contemplating a century
Mainstream Indian cinema’s hundred year spree makes for a pulsating narrative. Though it has gone from selling dreams in the initial days to commodify
In first person: M. Karunanidhi
Cinema for a cause
In first person: Balu Mahendra
‘Cinematography has changed, so also the way films are made’
Stardom
Dream merchants
The convergence of brand culture, television and stardom has forever changed the profile of the Indian film star, generating new sites for the product
Women in cinema
Missing angle
A greater range of women’s experiences and lives needs to be covered in depth before the daughters of India can see themselves as full human beings on
Hindi Cinema
Opiate of the masses
Whether dabbling in mythology, as in the silent era, or Nehruvian socialism, or the escapist formula fare in the 1970s and later, Hindi cinema was alw
Interview: Mahesh Bhatt
‘Our cinema will emerge stronger’
Mahesh Bhatt. For all his candour in real life, his films, such as Arth (1982) and Saaransh (1984), have made the best possible statements on his beha
Assamese
Against odds
A look at the film history of Assam reveals a pathetic tale of struggle for survival in a market-driven situation.
Fan clubs
Hero worship
The fan phenomenon is uniquely south Indian, and if there is one single feature that characterises all fan activity, it is the fans’ acute sense of en
Aesthetics
From Stone Age...
It is the unacknowledged contribution of countries like India that liberated themselves from colonial rule to create discourse for the postmodern and
Music
Singing cinema
Cinema music exists only because there is cinema and has been and is constantly in a state of transition.
In first person: Mammootty
Irresistible magic
Bharathiraja
Man behind the 1970s wave
Parallel cinema
Parallel experience
Gulzar speaks
‘Hindi films saved Urdu’
In first person: Sabitri Chatterjee
Nostalgic about a bygone era
In conversation: Samik Bandopadhyay
Centenary and selective memory
In first person: Arghyakamal Mitra
‘We just keep up with the West’
In first person: K. Viswanath
‘Change cannot be at the cost of values’
Tamil
A way of life
Tamil cinema inherited interesting and different characteristics from the art form it evolved from, the “company drama”: a strong aural tradition and
Industry
Market and the medium
While apologists for corporatisation argue that it will clean up film-making, critics feel that this is not necessarily the case and that the cottage
Interview: Vipin Vijay
‘Aesthetic struggle alone matters’
Vipin Vijay is a postgraduate in film-making from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He has made several award-winning short fil
Theatres
Show time
The year 1913 marks an important new development in the creation of a permanent home for film in specialised cinema theatres, which is every bit as mo
Interview: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
‘Indian cinema began with Ray’
Interview: Kamal Hassan
‘There is no separate pedestal for the performer’
Kamal Hassan. Having been part of the film world for 54 of his 58 years, Kamal Hassan is today an epitome of versatility. His career started with a ba
The Bachchan phenomenon
Brand Bachchan
In first person: Akkineni Nageswara Rao
The long journey from Gudivada
In first person: D. Ramanaidu
‘Telugu industry a force to reckon with’
Telugu
In search of new narratives
As differentiation between genres began to get blurred in the early 1970s, the star and his relation to the fan became the sole aesthetic preoccupatio
In first person: Soumitra Chatterjee
Back to Bengali literature
Cinema
Editor's note
In first person: Girish Kasaravalli
‘Diminishing support’
In first person: Goutam Ghose
Cinema in each language is national
In first person: Anant Nag
‘Films were bolder in the past’
Malayalam
New trails of discovery
Cinema was adopted enthusiastically by the pluralistic society of Kerala, just emerging from feudalism and casteism in the early 20th century, as an i
In first person: Buddhadeb Dasgupta
A more discerning audience now
Kannada
From Mysore to Bangalore
Bengali
RICH TRADITION
Bengal happened to produce a highly successful set of popular conventions, most importantly a form of bourgeois melodrama that became commonly identif
Marathi
Standing tall
Marathi cinema, as old as Indian cinema itself, has not only arrived but is thriving.
Documentary
Narrating actuality
The language of documentary in India has moved from capturing “reality” to presenting “authenticity” and from being an instrument of propaganda at the
Archive
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03-05-2024
Of Magadh, Manjhi, and Musahars
‘BJP is the fountainhead of corruption’: Sitaram Yechury
Caught in a saffron storm
Viral fever: The curious spectacle of campaign films
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19-04-2024
Tastes of the earth
Did Periyar call for a genocide of Brahmins?
‘Enlightenment’: A Marathi story in translation
Close encounters with the third kind
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05-04-2024
Farewell Appappan
Why a proposed private port in Karnataka’s Honnavara faces stiff resistance from fisherfolk
India’s oscillating opposition and the dynamic evolution of protest politics
The crisis of the secular opposition
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22-03-2024
Why the tiger-human conflict rages in Bandipur and Nagarahole
Minimum Support Price: A question of how, not why
Fali S. Nariman (1929-2024): A life dedicated to the Constitution’s promise
Farmers’ protest: It’s a battle against servitude
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