Has the documentary film, always a tool of dissent, finally come of age as a work of art?

In this issue

28-07-202330 STORIES

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Editor’s Note: Is the Great Indian Documentary on the cusp of an epochal shift?

From historical chronicles to political dissent and beyond, documentaries have come a long way in India.

Shaunak Sen: ‘Documentaries do not find viewership in India’

All That Breathes, the story of two brothers who rescue injured kites, won many hearts.

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Letters

Readers’ turn to write

Uncertainty looms over Vasundhara Raje’s return to BJP leadership in Rajasthan

With her clout among MLAs and potential to rebel, the former Chief Minister poses a challenge to the BJP ahead of the Assembly election.

Radhika Ramaseshan

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Odisha’s ‘zero villages’ continue to struggle for benefits of welfare schemes

Odisha’s forest villages have been engaged in a struggle with the government for over two years to be recognised as revenue villages.

Aishwarya Mohanty

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‘Netflix can be both your enemy and your ally as a documentary filmmaker’: Rafeeq Ellias

The versatile filmmaker discusses his journey of making documentaries and how the cinema genre has evolved in India.

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How feminist documentaries reshaped India’s cinematic imagination

Feminist documentaries from the 1980s onwards brought a fresh and audacious perspective to the traditionally confined ‘political’ documentaries.

Anjali Monteiro,K.P. Jayasankar

Kartiki Gonsalves: ‘Building a community of documentary filmmakers is crucial’

Interview with the director of The Elephant Whisperers, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film.

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Documentary filmmakers: The unconventional heroes of free speech in India

It is a fact that documentary films have driven significant advancements in India’s freedom of speech and expression laws.

The time is ripe for documentary as entertainment

A new era might be beginning for this genre of cinema, with OTT platforms and fresh audiences creating wide open spaces.

M.K. Raghavendra

Retreat of political Islam raises prospects of a post-Islamist order

All expressions of Islamism are being systematically erased from the public space across West Asia. What will replace it and how effective will it be?

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Poisoned chalice: Review of ‘Magadh’ by Shrikant Verma

This thought-provoking collection by a noteworthy poet and brilliant translator is yet bogged down by the baggage it carries.

Amitabha Bagchi

Citizens on the margins: Review of ‘Where the Madness Lies’ by Kishalay Bhattacharjee

Kishalay Bhattacharjee’s book has to be read twice, first as an act of memory, second as a narrative of populist politics.

Shiv Visvanathan

The judiciary’s caste bias: Review of ‘Caste Pride’ by Manoj Mitta

A hard-hitting book that highlights how the privileges of the social elites, especially Brahmins, are preserved and defended by India’s courts.

Harish S. Wankhede

Films Division: A repository of the history of India

What began as the government’s propaganda wing soon grew into the country’s biggest producer of documentary and short films.

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

Sri Lankan debt crisis to get worse if IMF prescription is heeded

The IMF’s insistence that Sri Lanka reduce its domestic debt will only end up reducing the value of citizens’ savings tied up in retirement funds.

C.P. Chandrasekhar

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The queerness I crave

To read queer literature is to be confronted by the bizarre buzz of your interiority being transcribed by someone else.

Prathyush Parasuraman

A statue of Lord Hanuman at the Pampa Sarovar in Dangs district, Gujarat. A file picture.

Putting the useless to use: The divisive politics of the word ‘Hindutva’

People in India have been known to put to imaginative use things that for them do not serve their intended purpose.

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Poverty and religion set to be master narratives in 2024 general election

Contextualised in the broader agenda of development, these two will dominate the discourse. BJP will likely take the lead, forcing others to respond.

Congress’ renewed vigour in Telangana in hope of repeating Karnataka win

Even the media has started to position the party as the primary opposition, though its opponents are by no means pushovers.

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Akram Khan: ‘I have utter conviction in tradition and I have immense doubt’

The Britain-born Bangladeshi dancer, who hung up his boots in June with a performance of Xenos in Mumbai, explains why it was his last performance.

Ishita Sengupta

Exploring an enigma: Review of ‘Vajpayee’ by Abhishek Choudhary

This book offers fascinating psychological insights into the psyche of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Hindu right.

New books on the shelves

A grimdark fantasy reimagining of the Mahabharata, a global study of sexual violence, and much more.

From kulcha to quinoa: How India’s evolving foodscape signals other social revolutions

The foodscape has rapidly changed, moving from home meals to fancy restaurants identical to those found anywhere in the world.

Charmaine O'Brien

‘The Dystopian Times’ by Appupen

A fragile paradise: Review of ‘Birnam Wood’ by Eleanor Catton

Eleanor Catton’s dark new novel maps the landscapes of climate activism, predatory capitalism, and political smarm.

Latha Anantharaman

The Maratha influence in Maharashtra politics

The latest fracas can be read as just another episode in a centuries-old saga of the Maratha elites and their desire to protect land and social status

Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra politics’ Shakespearean tragedy

At 82, will the patriarch be able to piece his party together?

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How a 61-day farmers’ dharna has shaken Uttar Pradesh’s ‘bulldozer raj’

United, landless workers and opposition parties force the State government to set up committee for demands.

T.K. Rajalakshmi

What place does a sceptre have in a democracy?

The “sengol” controversy brings the clash between divine authority and democratic ideals to the fore, challenging the very essence of governance.

Archive

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