ZIYA US SALAM-Frontline

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New Delhi: 26/02/2008 ---- President Pratibha Patil presents Sangeet Natak Akademi Award to Reoti Saran Sharmafor his dedicated service to Playwriting (Hindi), at a function in New Delhi on February 26, 2008 (Tuesday). Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Voice of humanism

The versatile playwright Reoti Saran Sharma (1924-2016) was equally at home with Urdu and Hindi and was known for the rich detailing in his plays and

‘Adoor subjects are always contemporary’

Interview with Parthajit Baruah, the author of “Face-to-Face: The Cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan”.

NEW DELHI, 28/01/2010: Bipin Chandra, Chairman, National Book Trust (NBT) addressing a press conference on 19th New Delhi World Book Fair, in New Delhi on January 28, 2010.
Photo: V. Sudershan

Halting history

The National Book Trust has decided to stop printing the historian Bipan Chandra’s book Communalism: A Primer.

PUDUCHERRY, 16/02/2011: Eminent historian Romila Thapar delivering a lecture during the Ramayana festival at Adishakti Sir Ratan Tata Koothu Kovil, in Puducherry on February 16, 2011.
Photo: T. Singaravelou

Unfazed by attack

The eminent historian Romila Thapar, who has been targeted by the Sangh Parivar for her views on nationalism, refuses to be silenced.

Chennai: 21/06/2016: The Hindu: Front Line: Book Review Column:

Title: Filming Horror. Hindu Cinema, Ghosts and Ideologies.
Author: Meraj Ahmed Mubarki
Publlisher: Sage Book publication release.

The missing surprise

Despite the author’s well-elucidated arguments and some interesting theories, the book disappoints as it fails to pack a punch.

NEW DELHI 27/07/2016: India's Bezwada Wilson, who is among the six recipients of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, in New Delhi on Wednesday. Wilson, who was the first in his Dalit family to pursue higher education, is being honored for his 32-year crusade. He recruited volunteers and worked with Dalit activists to organize a people's movement called Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) that has filed cases and liberated around half of an estimated 600,000 people from manually removing human excrement from dry latrines.
Photo: Sandeep Saxena

‘The focus has to be on the safai karamchari women’

Interview with Bezwada Wilson, national convener of the Safai Karamchari Andolan and recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work for manual sc

Mumbai, 19/07/2016: (File Photo) Veteran singer Mubarak Begum passed away due to prolonged illness at her residence. File photo of Begum in recording studio.

Photo: Special Arrangement.

Song of solitude

Mubarak Begum (1936-2016) found sustenance in the scarce opportunities that came her way and with such grace.

Artist H.S. Raza with his painting in New Delhi on February 11, 2006.
Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Being and nothingness

The universality in the works of S.H. Raza (1922-2016) came with a quintessentially Indian sensibility.

KOZHIKODE, KERALA, 12-04-2015: Noted orator and Islamic scholar Zakir Naik delivering his inaugural address on 'Islam for peace,' during the valedictory programme of the campaign 'Against terrorism, superstition and social evils,' undertaken by the Kerala Naduvathul Mujahidheen (Madavoor faction) on the Kozhikode beach. By K. Ragesh

Under the scanner

Zakir Naik, who is caught in a controversy after the terrorist killings in Dhaka, is essentially an orthodox cleric.

Troubled state

The collection of essays portrays Pakistan, a state which has been never short of challenges, from every conceivable angle.

MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, 14/06/2016: Udta Punjab film director Abhishek Chaubey, Alia Vhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Daljit Dosanjh, and producer of Anuraj Kashyap at a press conference in Mumbai on June 14, 2016.
Photo: Vivek Bendre

On a cutting spree

The fuss over Udta Punjab is in keeping with the CBFC’s track record in recent years.

Chennai: 18/05/2016: The Hindu: Literary Review: Book Review Column:

Title: The Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India.
Author: Sudha Sharma
Publisher: Sage Publication release.

Beyond the veil

Departing from the usual narrative of history from a male perspective, where women are but shadows, Sudha Sharma offers glimpses into the world of Mus