The Israeli-German film touches on the politics of food, kosher rules specifically. It’s also a meditation on love and its losses I don’t enjoy movies where men make beautiful food, and the Israeli-German production The Cakemaker drew me in especially because its protagonist Thomas is most often rolling a shapeless lump of dough. The glistening cinematic confectionery of the Germanic world…
Author: sohinichattopadhyay
Do Mortuary Workers Come Last in the Covid19 fight?
The invisible indispensable cadre of workers who handle the dead in government hospitals received PPE kits only in the sixth week of the Covid19 lockdown in Bengal. This is probably the case in other cities. The viral videos of dead bodies in hospital wards may point to this At the largest government hospital in Kolkata, mortuary assistants started being given…
Naseem: The Lone Title Girl in Saeed Mirza’s Filmscape
A Muslim family’s story in the year that led up to 6 December 1992 I was unprepared for the way Naseem, a warm amiable family story, shifts gears from sweetness to deep sadness almost imperceptibly as it builds to its moving climax set on the day the Babri Masjid was brought down in 1992. Like all of Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s…
Locked Out of Mental Healthcare and Drugs
There are those whose mental health conditions cannot be managed by deep breathing and physical exercise and whatsapp conversations with doctors. Patients in government hospitals, for instance. The lockdown violates their care In the first week of the lockdown imposed by PM Modi, arguably the harshest in the world, a chance memory of a policeman who had briefly consulted him…
Once Upon a Midwife
A brief history of witch burnings, abortion laws and insurance rules that have taken midwifery to near extinction
Hindi Film Teaches Us More About Kashmir than New Delhi’s School Syllabus
Haider, Fanaa and Mission Kashmir, all major star vehicles, speak of listening to what both ‘nationalists’ and ‘terrorists’ have to say
The Ghosts of Albert Pinto
The lives of those who collect our trash, serve our meals and drive our vehicles are in focus again. The Hindi film has returned to working class concerns with Super 30, Gully Boy and Bharat
The Surprising Generosity of the Online Crowd
Milaap, Ketto and ImpactGuru collectively raised Rs 272 crore for medical emergencies in 2018. This is 11% of the ₹2,400 crore inaugural budget for Ayushman Bharat, the Central scheme rolled out by the government that promises ₹5 lakh free health insurance for the poorest 40% of the population.
Are Independence and Partition Male Experiences?
In Hindi film, the woman is rarely the protagonist of a Partition or Independence narratives. But Bengali film always centers the experience of women in such narratives. An introspection The 2018 Bengali film Ek Je Chhilo Raja, while largely mediocre, has an interesting question towards its tail. The film centres on a real-life legal battle for property in India, known…
Why Don’t These Girls Work?
In the recent batch of Bollywood films set in bright, ‘mithai’-loving small towns, the heroines are assertive and sexually confident but rarely have careers or career aspirations