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In her shoes
A breathless, fascinating account of a woman who keeps hurling herself into gruelling tests of endurance. As someone who goes to bed praying the morning papers will publish findings that pizza is good for weight loss, two questions popped up when I read Anywhere but Home: Adventures in Endurance, written by Anu Vaidyanathan, “the first […]
Broad Reflections #3: Tamil short stories
May 12, 2016
So this is a plug, not just for the book you’re going to read about in a bit but also for the Tamil short story. The first grown-up stories I read were in Tamil. Enid Blytons and Hardy Boys adventures and other kinds of English reading came from the library, but I’d get done with […]
A musical bridge across time
March 19, 2016
If Chitravina N Ravikiran has his way, couplets from the ‘Tirukkural’ may soon be part of the Carnatic repertoire. Last December, while preparing for his session at The Hindu Lit for Life 2016, Gopalkrishna Gandhi selected 34 couplets from the Tirukkural and asked Chitravina N Ravikiran to set them to tune. Gandhi had just translated […]
On the watch
January 9, 2016
Looking back at my vacation viewing, which included heavily intellectual entertainment like… um, ‘Downton Abbey’. What does a film critic watch while on vacation? I was surprised people even thought this was a question worth asking, but then someone explained why. With “normal” folks (a category I clearly do not belong to), holidays are a […]
Shelf Help
November 15, 2015
My contribution to a column in the Weekend Reading section of The Hindu, about three favourite books on cinema… I fell in love with Pauline Kael’s writing when I read her six-page response to The Godfather, Part II. (“Review,” in this case, is too diminished a word.) On the third page, she said, “I began […]
Bullets over Blandings
September 26, 2015
In which I’m left wondering about the similarities (and differences) between Wodehouse and Woody Allen. You know those ‘Art of Fiction’ interviews in the Paris Review, where they talk at length with a writer? I stumbled upon one with PG Wodehouse recently, conducted when The Master was ninety-one and a half, and still working seven […]
Angry old man
August 29, 2015
Baradwaj Rangan spends an afternoon with an angry Kiran Nagarkar, who talked about poverty, education, everything except his latest book. The afternoon I met Kiran Nagarkar, he did not want to talk too much about his new book, the latest (last?) instalment of the story that began in Ravan and Eddie and barrelled through The […]
How I read
August 27, 2015
Or maybe this essay should be titled how I don’t. At least not the way I used to, eyes glued to the page. What a funny thing to say. It’s funnier to think of it literally, as though if I nodded off, I’d wake up with a book for a face. Anyway, that’s how we […]
A daylong duet
August 8, 2015
Thoughts on a beautiful (and near-wordless) Bengali movie that won a couple of National Awards this year (Best First Film, Best Audiography). In the last week, approximately 1200 people have lost their jobs in West Bengal. In a state of fear, panic and rage, people are taking to the streets to rally and protest. The […]
The Bishop and the Beautiful
February 1, 2015
When I heard about the demise of Colleen McCullough a few days ago, I felt a twinge. Maybe “twinge” is too strong a word, but right now, I’m unable to think of an alternative. Maybe it’s easier to describe the emotion behind the word I’m groping for. Remember the boy who sat next to you […]
The launch…
December 9, 2014
This is a Book Club event and entry is by invite only, so do let me know in advance if you need an invite. Look forward to seeing at least some of you there.
Reviews…
November 25, 2014
REVIEWS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA A review by Sudhir Srinivasan, in The Hindu, is here. An excerpt: While it may seem like a fairly plain statement to make, you catch yourself going back to it during the infrequent times that you disagree with his points. Whether you agree with the reviews or not, there’s little […]
Names of south Indian noir films…
November 3, 2014
Sidharth Bhatia is doing some research on crime films, esp from the 1950s and 60s. He need the names of some really well known Noirish films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam from the time. I have sent him some names in Tamil, but do write in about anything you have in mind (either in […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Book love in the time of cinema”
May 2, 2014
On Márquez. On language. On books. On movies made from them. Such are the accelerated times we live in that I wondered, in a moment of panic, if this essay might be too late. It was spurred by the demise of Gabriel García Márquez on the afternoon of 17 April, a Thursday. But that was […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Memories of another day”
April 11, 2014
With film-based books, our enjoyment is twofold. We enjoy the memories in the book. And we enjoy our own memories that rise from these memories. In Nasreen Munni Kabir’s Conversations with Waheeda Rehman, the actress talks about a problem with a costume she had to wear for the Kahin pe nigahen song sequence in C.I.D. […]
Happy 2014
December 30, 2013
Happy new year to all. Two things coming up in January. First, a discussion on censorship with Kamal Haasan and K Hariharan at the Hindu Lit for Life. Do come. It’s on January 13th, 10 AM at Sri Muthavenkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Chetpet. Second, an essay on “Subramaniyapuram” and its filmic forebears in a book […]
The Tamil edition…
December 14, 2013
When the book first came out, a lot of people asked me if there would be a Tamil translation. Thanks to Badri Seshadri and his team at Kizhakku Pathippagam, this is now a reality. Thanks to all, especially to the translator, Aravind Satchidanandam. Here’s a link about this translation from Badri Seshadri’s blog: http://www.badriseshadri.in/2013/12/blog-post_13.html And […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Snow worlds and survival strategies”
December 13, 2013
Thoughts on the two biggest pre-“Hobbit” Hollywood blockbusters of the season, both of which are playing at a theatre near you. I hadn’t heard of Suzanne Collins or her Hunger Games novels until the first film was released, and I watched it because I was asked to review it. Otherwise, I may have avoided it, […]
The paperback…
December 3, 2013
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