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Hindustan Times •

‘Agra is me trying to hold up a mirror and say: This is who we are now. It’s time to talk about this’: Kanu Behl

There is often a tenderness to slice-of-life stories set in non-metropolitan India. People lean on each other; the light is tinged with gold. Expect none of that in Agra. This a world that is breathless, brutal and relentless. The second feature film by Kanu Behl, 45, has made news for how few screens it has been given (a number that is slowly rising, with rising interest in the movie). It has made news for premiering at Cannes, as Behl’s first film Titli did, in 2014.What it should be making ne...
Hindustan Times •

Saints and sensibility: An exhibition in London traces the evolution of our idols

In the beginning, Ganesha was many, many nature spirits called Vinayakas or Ganeshavaras, from which the modern elephant-headed deity evolved. What boggles the mind is that in all these years, his defining features – the snout, sweetmeats and of course, the round potbelly – have stayed the same. And yet if you see all around, he has changed and how. The British Museum’s ongoing exhibition, Ancient India: Living Traditions, in London, captures this evolution and permanence in sacred art in Hindui...
Hindustan Times •

Get to know... Zarna Garg

Oh my God, the other day, somebody called me an author.

Bollywood pop mostly, especially Where’s the Party Tonight? from KANK.

A Birkin bag, not after making a video trolling it.

A cup of adrak chai, as always.

Yoga socks. I don’t actually do yoga, but I like the socks.

Take the medical school entrance exam and do something real.

A hot dumb guy. I am tired of the brainiacs.

At the launch of my Hulu premiere, I met America’s top-rated radio personality Ira Glass.

I like to yell at everybo...
Hindustan Times •

Get to know... Abhishek Banerjee

Stree 2 becoming the biggest Hindi blockbuster of all time.

The pandemic. Just when my acting career started, work stopped.

A laptop. A phone can do everything a laptop can.

A Starbucks Frappuccino with an extra espresso shot and oat milk.

Don’t change anything. But go to the gym regularly.

Eating this special Maggi noodle variation my mom makes. It is a cross between Maggi and chowmein.

Meeting Mr Bachchan on the set of Section 84.

Steal all the great ideas from the future and come back...
Hindustan Times •

The thing is...: Wknd interviews Selim Khandakar, an unusual collector of everyday objects

Many have hobbies. Some have obsessions. What Selim Khandakar feels is a pure, unbridled desire for objects. Just before a cyclone hit his mud house in Kelepara village in the Hooghly district of West Bengal in 2021, Khandakar spent hours checking on his collection, tucking hundreds of things — perfume bottles, transistor radios, gas stoves, toy cars, pens, plastic dolls, lighters, bead necklaces, miniature paintings, old newspapers, letters, cigarette boxes, albums of stamps and coins — into cr...
Hindustan Times •

Maybe AI will create a new style all its own: Wknd interviews music composer Steve Barakatt

He’s never liked the idea of music being divided into genres. It divides people, says Steve Barakatt, 51. “And I believe that music is meant to communicate and unite. Inclusivity is its true essence.” Barakatt, a renowned Lebanese-Canadian composer and pianist, is currently in the midst of a world tour to promote his most recent album, Néoréalité (2021; French for New Reality). A performance at the Royal Opera House made Mumbai his 27th stop in an extensive tour that began in Serbia in 2022 and...
Vogue India •

“I was bullied for being brown”: Actor Avantika Vandanapu and author Perumal Murugan discuss their school years

Perumal Murugan, 58, is the teacher everyone dreams of having. Like John Keating in Dead Poets Society (1989) and Miss Honey in Matilda (1996), the award-winning author is also a college professor of the most unusual kind. So much so that former students still ring him up to this day, reminiscing about staying with him under thatched roofs when they had nowhere else to go.When actor Avantika Vandanapu, 20, read Murugan’s latest book, an emotional dedication to the pupils he loves and is loved by...
Hindustan Times •

Life of an ex-dictator: A documentary on Pervez Musharraf throws some uncomfortable questions

Filmmaker Mohammed Ali Naqvi, or Mo, is known to use his work to explore perilous subjects. His last film, Among the Believers, was about Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, head of the Lal Masjid mujahideen training base; a Special Emmy-winning project before that was on the international human rights icon and gang-rape survivor Mukhtaran Mai. For his documentary on Musharraf, Insha’Allah Democracy, Naqvi shadowed the former dictator and Army general for five years, as the man readied for a political com...
Hindustan Times •

Command performance: Can a party mouthpiece question its leaders?

One of the reasons Jha is facing the camera is that he is the editor of Kamal Sandesh (KS). But he remains unsure about whether the publication he heads is indeed the party mouthpiece. KS, a fortnightly, is part of the BJP’s publications department, even though it is run by the Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Trust, a tactic, insiders say, imposed by political exigencies. Political parties evolve from different experiences and their communications machinery, both on the Left and Right, have not forgotte...
Hindustan Times •

Urban aesthetics of contemporary Indian folk art

Violence against women, female infanticide and communalism are among the new themes that Indian folk artists are exploring, as they create new contexts for their art and woo urban Indian audiences. Some consider it a new genre altogether - contemporary Indian folk art. “Folk and tribal art have moved beyond mass-producing the same mythological themes and this has led to galleries identifying them as contemporary artists,” says art and cultural historian Jyotindra Jain. “You can map this change b...
Hindustan Times •

Death www.ishes: Puja e-marts, last-rites packages replace pundits

Three years ago, around midnight, digital marketing executive Annkur Pandey discovered just how lonely. His father died, suddenly, from a cancer that had been showing signs of remission. Pandey's family had moved to Bengaluru five years earlier, from Chhattisgarh, and while he and his elder brother had settled in well and knew their way around the restaurants and nightspots, they had no idea who to turn to when it came to Hindu last-rites arrangements. In the midst of their grief, the two men...
Vogue India •

Bilquis Mir is the first Indian woman on the Paris Olympics jury. Her journey started in the deep end

In less than 10 days from now, Bilquis Mir will become the first Indian woman on the Paris Olympics jury. Not just Indian but she will also be the first Muslim, the first Kashmiri and the first canoeist from India. In marking all those firsts, Mir will defy the odds of coming from a patriarchal society, a state in perennial turmoil and a cricket-obsessed country that has yet to encourage other sports with the same gusto.“When I am asked about what I do and I reply that I am a kayaker, pat comes...
https://www.hindustantimes.com/ •

Now trending: Regional Indian language social media networks

How many languages did you speak today? Chances are there was a lot of English at work and at home, but at least a sprinkling of Hindi (or Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil or Kannada) when you were chatting, gossiping or joking with friends and family.

You toggle so effortlessly that you probably don’t notice it, except when the option is no longer available — when arguing with a non-English-speaking cabbie while on vacation, for instance, or trying to write a heartfelt message
https://www.hindustantimes.com/ •

Unique elephant tales: How Mumbai's many communities celebrate Ganeshotsav

What do you associate with Ganeshotsav — modaks, pandal-hopping, the exuberant mayhem of visarjan day?

What about idlis, meat and alcohol? Miniature silver telephones and carom boards? Or a Gauri idol who is joined by an idol of her friend?

In a city like Mumbai, there is no one way to celebrate. And that holds true for the beloved, child-like pot-bellied form that is its favourite deity.

So, across the city, migrant communities continue to celebrate with customs that have roots in the crops
https://www.hindustantimes.com/ •

Last-rites packages, anyone?

Death is a lonely thing, even for those left behind.
Three years ago, around midnight, digital marketing executive Annkur Pandey discovered just how lonely. His father died, suddenly, from a cancer that had been showing signs of remission.
Pandey's family had moved to Bengaluru five years earlier, from Chhattisgarh, and while he and his elder brother had settled in well and knew their way around the restaurants and nightspots, they had no idea who to turn to when it came to Hindu last-rites arrangements.

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