The prose in White Lilies is tender and fluid: one paragraph cites statistics on India’s annual road accidents, the next slips into ghazal-tinged reverie. The alternation lends the narrative form a delicate balance. It unfolds in untitled vignette, field notes, lyric shards, infused by black and white images in between. These visual gaps in the narrative let the reader breathe, inhale shocks and ponder over loss.
The book is divided into eight sections with each section containing essays pertaining to a particular theme, by a galaxy of academics (35+) whose lives has been influenced by Professor Narang is some way or the other. The essays cover a wide range of subjects that have been close to Professor Narang’s heart including literature, culture, and translation.
Studies of Hindi cinema’s depiction of India-Pakistan conflicts often engage acts of selective remembering and forgetting, reinforcing the dominant ideological narratives that shape national identity, otherness, and historical memories through hegemonic cinematic frames and frameworks. What distinguishes Bharat’s book, however, is its resistance to reduce cinematic narratives to simplistic binaries of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Instead, she frames the affective entanglements and shared cultural imaginary that persist despite political partition.
What have been the decisive influences on Dutt’s style of filmmaking? Although he had produced eight films and acted in sixteen, his main claim to critical and popular appreciation is his directorial talent exhibited in eight of them (Baazi, Jaal, Baaz, Aar-Paar, Mr & Mrs 55, Sailaab, Pyaasa, and Kaagaz Ke Phool) made during 1951-59. The book does not throw much light on this aspect. What role did Hollywood or the French masters play?
The poet delves into the facets of relationships and the many selves that surface at each turn on the journey of life. The book also serves as an ode to Delhi, where the architecture and roads transform into spaces Katyal makes his own. The city sheds its unfamiliarity, becoming a sounding board for the yearnings it evokes and the memories that quietly settle into places like these.
Applying reviewer privilege here which translates into the academic training that I inevitably bring to all my writing, and consequentially to bear upon this review as well, will not amount to an interpolation. What I craved for while imbibing this compilation was organizational finesse. Apart from the linguistic arrangement as per alphabetical order, none other exists.
While this may accord with the editor’s idea of not hampering through excessive signposting with readerly pleasure, classification as per timeframe would certainly have made the reading and imbibing process so much more of a cognitive experience. Adding to that was the gnawing absence of context (of course, the internet is always at hand) regarding the background of the authors.