Mushirul Hasan
As India made its transition from colony to an independent nation, Nehru made the transition too from being a ‘rebel’ to a ‘statesman’. The two transitions were indeed connected.
Reviewed by: Salil Misra
Kunal Basu
Aparna Sen, who is making a film based on the title story of Kunal Basu’s The Japanese Wife and Other Stories is lyrical about the story in her blurb on the cover. ‘It’s an improbable and hauntingly beautiful love story, almost surreal in its innocence. And I immediately knew that this was the film I had to make.’
Reviewed by: Eunice de Souza
Adya Rangacharya
Writers and literary works have never been in isolation to the dominant forces of their times. One of Kannada’s early playwrights, Adya Rangacharya (1904-84, popularly known as Sri Ranga) was no exception to this.
Reviewed by: Deepa Ganesh
Vaidehi. Translated from the Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana, Mrinalini Sebastian, Bageshree and Nayana Kashyap
GULABI TALKIES
2008
2008
The speaker of the above lines in the last story of this selection is someone who was forced by circumstances to murder her mother to rescue her from further indignities.
Reviewed by: H.S. Shiv Prakash
Intizar Hussain
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Reviewed by: Rakhshanda Jalil
Bhagwandass Morwal
A formidable presence in contemporary Hindi literature, Bhagwandass Morwal has been hailed as the chronicler of Mewat, the land of his birth and nurture. Straddling Rajasthan, UP and Haryana, the region of Mewat, despite its unique cultural compositeness, lies on the socio-economic margins of India.
Reviewed by: Anup Beniwal