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The Indian Parliament has gone through one of the worst periods in its history with the serial suspension of as many as 146 MPs in a matter of a few days. 

Parliament Attack and Surveillance Raj

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This is the second article in the three part series by academic and film aficionado V Vijayakumar on three masterpieces of Mrinal Sen, a towering  luminary in the Indian film world.

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Even as a limited ceasefire with Hamas was being finalised on November 22, with a deal to release 50 hostages over a period of four days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that the war in Gaza will not stop with this.

The Gaza War: Changing Journalism, Journalists

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Renowned journalist Ravish Kumar Talks on India’s Media and the imminent crisis as a constitutional nation.<hr>A seminar was held on October 28 at the Constitution Club in Delhi on the topic, ‘Imminent crisis and challenges for India as a constitutional nation’. This seminar was attended by poet and literary-cultural critic Ashok Bajpai, academic Aakriti Bhatia, Advocate Kabir Srivastava, Film Director Nitin Vaidya, Professor Rajkumar Jain and Journalist Ravish. The AIDEM is reproducing an edited excerpt of Ravish Kumar’s speech at the seminar.<hr>Many thanks to Rama Shankar ji, Rajkumar ji, Ashok ji, Kabir ji, Aakriti ji and Nitin ji. The organiser knows the reason why I came late and why I would have to leave earlier. But it is not because of disrespect. It is not my nature either. I have come late for some reason, yet I apologise to you all. I am not in the habit of speaking without preparation. I was worried about how I would be able to speak, but now that I have come, I will have to speak.I have been writing and speaking on this media for the past ten years and during this time, examining it from inside and outside. I am also repeatedly looking at my own words with doubt and suspicion and asking how much reality is there in what I say. How close is it to reality? The magnitude of media is now left only in its name. Its work has become formless. So, now, I have to speak about what is not there.If there were some real journalists, who do good work and make genuine mistakes, we could have analysed that. Is it possible that even if you do not play cricket, you will still be called a cricketer? This cannot happen. But you can be called a media anchor without doing journalism. Whenever I talk about media, I always talk about the mainstream to which the government and the market give advertisements worth lakhs of crores of rupees. This profession is seen as an essential agency of democracy. Now this has essentially become a murderer of democracy. The challenge today is that if democracy is to be saved, constitutional values are to be saved, or the remaining democracy is to be kept alive, then democracy will have to be saved from this media. During the ten years after 2014, about which the Prime Minister said that it is not a date, it is an era of change.The thing that I do not see in my profession now are dreams. When I meet journalists working in the mainstream, there is no dream about their profession. And when there is no dream then obviously there will be no passion either. Any value of journalism cannot exist without constitutional values and democratic values. The competition or dream within them to be a journalist, to be a good journalist, all that seems to be over now. Everyone has made different kinds of excuses. Whatever outspokenness one had, that used to manifest from time to time either in an untimely manner or habitually, has turned into bleating. And I am not talking about any small industry.&nbsp;It is a very big industry. Thousands of people work in it. Thousands of people study journalism to get work. If we add all these numbers together, it becomes a decent number. Still, there seems to be no dream among them regarding journalism. Like any batsman or bowler would think that our batting or bowling should be like this, the speed of the ball should be like this, its swing should be like this. This kind of dream is not seen in people associated with this profession. And no fire in their thinking. Maybe there is something wrong with my vision. Many a time I think why these students are going to university to study journalism, when there is no journalism left? When the profession itself has ended, then what will they do after studying about that profession in the syllabus?&nbsp;Young people are worried. In our times, we still got opportunities to do something or the other. And what would these journalists talk about when they would go home or come from home to office? What kind of news about people and public would they be bringing and with which the reporter would be running to the editor and the editor would be running to take it to the reader? We all had experienced this excitement in the past.&nbsp;When we came into this profession, we used to avidly discuss with journalists of other channels about our stories. One would say that&nbsp; you missed out a particular angle in your story or that our story was factually more accurate or that you have talked to a wrong source. Someone would also say that your shot was good as your cameraman is good but the cameraman of our channel is not good. So these types of conversations used to happen. And when we talked to the cameraman, he would tell us that the sound quality of the visuals was not good. So there was a pleasure of something happening. This was a practice which we were doing continuously. Now this pleasure has ended and it has been destroyed by the media, the journalists and its owners, all put together.&nbsp;The media, which does not have dreams, or competition cannot be regarded as business, whatever else you may call it. Today, even if you want to differentiate between Godi Media’s channels on the basis of their product, you will not be able to do so. The competition among them as to whether one media is good or better than another has ended. But their business is going on. There can be long discussions on how market advertising and corporate money is being invested in this industry that spreads hatred and kills democracy.&nbsp;Earlier, the media used to make excuses when questions were raised about content that was very bad. One common excuse was that the audience is like this, then we do this for TRP, to live etc. But now Mukesh Ambani does not have such compulsion, he has a lot of money. How much money comes from TRP? 20-25 crores. If money was the reason, then Mukesh Ambani’s channel should have been the best. But their anchor sits on the same channel and says that there should be a permanent solution. So all these excuses have also ended now.&nbsp;So, what we are seeing now is a model, which has no respect for democracy and democratic debate. A media culture, which cannot assure that our democracy is safe. This is the same media which started talking about citizen journalism before 2014. It was empowering the citizens by asking questions on their behalf. It would drift from time to time but would also come back because something happened among the public that instilled or triggered a sense that a journalist had a responsibility towards the public. There were many journalists who took this responsibility whenever they found activity that required responsible reactions. It was in continuation of this that channels started covering movements from within them and many channels started building studios amidst these movements and did live recording. That is, by standing among the public, a chair was placed there and a new kind of space was being created. The reason why a journalist often went to the public was because he derived the power of his existence from such an exercise.Since 2014, the media has changed its source of power. It has eliminated the source of taking power from the public. It has started taking power from the government and has stopped asking questions to the government, it has started asking questions to the public. Your writers are being called traitors and anti-nationals by various names. In a way, they became like muscle men who were used during election time. These are the new Bahubalis (musclemen) of information. They are those wield lathis (clubs). Their job is not to give you information but to prevent the information from reaching anywhere else. They threaten the public.&nbsp;When Olympic medal winning women were protesting, they used to say that many people come to interview us but it is not visible anywhere. These interviews were not shown. And when the farmers went to protest, without knowing and without investigating, the media immediately called them terrorists. This had never happened before. Very many devious terminologies were developed to brand those who were once called Anna Data ( providers of food ).. They were called terrorists in one fell swoop. The media made it clear that now we do not want our power from the farmers, from the public. So when the media becomes anti- people and anti – opposition, expecting him to somehow follow the Constitution is a waste of one’s time. I do not expect that from them. To be anti-democratic, it was necessary for the media to exclude both the public and the opposition. It did this through its work. Therefore, 2014 is not just a date but an era of change.After this, one more thing was needed ; to throw out real information or sideline it. That work was also done very easily. So when you flip through the newspapers, you will find a large number of investigative stories or news from within the government, but you will not be able to identify and remember the name of the person who brought out such news. Especially, in the Godi media. I am talking about them and I am talking about them only. So, even when a plethora of lies was being spread and used as a weapon, media did not fight those lies, but made friendship with it. But some people did battle these lies. Who were they? People from outside; Organisations like Alt News, Boom Live. In a sense, this battle was being outsourced.&nbsp;And why was it outsourced? Because the mainstream refused to do the work of refuting fake news. Why did it carry out this act of withdrawal? Because fake news was actually government news. It was political news. So if you refute that political fake news, you will come under the government’s notice, which is the sole master of all the Godi media. So, Alt News and Boom Live took this responsibility. It has now become difficult to differentiate between the lies of the media and the government, whether they are of the government or spread by the media. But when you go to the time line of Mohammad Zubair (co-founder of AltNews), you will find amazing work. This young man does not just talk about fake news of India. He also talks about how fake news is being used in support of Israel’s narratives. The way he exposes how fake news is used is amazing. So this dream should have been of the people inside the media, but it is not. The one who announces on Twitter every 30th that I need so much money. Only one lakh has come now, please send some more. How closely this young man follows the news of ANI agency every day. Many times it catches in such a way that ANI is forced to delete the story.The owners of all the newspapers and the owners of all the channels know that the fake news, the propaganda of WhatsApp University, belongs to Saheb. Do not interfere in it, but, if possible, create some of your evening’s debate from it. So today a media is needed to fight the lies of the media. You need to stand on your own. That is why I said as to how difficult it is to speak on the media which does not exist in India. The journalists of Godi media first killed the journalist within them. It was very important that they first killed their sensibilities and their professional skills, only then they could work. Now they have come a long way.We have all been taught in journalism to remember, if nothing else, the five W’s; Who, What, When, Where, Why. Now only one W is left, What, under the guise of which the Godi Media seeks to mark its lies to be true. It has made itself devoid of information. Democracy has been made devoid of the public and the opposition. Now the public and the opposition are no longer visible on this media screen. News now has only one face, that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from this face, they have no other information. This is a new kind of information watch so that people do not realize that information is missing. In these ten years, the popularity of the Prime Minister kept increasing and decreasing in different states. But the Godi media remained consistently loyal to him. Because he has been absorbed in them. He is their editor; their news; their thoughts; their propaganda. In this media you can see the qualities of Modi, BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal. But when the opposition comes, they call it feeble and ridicule it. It never gives space to the opposition’s questions. It will never ask questions about Adani and Pulwama. And it shows them in such a way that they are not visible, their work is not visible. It rejects whatever support they are getting. Rahul Gandhi, Aditya Thakur, Tejaswi Yadav, all these are leaders of the new generation aged around fifty or below. It will present them as clowns. It will present them as corrupt. In a country where young leaders are talked about, these young leaders will not be shown there. Rather, seventy-year-old leaders will be presented as young leaders. Will publicize their working hours, but will not question them. So, a sort of freedom from the alternative. Godi media has taken the pledge of Modi. It worships him and also makes its audience worship him.&nbsp;An anchor was asking the other day as follows:&nbsp; if the Prime Minister can work for hundred hours then why can’t the youth work for seventy hours? There is unemployment in the country, there is no work, there are low salary jobs but the anchor was preaching as to why you do not work for seventy hours. As if everyone has got work, only the youth are not interested in work and have left it. They have stopped going to office, and are sitting at home on leave. In 2019, these youth were told that frying pakoras is also a job. Now they are being told to work for seventy hours while they do not know what to do. They want to become a soldier for life. But you have made our youth a four-year- Agniveer. Why does the anchor not say that the soldiers should get full employment? But instead of such relevant questions, what kind of questions is the media sending to the society? The answer is that it does not want to talk to the public, but has to merely scold the people.With great audacity, it made the public run away by threatening them. And it is surprising how the public, which is a viewer in the evening and a reader in the morning, is tolerating this. Do they have no reason not to watch Godi media? Is there no democratic alternative left?PART TWO TO FOLLOW SOON | Watch the original video of Ravish Kumar’s Hindi speech <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youtu.be/jErYBjQ9S4o?feature=shared">here</a>. &nbsp;<hr>To receive updates on detailed analysis and in-depth interviews from The AIDEM, join our WhatsApp group. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/GLYY7P2H0Xw5eYoczxtsSa">Here</a>.

A seminar was held on October 28 at the Constitution Club in Delhi on the topic, ‘Imminent crisis and challenges for India as a constitutional nation’. 

Needed, a Movement to Save Indian Democracy from the Media

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It is winter and raining in Gaza. The region, now in the midst of one of the worst military conflicts in history, is known to be prone to floods owing to poor infrastructure.

Where Did India’s Invisible, Disaster-Displaced 2.5 Million People Go? 

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Barely a week is left for the date of polling for the assembly elections in Rajasthan and the campaign is getting more and more intense with heated discussions on several issues related to society and governance.

The Deafening Silence on Minority Muslim Issues in The Rajasthan Elections 

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<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_71_bb7419cc16.jpeg" alt="images-71.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_71_bb7419cc16.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_71_bb7419cc16.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">The eminent Hindustani (North Indian Classical) vocalist, Ustad Rashid Khan, passed away yesterday at the very young age of 55. He was suffering from prostate cancer and died of complications. His death is yet another reminder of the specter of cancer that hangs over all of us.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Indeed, cancer is, as Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee put it, the emperor of all maladies. We don’t know enough to know how to prevent it, and any of us can be cruelly struck down by it at any time. Maybe such illnesses are needed to keep us humble. For, death is the only certainty in life, and none can tell when they will have to go.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:720px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25933" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25933"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter_e1704880520781_a2854f266b.jpg" alt="Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter-e1704880520781.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter_e1704880520781_a2854f266b.jpg 106w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter_e1704880520781_a2854f266b.jpg 338w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter_e1704880520781_a2854f266b.jpg 507w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_Screenshot_20240110_145954_Twitter_e1704880520781_a2854f266b.jpg 675w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25933">Ustad Rashid Khan receiving Padma Bhushan</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">As the immortal line in the Hindi movie “Anand” goes, “Babu Moshai, zindagi aur maut upar waale ke haath hai, Jahanpanah! Usey na toh aap badal sakte hai na main! Hum sab to rangmanch ki kathputliyan hai Jinki dor upar waale ki ungliyon mein bandhi hai Kab, kaun, kaise uthega, ye koi nahin bata sakta hai.”!<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">(Babu Moshai, Life and death are in the hands of God, the one above us. You cannot change it, nor can I. We are all puppets in the show, which are controlled by the fingers of the one above.)<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Nothing illustrates the truth of this statement than the suddenness with which cancer takes away people. But there is another line in the same movie that is also immortal: “Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin.” Meaning, “Life should be large, not long.” And by this standard, Rashid Khan certainly lived large, though he may not have lived long.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/800px_Ustad_rashid_kan_bharat_bhavan_bhopal_6d038cc6b0.jpeg" alt="800px-Ustad_rashid_kan_bharat_bhavan_bhopal.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_800px_Ustad_rashid_kan_bharat_bhavan_bhopal_6d038cc6b0.jpeg 156w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_800px_Ustad_rashid_kan_bharat_bhavan_bhopal_6d038cc6b0.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_800px_Ustad_rashid_kan_bharat_bhavan_bhopal_6d038cc6b0.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">My first exposure to the Ustad was in 1993, when I heard a recording of his, of rag Yaman, on the India Archive Music label. He was just 24 at the time, and not yet an Ustad, and the recording was released a couple of years earlier, in 1991. I was simply blown away by his tayyari. Even though I have not heard that recording in years, I can never forget it, especially the drut cheez, which is etched in my mind – “Aao aao aao balma.” The tayyari on display was amazing.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Ustad Rashid Khan was the flag bearer of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana (school) of Hindustani vocal music, having learned from his uncle, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, and from his grand-uncle, the Khalifa (head) of the gharana, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan. With this kind of musical pedigree, and his inborn incredible talent, Rashid Khan quickly rose to become one of the foremost contemporary singers of Hindustani classical music.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:740px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25932" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25932"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_72_183910c9e1.jpeg" alt="images-72.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_72_183910c9e1.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_72_183910c9e1.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25932">Ustad Rashid Khan performing (on right)</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The great doyen of Hindustani vocal music, arguably the greatest vocalist of our times, the late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, after listening to one of Rashid Khan’s inspired performances, said that the future of Hindustani music was safe in Rashid Khan’s hands. The comparisons to Bhimsen Joshi must certainly have inspired Rashid Khan. One just had to hear his absolutely brilliant rendition of the famous drut khayal in rag Multani, “nainan mein aan ban, kaunsi pari re,” and compare with with the definitive rendition by the great Bhimsen. It is an incandescent performance and tells you why Rashid Khan will be remembered as an all-time great.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:771px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25938" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25938"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Bhimsen_Joshi_768x512_9472a0e893.jpg" alt="Bhimsen-Joshi-768x512.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Bhimsen_Joshi_768x512_9472a0e893.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Bhimsen_Joshi_768x512_9472a0e893.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Bhimsen_Joshi_768x512_9472a0e893.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25938">Pandit Bhimsen Joshi</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Rashid Khan excelled not only in the serious performance of Hindustani vocal, in the form known as khayal, but also in the light classical form known as Thumri. As with any performance of Rashid Khan, once you hear something by him, you never forget it. Such was the case with a thumri I heard decades ago, but still remember, in rag Kirwani, “Tore bina nahin chain, Brij ke nandlala.” The emotion he brings to the line “paiyyaan padhoon, binati karoon, daar gale maala” has to be heard to be believed.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Sadly, the Ustad is gone, but he leaves behind his son, Armaan Rashid Khan, who is himself a fine young musician. I recently had the opportunity to listen to him as I was preparing for a performance of rag puriya dhanashree, and listened to a fine rendition of “payaliya jhankar,” after listening to the same cheez, sung by his father. The tradition will live on.

The eminent Hindustani (North Indian Classical) vocalist, Ustad Rashid Khan, passed away yesterday at the very young age of 55. He was suffering from prostate

Ustad Rashid Khan: Living Life Large

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Review Film: Bramayugam (2024)Language: MalayalamGenre: Horror, Thriller<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/br2_71f3771617.jpg" alt="br2.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_br2_71f3771617.jpg 207w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_br2_71f3771617.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">The final dying years of the Age of Discovery – a century since Vasco da Gama’s troops dropped anchors at Kaappad, Kerala, opening up the sea route from Europe to India for the first time, in search of spices and riches, and their fabled long-lost Christian brethren, left here by Saint Thomas The Apostle and ruled by the snake-headed Prester John the presbyter; post the Second Siege of Cochin where fell the proud kingdom of the Zamorin to Duarte Pacheco Pereira’s Portuguese Army, Kerala witnessed a shift in its societal and political atmosphere to what would come to be known as its Dark Ages – where colonisation spearheaded slavery, wars, poverty and famines; and fantasies and legends ran amok through the jungles and rotting mansions of power where Yakshis and Chaathans roamed, and Black Magic and witchcraft prospered in the unquestioned hands of the brutal Brahmin landlords.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:639px;" id="attachment_26589" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26589"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/br3_ed85e90c07.jpg" alt="br3.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_br3_ed85e90c07.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_br3_ed85e90c07.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26589">First look poster of the movie Bramayugam</figcaption></figure>It is this almost surreally ominous landscape and time, director Rahul Sadasivan’s black-and-white fantasy horror-thriller Bramayugam transports us to. We are introduced to Thevan, a folk singer of the Paanan caste, in 17th century Malabar, as his tumultuous and distraught journey – after fleeing from being nearly sold into slavery, chances him into taking refuge inside an ancient and dilapidated Mana (a traditional Kerala Brahmin mansion), occupied by an ageing landlord, Kodumon Potti (Mammootty), who ever-so-generously claims to have been awaiting the former’s arrival all these years. Is Potti a mere old soul yearning for company, in his lonely days of solitary existence, or is there more to him than what meets the eye? Something much more darker and sinister, hiding beneath that generosity. Has Thevan attained haven or has he walked into an inescapable trap?<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:739px;" id="attachment_26588" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26588"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/br4_6f5ea35ee4.jpg" alt="br4.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_br4_6f5ea35ee4.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_br4_6f5ea35ee4.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_br4_6f5ea35ee4.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26588">Mammootty and Arjun Ashokan in Bramayugam</figcaption></figure>Bramayugam marries elements of folklore, mythology, history, classical horror and black-and-white noir to weave a work of atmospheric and allegorical horror that is unprecedented and never-before-seen in Indian cinema. It is a testament to a filmmaker’s unwavering confidence in bringing his vision in its purest form, to conjure wonders on the big screens with the support of a brilliant technical team and a stellar ensemble cast.The film stands out in the horror genre in its refusal to ascribe to cheap horror tropes to instill fear in its viewers. Rather than resorting to bland jumpscares or pointless spurts of gore, Bramayugam’s sense of dread originates from the tale’s settings and characters themselves which are embedded in the age-old folk legends and myths, passed down through the countless generations of Kerala, and from how it manages to plant these elements inside a diabolical sphere of one of the most brutal systems of oppression, in the name of caste, the state’s and nation’s history has ever seenThe central figure in that narrative is Kodumon Potti – played by a terrifying and simply unassailably excellent Mammootty- a ruthless, psychopathic aristocrat whose sadomasochistic tendencies finds pleasure in trapping his victims as lifelong slaves and his whimsical scapegoats. It is a performance so riveting and mind-blowing that even the slightest smirks or glances or a minute change of posture infuses such terror and adds layers of depth and subtlety to the character which the film’s writing might fall short in at times.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_26599" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26599"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/br5_99fd855bb9.jpg" alt="br5.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_br5_99fd855bb9.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_br5_99fd855bb9.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_br5_99fd855bb9.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26599">Mammootty in Bramayugam</figcaption></figure>Even though, during the first initial minutes of Potti’s introduction, I felt Mammootty overdoing the Namboodiri accent a little bit, I would award the blame to the film’s dialogues (though well-researched and apt to the period) by celebrated novelist T.D Ramakrishnan, that personally felt out of place with a few of the scenarios unfolding on-screen for me. Despite sharing a similar shade with his earlier iconic renditions of Bhaskara Patelar of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Vidheyan or Murikkinkunnath Ahmad Haji of Paleri Manikkyam, one would not find a tinge of shadow of any of those roles in Mammootty’s interpretation of Potti – the mythical sorcerer, in a performance that would surely be talked about for ages to come. Equally breathtaking are Arjun Ashokan as Thevan and a fantastic Siddharth Bharathan as Potti’s cook as they slowly begin to question their sanity and sense of reality in their life inside the four confines of the Mana, where time stands still and the firmament wails nonstop in fiery downpours.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_26602" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26602">&nbsp;<figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26602">Siddharth Bharathan in Bramayugam</figcaption></figure>The film works wonders when such acting prowess truly surrenders to a budding, young, fearless and audacious vision of a filmmaker like Rahul Sadasivan, who is not afraid of shying away from ideas here. Sadasivan’s Mana is a crumbling shadow of a bygone era, ruled by nothing but the stench of death. Thevan hears sounds of dragging elephant chains in the attic, at night, hears stories of servants gone mad and executed and laid to rest in the mansion grounds, of people gone hunting for fabled treasures down corridors that stretch upto infinity, never to return or be heard of thereafter. There is a scene in the film were the Yakshi, played by Amalda Liz, climbs up the steps of the Mana to make love to Kodumon Potti, as Thevan stares in unbelievable horror and I couldn’t help but think of the legendary scene of the Yeti’s arrival at the house in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_26598" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26598"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/br7_a825155f81.jpg" alt="br7.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_br7_a825155f81.jpg 194w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_br7_a825155f81.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_br7_a825155f81.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26598">From Left: TD Ramakrishnan, Arjun Ashokan, Christo Xavier, Mammootty and Rahul Sadhashivan</figcaption></figure>Sadasivan pushes boundaries of horror with numerous such ingenious concepts, even paying homage to Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ and Anand Gandhi’s ‘Tumbbad ‘ with the set pieces. However, the standouts are surely the film’s original brainchildren such as the animation sequences and scenes involving manifestation of the horrifying Chaathan, elevated to unparalleled heights by Christo Xavier’s thumping background score. It is here, after the haunting pre-interval sequence (that had children crying in their seats) that Bramayugam takes on a totally different form altogether, turning the conventional horror tropes on their heads to award a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. Cinematographer Shehnad Jalal’s exquisite compositions beautifully captures the interplay between light and looming shadows in the 35 mm black-and-white format, drawing inspirations from works like Andrei Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ and Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ – complimented by Jayadevan Chakkadath and M.R Rajakrishnan’s meticulous sound design that transports the audience back to the Age of Madness.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:864px;" id="attachment_26603" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26603">&nbsp;<figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26603">&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>As in his previous film, Bhootakalam, Sadasivan manages to mould Bramayugam, in its closing acts, to something that is more than just yet another horror film, reaching full circle on its narrative. As Potti says: “This is Bramayugam, a worsened form of Kaliyugam”, where the rotten goblins of power tread in disguise, through tumultuous currents of the river of time.<div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-26587" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;

Bramayugam: Where Rotten Goblins of Power Tread in Disguise

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The AIDEM Focus

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Part two of Ravish Kumar’s speech on contemporary Indian Media.<hr>A seminar was held on October 28 at the Constitution Club in Delhi on the topic, ‘Imminent crisis and challenges for India as a constitutional nation’. This seminar was attended by poet and literary-cultural critic Ashok Bajpai, academic Aakriti Bhatia, Advocate Kabir Srivastava, Film Director Nitin Vaidya, Professor Rajkumar Jain and Journalist Ravish. The AIDEM is reproducing an edited excerpt of Ravish Kumar’s speech at the seminar.<hr>In the history of democratic India, the media has sometimes been free, sometimes not. Sometimes it has been independent and sometimes it has been slave. But its reader, its audience was never a slave. It was an autonomous entity. But now the autonomy of being a reader and viewer has also ended. Just as the journalists killed the journalist within them, in the same way the readers and viewers have killed the reader and viewer within them. Religion has been placed in its place. It is not that they do not have feelings within them, they definitely do, but in their place, they feel happy over someone’s murder. There is a new feeling of pride in talking about a permanent solution for a community. So there is a relationship between Godi media and its readers and viewers. And you scholars should study it in depth. It is not just a political connect but there is also a psychological relationship that has developed. Now they cannot read the right news. Unless they read the wrong news, they will not believe that the news they have read is correct. I have spoken many times about the need to refrain from watching Godi media. Do you think it is that easy for someone not to watch Godi media? This is like telling someone who watches reels not to watch reels. This is a habit that not everyone can get out of. You can easily go from secular to communal, but to go from communal to secular or to be human or to acquire human qualities in oneself is a very difficult process. It is not within everyone’s reach. One who is communal once, is communal for a very long time. Along with being communal, they are also murderers. If they are not a murderer, they are the supporters of murder. It is not so easy that you just tell them not to watch Godi media. What will they do? How will they survive? Now they do not know how to live without it. Unless there is a movement of citizens against Godi Media, unless people go door to door and explain, India will not get a media that is democratic and one that stands for democracy.Media, which we knew as press, has played a good role in India’s journey towards democracy. It has also played a role in adding fuel to the fire of partition. Gandhiji had once advised not to read newspapers. Many people have made divisive comments about newspapers around 1947. But many a time I have wondered as to what happened to those communal editors and journalists later on? What did they do later in journalism and after their career in journalism? How did they establish in the society? When I imagine this, I am curious to know who were the people who spread and published such communal news in 1947 which resulted in riots at many places. Many times one can see and read the irritation of Sardar Patel. So what happened to those people? Were they safe in politics? Did they become respected in the society? I do not know the answer to this. Maybe someone else has it. But in the same period Ganesh Vidyarthi, who opposed communalism, was killed in the riots. But the question still remains. There has been an element of communalism in journalism. But what is there today is different. Today communalism is journalism. You cannot imagine journalism without communalism. If you are not communal, do not hate Muslims then what do you do in Godi media? How do you spend your day?This is also a matter to think about. Can you have a place there? So today, to be a journalist, being communal, anti-Muslim is the first condition. And when you become communal, you cannot be democratic and constitutional in any way. That possibility has vanished within you. It cannot be created from any institution. And I do not use Hindu-Muslim because now everything is one-sided. So when journalism becomes communal, when people&nbsp; within the journalist fraternity start celebrating mob killings, can you teach them the lesson of our Constitution? Every kind of bad habit has entered today’s Godi media. The one good soul, the soul of the Constitution, has been thrown out of the media. Now if there is a raid on the media, then it is not a matter of concern for the media. Many anchors do not condemn it. Take the cases of Kerala’s Media One channel, which was banned for some time and now the raid on NewsClick. These actions were linked to the NIA (National Investigation Agency), but how many channels debated on it? Regarding (NewsClick journalist) Abhisar Sharma, an MP (Member of Parliament) took the name and said that he takes money from China. There is no proof anywhere. And the mainstream Godi media also debated on it. Abhisar himself is a journalist, so now the journalist also has to fight with the media to save his existence, then what will be the condition of the common citizen? We did not know that this sort of a media value would be generated by their religious and cultural values. Now it is evident that this is their imagination about a religious and cultural state or nation.So if you do journalism and you think that you want to do journalism without communalism, then you will have to fight day and night with this media too. And you can do journalism only while fighting. Still, it will call you an enemy of the country.&nbsp;Now there is no place even for journalists in this media. How many channels of Noida would have gone in support of NewsClick to the Press Club? No one would have gone. All this should have been subjects of media debate. But that is not happening now. Godi media is systematically destroying the values of media. It does not even debate on the changes that are taking place in the constitutional protection system of the law. It is abandoning these debates.The newspapers that are in existence now, the channels which are successfully running now are supposed to debate these points. And if they are not doing it, then you will have to accept that whatever opportunity there is of getting your message across is over or rather is almost dead. What is the common man doing now when he goes to protest, he makes a post, posts the same post on the Twitter handles of dozens and hundreds of journalists. No one listens to him. Earlier the media used to go to the people, now people are coming to the media and still no one is listening. In 2019, Australia’s Central Investigation Agency raided ABC News Channel and also raided a journalist’s house. In response, almost all the newspapers applied blank ink on the first page of their paper, in such a manner that the reader could not read. All the newspapers had protested and an advertisement was run on TV channels asserting that the government is trying to hide the truth from the people. Can you do it here? Do not think it is possible. So what did these journalists report? The report was about how the Australian army in Afghanistan had broken the rules of war and committed war crimes. Can you imagine such a story in today’s India? No. And Scott Morrison, who was the Prime Minister, faced a big problem. Right to Know Coalition was formed. We have Right to Information law, but how is it being implemented ?&nbsp;In the media with advertisements worth lakhs of crores, you will find only one or two journalists, that too in newspapers, who use it. Journalists had to use the RTI Act the most, but they used it the least. Some things must have happened in the media in relation to RTI before 2014, but after 2014 it is as though RTI is not being used by journalists. And, even if someone does use RTI and comes up with a story it is more often than not used. In 2018, under the leadership of Boston Stroll, around three hundred newspapers in America wrote editorials for press freedom. So it is not that I am presenting Western newspapers as role models. Right now I cannot do that at all. The way they report on Israel and Gaza is very bad. But in the same reporting, representatives of the same channels are being killed in Gaza. 28-29 journalists have been killed there in this war. And these channels at least have so much decency left in them that they accept that these are their correspondents. I do not know exactly whether they are their full-time or part-time correspondents. Still they are saying that these are our reporters. And in this era, you see that the journalists who are reporting from this war zone, their own children are being killed, family members are being killed, still they are reporting. Even the doctors are not running away from there. They did not run away from the hospital. They remained there. As a matter of fact, in today’s media, those who are watching their loved ones die should be treated as heroes.There has been so much attack on India’s democracy in the last ten years. When people ask me what we should do, I say, I will tell. I will tell you such a solution that even the clothes will not get dirty. You stop paying Rs 250 to this Godi Media newspaper and news channel. Can’t you do that much work? Those against whom it is printed are also reading it because sometimes their photo is also printed in it. In today’s times, no fight can be a democratic and constitutional fight without fighting the value trap created by the Godi media. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and I have one thing in common, all three of us are YouTubers. But there are some differences too. Rahul Gandhi probably does not say ‘Subscribe to my channel’. But the Prime Minister said ‘Subscribe to my channel’. In that matter I am senior to him because I have already been asking viewers to subscribe to my channel. And even on Twitter I am senior to the Prime Minister. I was on Twitter before him. His supporters used to make fun of me saying that I am asking for subscribers on Twitter. Fire him from his job, they used to add.This journalist is happy. I have come here after losing my job as a journalist. But when they started asking for subscribers, I said at least I have won in this matter.So you must understand why the Prime Minister had to come on YouTube? Why have Rahul Gandhi and I come on YouTube? The reasons for both are different. Even though the Prime Minister has the commercial media, as well as countless channels of Doordarshan, and Akashvani, yet he had to go to YouTube and say that you (the people) should subscribe to him. Not because the television audience has reduced. There might be some reason. Or the credibility of these anchors has gone down, so now they are not getting much recovery from them. But I think this is not a very strong reason. We should never be under the illusion that the space on YouTube is non-communal. There is more communalism there than on mainstream channels. Such content and such programs are running strongly there. So the Prime Minister is asking viewers to subscribe and start including a little bit of his content in their respective programmes. But the fact is that the media has blocked Rahul Gandhi as well as other leaders of the opposition. Whenever Rahul Gandhi holds a press conference on issues related to Adani , it is never shown in mainstream channels. There is also no debate on these issues, because when you debate, all the news published on Adani will come up in the research. So, there is no need to hold such debates. This situation has been created in front of you. When Rahul Gandhi was interviewing Satyapal Mallik, I did not like it.Indian journalism has now become such that the leader of the opposition has to become a journalist while the already established so-called journalist who is dominating the media space is killing the opposition. That is why I did not like it. I also felt that the leader who was ridiculed by the media and branded as weak, that leader, was forever embarrassing the media, an industry worth lakhs and crores, with one of his interviews. It was a sort of statement which said that when you (the media) are not there, I will also do the interviews though I am an opposition leader. It was like pointing to a vaccum in the media. And that is why it was a very sad moment when I saw this interview.On February 7, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that these people (the opposition) should thank Enforcement Directorate (ED) because they have come on one platform because of the ED. ED brought these people on one platform.The opposition had alleged from time to time that the government was making use of the ED politically, and the Prime Minister was in a sense accepting that allegation when he said that their (the opposition’s) unity has happened because of ED. The Prime Minister also said that the trust in Modi was not born from the newspaper headlines or by the shining faces on TV. Remember, he was referring to the very people who had served him so much. And he went on to add that he has worked hard and used every moment.I want to conclude with one more statement. Elections of 2019 were going on and Rajkamal Jha and Ravish Tiwari of Indian Express were taking an interview of the Prime Minister. There is a line in that interview which I often think why a newspaper of that level did not put as the headline? Was this an editorial mistake? When we interview a big leader, we pay close attention to each and every thing he says and we choose the headline which has more news value. Did it happen in this interview? The Prime Minister had said as follows in the interview: “Whether news gets published or not is not the only thing in a democracy”. Yes, “Whether news is published or not is not the only thing in a democracy.” Namaskar.Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/en-journalist-ravish-kumar-speech-at-constitution-club-transcript/">here</a> to read the first part of this transcript. Watch the original video of Ravish Kumar’s Hindi speech <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jErYBjQ9S4o">here</a>.<hr>To receive updates on detailed analysis and in-depth interviews from The AIDEM, join our WhatsApp group. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/GLYY7P2H0Xw5eYoczxtsSa">Here</a><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;">.</a>

Time to Recapture the Autonomy of The Reader and Viewer

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AYODHYA: The Sordid Timeline to the Consecration of Ram Temple (Part 1)

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Happy World Coconut Day! Yes, you read that right. Are you surprised that the good ol’ husky coconut has a day to itself? Indeed, why would it not ?<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">World across, 56 million metric tons of Coconut is produced and it ranks among the most consumed fruits worldwide. With the rough and tough look from the exterior, the nut-fruit can be quite deceiving. But once you get past that, you will be greeted by the sweet and pulpy inner core. Later comes the coconut water. It’s a complete multi-sensory delicacy. Over and above all this Coconut is the major source of lactic acid other than mother’s milk. And the best part is that all of this comes in an organic eco-friendly package.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Hence, being one of nature’s most versatile products, with uses ranging from food and drink to cosmetics and decoration, it is entitled to be celebrated. It is this realisation which lead to the World Coconut Day. A day celebrated on September 2nd every year to emphasize and spread awareness about the value and advantages of coconuts. The inaugural World Coconut Day was observed on September 2, 2009, by the Asia-Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) to draw attention to the value of coconuts and their influence on society.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The International Coconut Community selects the World Coconut Day themes. The World Coconut Day theme for this year is “Growing Coconut for a Better Future and Life”.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">With the help of the Coconut Development Board (CDB), a statutory body established under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India for the integrated development of coconut cultivation and industry in the country, this day is observed across India in states like Kerala, Karnataka and Tami Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which collectively account for 90.04% of the coconut production in the country, along with other coconut-producing states in the country like West Bengal, Orissa and Gujarat.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Scientifically speaking, Coconut is a member of the drupe family and is mostly found in tropical countries. It is most popular in the Asia-Pacific region. The Coconut palm is frequently referred to as the “tree of life” because of its multifaceted uses as food, fuel, medicine, cosmetics, building materials, and many other things. The coconut palm is referred to as “Kalpavriksha,” or “tree of heaven” in Sanskrit as it provides all that is required for survival. Through the hands of Arab sailors, the coconut made its way from India to the coast of East Africa and from Southeast Asia to the west of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and to the east of the Pacific, thanks to the Austronesian sailors. And it continues to traverse lands unknown and satiate the hunger and thirst of the people of nations across the world.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">So, in a nutshell, a coconut is, well, simply a coconut. (Pun intended)

Happy World Coconut Day! Yes, you read that right. Are you surprised that the good ol’ husky coconut has a day to itself? Indeed, why would it not ?

A Date with Coconut

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A game of World Cup Football is never a no-nonsense ordeal. From biting an old Italian to breaking a Brazillian’s back, unnatural incidents ranging from the weirdest and the wildest occur every 4 years, when people put down their guns and go to War.
Perhaps, calling it a Bloodless War would be an overstatement. The emotional mindset of each player resembles that of the vanguard, ready to lay down his life on the front lines. No lives are claimed here and the only gunshots heard are that of the ball hitting the back of the net. It is truly incredible to sit back and watch this spectacle unfold. Reminds me of the opening scene from the Malayalam movie Amen. No one knows what’s happening. But they all know its amazing.
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The Worthy
Let me go over the usual drama that happens in the world cup. There are some countries that are just unable to hit top gear when it matters. Their only visible goal is to take a few points off the bigger favourites. There are two reasons why anyone would really watch these games. It’s either because the spectator is from one of those countries, or it’s because their favourite team is playing against one of these so-called Worthy sides. No one in their right mind would watch a boring affair between two small timers. But this is not a plain declaration that these teams are crap. They’ve worked their heads off and gained the honour of representing themselves along with the 32 best footballing nations of the world. I have nothing but respect for them. Perhaps, even if these teams had more capitalist funding or they represent a colonial superpower, they too would have been favourites. Do I expect something special from them? No. Nonetheless, they are and will be titled ‘The Worthy’.
The Confused
Hmm…. should I win it? Or just call it a day because I’ve already made it this far?
Teams of great calibre and talent. Yet, they lack the certain spark that will help them achieve something special. People expect good things from these teams, but they usually end up disappointing the fans. What do they lack that the those in the top tier have? Probably a lack of conviction that they’re here to win it. These are also the teams that pull off the greatest ‘Cupsets’. An occasional win against Belgium, things like that. It’s is also really interesting to see how these teams shape up when they go against a major side knowing that they’re the weaker side. Then it’s a game of wits and tactics, a push till we see who gives in first. Such games often end up as the most exciting ones to watch.
As a bonus to the players, good performers get big scouts on them and can get recruited into top clubs, especially by the likes of the Premier league. Playing for international teams is much more than a show of a player’s talent. It depicts his hunger and drive. It also shows how adaptive the player is, getting along with others who play around the globe. It lets clubs understand whether he can fit well into their side. It reminds us that a person’s true intentions come out when they’re high on passion. Else, Marco Matterazi wouldn’t have had a gaping hole in his chest.
The Real Deal
Sit back and relax. These teams will break into Round-16 no matter what. Very passionate and straightforward, they’re here to win it. But what they will achieve is a question that we can answer only after watching them and their form. They usually shape well and settle into good score lines. One of my favourite examples would be Croatia. They were a ‘Confused’ team before they ascended to the Real Deal with their exciting football in 2018. The games are always exciting to watch, with great team performances rather than individual proficiencies. Most of the individuals are already well established and their next goal is to keep their eyes on the prize.
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2018 world cup final match- France vs Croatia
A massive question mark that arises in this segment would be the peculiar England team. They’ve got the most valuable squad in the world. They’ve got the biggest names on their sheets. The funniest thing about this team is that the players are in form at the club level, but can’t link up at the national level. I recently watched them play Italy in the nations league qualifiers where they were knocked out of the competition by ‘The Weakest Italian squad in History’. England hasn’t scored from open play in 5 games and I can see why. Defensively, even Harry Maguire seemed settled. But in terms of attack, they looked confused. England is incapable of utilising their otherworldly attacking power. Being unable unleash Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham, the manager Gareth Southgate is definitely doing something wrong with his 3-4-3. Perhaps I should make another segment called The Disappointment. At this rate, nothing’s ‘Coming Home’.
The Loser
Yes. Its plain.
The fun fact about the World Cup is that there is only one loser. The other 30 teams lose, yes. But there’s only one clear team that will carry home the biggest regret. The other team goes home with all the glory and silverware. You’re stuck with medals smaller than an Oreo with LOSER written on it. Its not just the team that loses; it’s an entire nation that mourns the defeat. All the build-up and effort go to nought. People will say “Well played” but it truly isn’t. To lose in a final is the worst feeling in the world. And to do this in front of more than half the world is even more depressing. No matter which of the discussed segments you fall into, if you’re in the Finals, then you’re equal to whoever you face. There’s no excuse for the loss. I speak about this with great emotion as I too have suffered in the 2019 UEFA Champions League Finals. The emptiness that followed and the effects it had on the club was crippled the fans too. It ends up as a true test of courage and dedication to still keep standing. Alas, all that valour is pointless. By the end of the day, the fact remains the same. You Lost.
The Ruthless
Now, Why would I call the winners Ruthless? I would like to quote Jose Mourinho: “Nice guys never win.” The team which shows no mercy and punishes its opponents for each mistake will undoubtedly be the winner. Towards the finals, its more along the lines of an emotional battle. The team which does not care about the tears of its opponents and are willing to step on them can push on to win. And what have they won? Perhaps that’s something that the reader should ponder on. Is it just some silverware? It’s a moment when history counts for nothing. It’s all about now and what happens then. The winners of this emotional and taxing battle truly deserves the title of World Champions.
Undoubtedly, the FIFA World Cup 2022 is going to be the most exciting thing to come since the breakout of a virus named after a beer. An anxious and nerve wrecking November awaits. Under the desert sun and Arabian skies will a war break out, with the most advanced weapons and smartest commanders. One clear winner will emerge. In four years, this winner will have to do it all again.
This Bloodless War isn’t the first, and neither will it be the last ever. And to be a part of this…. it gives me the chills.

A game of World Cup Football is never a no-nonsense ordeal. From biting an old Italian to breaking a Brazillian’s back, unnatural incidents ranging from the weirdest and the wildest occur every 4 years, when people put down their guns and go to War.

A Bloodless War Under the Desert Sun

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<strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Mrinal Sen is a luminary in the Indian film world. His unparalleled legacy calls for a commemoration on the occasion of his birth centenary this year. His aspiration was to imbue uniqueness and inventiveness into each cinematic rendition. This three part series is an attempt to reread three of his celebrated films, each approaching the art of filmmaking in distinct and remarkable ways. The films are Bhuvan Shome (1969), Akaler Sandhane (1980) and, Ek Din Achanak (1989). He was a director who constantly experimented and took up every film as a challenge.<figure class="image"><img alt="images-50 (3).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_50_3_87c8a3692e.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_50_3_87c8a3692e.jpeg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_50_3_87c8a3692e.jpeg 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:379px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25596" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25596"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25596">Mrinal Sen</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Mrinal Da, a proponent of artistic autonomy, navigated diverse routes within parallel cinema. His films unapologetically spoke many tongues. Inspired by Marxism and its artistic perspectives, he ceaselessly sought innovation throughout his cinematic journey.<hr><h2 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:25px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Bhuvan Shome</h2><img class="image_resized" style="width:35.16%;" alt="image_2023-12-29_160321250-297x300 (1).png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_12_29_160321250_297x300_1_e4baa21ffd.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_12_29_160321250_297x300_1_e4baa21ffd.png 154w" sizes="100vw" width="154"> &nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:297px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25681" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25681"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25681">Promotional poster for Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Bhuvan Shome, was the film that marked his entry, as a film maker who held great promise. It presented a fresh and captivating experience for the audience, heralding the onset of a new cinematic wave in India. The storyline primarily focused on the encounter between Bhuvan Shome, a stern railway official, and a village girl. It swiftly garnered interpretation as a narrative of a village girl exerting influence on a bureaucrat. Satyajit Ray wrote that it was a case of a bureaucrat refined by a village beauty. Mrinal Sen contested this perspective. In line with his political ideology, he opposed the notion of reforming or compromising with the bureaucracy. According to Mrinal Da, the very idea of attempting to reform was reactionary. He mentioned that in his film, the proximity with Gauri allowed Bhuvan Shome, to recognize the tragedy unfolding within his own being.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:42.01%;"><img alt="images-52-300x225 (1).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_52_300x225_1_4169ece096.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_52_300x225_1_4169ece096.jpeg 208w" sizes="100vw" width="208"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:300px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25599" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25599"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25599">A still from the movie Bhuvan Shome</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The film begins by presenting Bengal, showcasing images of renowned Bengalis such as Vivekananda, Satyajit Ray, Tagore symbolizing Suvarna Bengal appear on screen and then scenes portraying street demonstrations, protests, and riots emphasizing Bengal’s distinctiveness. Mrinal Sen then introduces Bhuvan Shome, a quintessential Bengali characterized by honesty, punctuality, discipline, and an unblemished ethical stance. Bhuvan Shome’s commitment to his work is unwavering, and he maintains a principled and uncorrupted demeanour. Despite being a diligent and upright figure, Bhuvan Shome grapples with loneliness, without a family but amidst his subordinates, who do not really respect him and are wary of his sternness. Bhuvan is portrayed not as an evil lord driven by political connections, rather as a strict and honest official. Notably, Bhuvan Shome is primarily driven by an inherent anti-corruption ethos, reflecting a deep moral sense of absolute goodness. Mrinal Sen’s portrayal of Bhuvan Shome defies categorization within the political genre of a bureaucrat.<figure class="image"><img alt="images-49 (2).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_49_2_b112cb8a1f.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_49_2_b112cb8a1f.jpeg 117w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_49_2_b112cb8a1f.jpeg 374w" sizes="100vw" width="374"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:479px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25594" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25594"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25594">Cover for the music disc of Bhuvan Shome</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The pivotal moment occurs when Bhuvan Shome goes on a trip to the countryside hunting ducks to take his mind away from the tedious routine of official duties. This experience reveals the limitations of his structured and compulsive demeanour. After years of systematic service, the outside world unsettles him, evident in his fear of a speeding bullock cart coupled with discomfort in the leisurely transport. Subsequently, Gauri’s buffalo startles him, prompting a frantic escape, highlighting the adverse reactions his body language and speech elicit in others. These experiences during the bird hunting trip prove an opportunity for profound self-discovery and transformation.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Despite his punctuality and discipline in official matters, Bhuvan Shome realizes his ignorance in various other aspects of life. The initially fear-evoking buffalo transforms into a friendly presence in the company of Gauri. Gauri’s remarkable qualities-competence, expressive freedom, determination, resourcefulness, and courage—astound Bhuvan Shome. The village girl introduces him to a new world, characterized by spontaneity, love, cooperation, and beauty. Despite the unease in the audience regarding Gauri’s sympathy towards Bhuvan Shome’s interest in bird hunting, the film takes a surprising turn, Gauri doesn’t reinforce or support Bhuvan Shome’s inclination to hunt birds. Instead, she becomes a catalyst for a profound change in him. She guides him towards valuing and protecting the birds with love, diverting him from his earlier fascination for hunting. As Bhuvan Shome leaves Gauri, her positive influence continues to resonate within him. <img alt="ms-1-0079 (2).jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/ms_1_0079_2_4c17dfb21a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_ms_1_0079_2_4c17dfb21a.jpg 209w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_ms_1_0079_2_4c17dfb21a.jpg 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:635px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_25595" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25595"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-25595">Utpal Dutt and Suhashini Mulay in Bhuvan Shome</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The shift in interest becomes evident as he entrusts her with the captured bird, urging her to safeguard it alongside the black sparrow. Bhuvan Shome experiences distress upon discovering that Jadhav Patel, the corrupt ticket inspector he was adamant about punishing, is Gauri’s husband. This revelation challenges his earlier resolve, pointing to his evolving character. Gauri emerges as a beacon of light in Bhuvan Shome’s monotonous and messy life,teaching him about Nature and its value. At the end of the film, Bhuvan Shome’s interaction with Jadhav Patel in his office room emphasises the profound transformation that he undergoes, symbolizing a significant shift in his outlook and approach to life.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Bhuvan Shome’s gaze within the film represented a call for a futuristic rejuvenation of cinematic techniques. Drawing inspiration from Marxist filmmakers like Godard, the film incorporated extended documentary-style shots, with a more unconventional and contemporary cinematic approach. Notably, the scenes in Bhuvan Shome, involving a bullock cart bore resemblance to a documentary film, emphasizing its authentic depiction. Furthermore, the initial scenes portraying Shom’s office work at the start of the film offered a novel experience to the Indian audience. Mrinal Sen’s films indeed pioneered innovative trends in Indian cinematography. His unique directorial approach introduced fresh elements to Indian film art, characterized by unusual scene transitions, use of animation, unexpected close-up shots, and covert actions, all of which added a distinctive flavor to his storytelling. This departure from conventional filmmaking showcased Mrinal Sen’s progressive thinking and willingness to experiment with storytelling methods. It is worth mentioning that Mrinal Da’s later films did not feature the satirist or cartoonist characters present in Bhuvan Shome; underscoring the evolution and diversification of his filmmaking style over time.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Part Two of this Series focusing on ‘Akaler Sandhane’ released in 1980 follows. Read <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/mrinaldas-camera-three-distinct-gazes-part-two/">Here</a>.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;

Mrinal Sen is a luminary in the Indian film world. His unparalleled legacy calls for a commemoration on the occasion of his birth centenary this year. 

Mrinal Da’s Camera: Three Distinct Gazes (Part 01)

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The COP 28 summit ended in Dubai last month with much hype and moderate results while what the world needed was more of an emergency-response to combat climate change.

Kerala’s Farming, Climate, and Climate Change in 2023

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A steady campaign based on communal polarisation and a superior organisational machinery were the key components of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) big and decisive election victories in three of the four big States that went to polls in November 2023. It retained Madhya Pradesh while wresting Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress. The latter had a consolation victory in the South Indian State of Telengana.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A panel of seasoned political observers and journalists – Lalit Sastri from Bhopal, Satish Sharma from Jaipur, Kunal Shankar from The Hindu Chennai and Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor, The AIDEM – analyse the election results in detail, highlighting the nuances of the people’s verdict as well as the messages it has for the future of Indian politics. Discussion anchored by senior journalist Anand Haridas.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">To receive updates on detailed analysis and in-depth interviews from The AIDEM, join our WhatsApp group. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/GLYY7P2H0Xw5eYoczxtsSav">Here</a>.&nbsp;To subscribe to us on YouTube, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">Click Here</a>.

A steady campaign based on communal polarisation and a superior organisational machinery were the key components of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) big and decisive election victories in three of the four big States that went to polls in November 2023.

Decisive Wins for BJP Ahead of 2024 Polls

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Commissioning of the New Parliament building on May 28, 2023, will always be seen as a pivotal marker on the political map of Independent India for more than one reason.

Builders, Wreckers and God Incarnate: The Story of Indian Politics in 2023

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Monday, January 8 secured a major win for woman survivor Bilkis Bano and her valiant battle for justice for the murder of seven members of her family, including three year old baby

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">As election campaign gets more intense by the day in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has adopted a high pitched Hindutva oriented propaganda drive led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but this is not evoking the usual, enthusiastic reaction from the public. This is the view of two seasoned observers of the State, Rashid Kidwai and Lalit Shastri. In this episode of the “Poll Talk“, the two senior journalists also point out that the corruption charges on and the governance failures of the incumbent BJP ministry are also pulling down the saffron party’s communal thrust. Watch Here.<hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">To receive updates on detailed analysis and in-depth interviews from The AIDEM, join our WhatsApp group. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/GLYY7P2H0Xw5eYoczxtsSav">Here</a>.

As election campaign gets more intense by the day in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has adopted a high pitched Hindutva oriented propaganda drive led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but this is not evoking the usual, enthusiastic reaction from the public.

BJP’s Hindutva Drive Bogged Down by Corruption Charges and Governance Failures

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) recently passed by the Uttarakhand assembly comes under close scrutiny in The AIDEM Interactions between Subhashini Ali, Polit Bureau member of the CPIM, and Thulasi K Raj, Supreme Court lawyer. The discussion underscores how the provisions of the UCC works against Gender Justice, individual choices and freedoms even while aggravating communal polarisation. The manner in which the UCC promotes a surveillance regime is also highlighted in this discussion.&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">To receive updates on detailed analysis and in-depth interviews from The AIDEM, join our WhatsApp group. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/GLYY7P2H0Xw5eYoczxtsSav">Here</a>.&nbsp;To subscribe to us on YouTube, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">Click Here</a>.

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