Twenty20 Test

-

There is no New Year, when only the same things speak to you


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Will KamalHassan apologise for Mahanadhi ?

-
Image
Background For long, KamalHaasan’s classic Thevar Magan has been subjected to criticism that it was insufficiently aware of how the film - despite its patronising and pontifical tone - would be received with a warm glow of pride by the Thevars. Indeed, there is no contesting that ‘potri paadadi ponne’ - a Thevar paen - has come to become a peerless anthem of sorts.  While the extent of ‘out-of-context’ celebration may have been surprising, one cannot lose sight of the fact that song itself realised a specific purpose within and for the film first: within the film’s narrative and for, one reasonably assumes, the film's commercial prospects then. To imbue the makers in the business of mainstream films with virtues of thorough naivete is unnecessary. That said, over the years, the criticism has gradually escalated to the absurd heights of accusing him of gross social irresponsibility for not anticipating everything that the song has come to stand for. This type of reductive engagemen
Read more

Judex Ergo Sum

-
Image
Akeel Bilgrami             Akeel Bilgrami, in his recent essay  attempting to unpack Gandhi's views on caste, frames the approach as one grounded in a view of the pre-modern, pre-capitalist society as distinctly different from viewing the members of society as merely constituents of an economy. This, he argues  is the key to understanding the evolution of Gandhi's stance on caste.             This instructive essay is, in some ways, an elaboration of his  interview to Frontline in 2018 , where he mused on the tension inherent in the slogan:   Liberté, égalité and fraternité, and the points at which the Marxian and Gandhian outlook towards this tension,  overlap and distinctly depart from one another.              The crux of Gandhi's conundrum that folks across the political spectrum can relate to is what Bilgrami succinctly states thus: to retain caste was to resist the market ideal that undermined traditional social relations by setting up the freely saleable labour of at
Read more

Rules and Rulers

-
Image
 In the original story of Sakuntala, as told in the Mahabhratha, there is no ring. Sakuntala appears in Dushmanta's court with their son and requests Dushmanta to declare him the heir to his throne, as he had promised her, before their gandharva vivāham. Though Dushmanta very much remembers their encounter (and thus recognises legitimacy of the claim), he still pretends not to remember and asks her provocative, insulting questions in his court.  But he is ' being cruel only to be kind '. For, this sets the dramatic stage for  a fine articulation of her case by Sakuntala, which ends in the divine voice from the sky, declaring her to be true and for Dushmanta to accept her and their son. And then, Dushmanta tells his courtiers that he always knew but his word would have been insufficient proof to the court. We are of course, more aware of the storyline of KāLidāsa's play abhijñānasākuntalam, where the poet made significant departures. The elevation of the 'word/memory
Read more