Yunhi koi mil gaya tha sare-raah chalte chalte… (Meena Kumari in Pakeezah) Meena Kumari died at the age of 38. That’s a short lifespan. But few know that her career went on for nearly more than three decades. Starting as…
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Literature
In her latest book, The Longest Kiss, Kishwar Desai chronicles the life and times of Indian Cinema’s first lady, Devika Rani. In her introduction to The Longest Kiss (Westland Books), Kishwar Desai describes Devika Rani as “a rebellious and unusually talented and…
Raza was a novelist and poet who worked on films like Lamhe, Karz, Mili, Gol Maal and also penned the epic Mahabharat for television. Scene 75 is his not so humble tribute to the world he came to inhabit There are two types…
As 12th March marks the anniversary of Dandi March, we reproduce a poetic resurrection of the great symbol of civil disobedience from Santosh Bakaya’s Ballad of Bapu. Dandi March, also known as the Salt March is an adagio in the…
One of the greatest lyricists of Hindi Cinema, Sahir Ludhianvi gave words to the unattended emotions of an entire generation of Indians. Akshay Manwani, an NBA commentator, and a freelance writer has documented Sahir’s life in his book Sahir Ludhianvi: The…
Written in the not-so-typical Yasser Usman style, Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story is one of the most sure-footed accounts of the auteur’s life. Imagine a filmmaker obsessed with self-expression when the entire country was trying to find its identity. Films…
A colorful imaginative re-telling supposedly based on factful research, The Secret Diary of Kasturba builds on what it meant to be Kasturba Gandhi, the wife of Mahatma Gandhi. At its best, it’s an interesting book, that tries to present Mahatma…
In this unique book which is a literal ‘poets on poets’ document, Gulzar sets the context for the very existence of the timeless Mirza Ghalib. Aah ko chāhiye ik umr asar hote tak kaun jiitā hai tirī zulf ke sar…
Jagjit Singh, the ghazal king of India, was a singer, composer, arranger, lyricist, all rolled into one. Besides which he was a brother, friend, husband, and above all a father. I was in my second year of college when suddenly…
Deepti Naval worked in more than 70 films. Later, directed Thodasa Aasmaan, a TV serial about women, and produced a travel show called The Path Less Travelled. The Mad Tibetan, Stories from Then and Now is her first collection of short stories. A…
