In Bengal rebellion, filmmakers bypass the multiplexes
After facing hurdles releasing his first two critically acclaimed films in the multiplexes, Pradipta Bhattacharyya did the unthinkable with his third venture, Nadharer Bhela (The Slow Man and His Raft, 2025). He completely bypassed the established distribution system and hit the road with the film. Earlier this year, Bhattacharyya screened
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What’s next for the cockroaches?
Just when the Narendra Modi government seemed invincible, its muscular presence casting an imperious shadow across the country, young people taking over the streets at the call of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) showed how things could be different. The open season for defiance began on June 6 with a
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Uprising in Delhi
A 49-day student agitation which galvanized India with its call for education reforms and shook the Narendra Modi government came to an end on July 25 with the government conceding the demands made by the students. The education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, was compelled to resign over the repeated leaking out
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Putting trees on the map
For the past two years, Uday Krishna Peddireddi has been getting behind the wheel of his Isuzu V-Cross pick-up and going in search of ancient trees that should be saved. He has identified 150 rare trees and placed them on a digital map of India so that they can be
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What is India’s AI future?
The abbreviation for artificial intelligence, AI, is now as commonly used as TV. And like television, artificial intelligence has permeated everyday life. It became even more ubiquitous when the AI Impact Summit was held in Delhi in February. A media barrage amplified AI’s visibility for the government-led event which heads
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Breakout films make it big
At the 77th Cannes Film Festival in 2024, Indian cinema ended a 30-year jinx. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light broke into the Competition line-up, becoming the first film from India to do so since Shaji N. Karun’s 1994 Malayalam-language Swaham. Kapadia was the first Indian woman
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Can the Yamuna be revived?
The Yamuna is one of India’s most sacred rivers. But on its 22-km stretch through Delhi, the Yamuna gets reduced to being a polluted drain. Four decades of efforts to restore the river have mostly ended in failure. Delhi, one of India’s richest cities, does to the Yamuna what Indian
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Sonam Wangchuk is trying to save the Himalayas
EVEN as Sonam Wangchuk was arrested and silenced in a Jodhpur jail, his message to protect the environment continued to reverberate across the Himalayan states — not in slogans and protests but amplified by Nature herself in benumbing devastation. Never before have people in the Himalayas had to contend with
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