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The Poetry of Cinema
• Date published: August 4, 2008
• Originally published in The Telegraph Magazine
• June 8, 1997
“We have reached a time when we must open warfare on mediocrity, greyness and lack of expressiveness and make creative inquiry a rule in cinema.”
His oeuvre rests on this simple rule, which lies framed in his study. On the wall opposite is a poster with a pigeon nesting on tangled strips of film. And for Buddhadeb Dasgupta, too, his concerns zoom through the mesh of life to explore the inexorable truth of life and living.
But, as Dasgupta himself says, “If creative inquiry is a rule for cinema, then a filmmaker never makes one in expectation of an award. But when one gets one, the feeling is good.” And this reaction comes after his latest cinematic essay, Lal Darja, was adjudged the best feature film for 1997.
What did the media report on pesticolas?
• Date published: August 4, 2006
The language that you use will more often than not show your stand. Especially when the issue at hand is a contentious one.
Let's see what the media reported on Day One.
A Bureau report on ZeeNews.com said 'Pesticides in Coke, Pepsi brands again: CSE'. [Link] Does that mean that there were no pesticide residues in the soft drinks in the 2003-2006 period, irrespective of whether someone found these contaminants or not?
The first sentence says:
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday came out with a fresh study claiming the presence of "pesticide cocktail" in 11 brands of soft drink giants Coca Cola and Pepsi.
The second goes on to say:
The revelation comes three years after CSE released its first study on pesticides in soft drinks.
The firsts in Indian cinema
• Date published: January 1, 1999
• Originally published in India Perspectives
The roots of Indian cinema are almost as old as those of the medium itself. Within eight months of taking Paris by storm, the touring agents of Lumiere brothers' Cinematographer landed on the shores of India. On July 7, 1896, The Times of India carried an advertisement heralding the arrival of "the marvel of the century" and "wonder of the world". Four screenings took place that historic evening at Watson's Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai). The entry fee was one Rupee. The show received an overwhelming response. Motion pictures were subsequently introduced in Calcutta towards the end of the year, and in Madras (now Chennai) in the next.
The BlackBerry, the elite, and a question of civil liberties
The Indian elite is known for many things good, bad and ugly, its ostrich syndrome being one. Any ill that does not plague it, simply does not exist. A liberalised socio-economic regime gives it all the privileges that it barefacedly demands; civil liberties always go to hell and stay there.
So when civil liberties activists raised the alarm after the Indian laws governing cyberspace and online activities came into force, no one took any cognizance of them. Street dogs after all are wont to bark. At every one, at everything. India Inc was gung ho about development, never mind what that means, and the media was dutifully reflecting this misplaced euphoria. Everyone used the Internet, the Internet made money for everyone, this way and that. Till one fine day.
Operation Blackout: Keeping Kashmir out of the news
In July I received a mail from a journalist who wanted to pitch me an interesting story idea from Kashmir. The mail was directed to an account I hardly check. Not that it would have made much difference since Newswatch carries only content that has something to do with the news media. I gather she pitched the story to many publications.
The story, let me tell you, never saw the light of day anywhere in this country where Kashmir is such an emotively jingoistic issue. Close to a month later, the story has appeared, but not in an Indian publication. I happened to stumble across it quite perchance in the New Internationalist.
Yet I am not surprised that no Indian publication wanted to carry the story despite the fact that the journalist, Dilnaz Boga, writes well. And more than anything else, it was a good story.
Read the blurb. If it doesn't make sense to you, you probably need to see a shrink: