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The Silent Son - A Moment of Confusion In BOSE: THE FORGOTTEN HERO

5/6/2017

by Sucheto Nath

When I saw it, my first reaction was to remember an emojipasta, probably found exclusively in a Facebook group about Love Live!, which begins thus:

Bose: The Forgotten Hero, a three-and-a-half-hour film, follows Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from his separation from the Indian National Congress to the moment his plane leaves Saigon in 1945 - the very plane which reportedly crashed, killing the leader of the Azad Hind Fauj. The film is quite surprising, I might add; the plot is quite engaging and evenly poised, and even the special effects are nothing to snort at.

However, there is the slight problem that the hero joined forces with this man here:

Is Beowulf American Literature?

27/5/2017

by Sucheto Nath

I had a funny idea before bed one night in late May, so I posted the following status on Facebook.

I was only half-joking, actually, because a connection had occurred to me; but what surprised me is how seriously people reacted. A friend who studies English said she’d slap me; a meme-maker said Beowulf was an anime; everyone else unironically mansplained the poem’s origin, or posted a picture of an otter saying ‘No’. Personally, I should be flattered, because I’ve been thinking that perhaps everything I say is misconstrued as a joke; it’s nice to be taken seriously by so many people for a change. Not only did they not realise that the emoji was there for irony, but, in all modesty, it is slightly disconcerting that about ten people who know me would think an almost-graduate of English wouldn’t know when Beowulf was written.

My last line brings us to my first line of argument. For virtually all works of literature that are studied in schools and undergraduate programs, we have a fixed, or at least approximate, date of composition. This is more important than is immediately obvious. Not only does knowing the date of publication or writing enable to us to understand the text better, we can actually pin down the work to a certain author. By declaring that one text is written by one author, within a certain time, and under certain conditions of life, we are able to say, and often do, that the meaning of the text (outer, inner, or whatever) must be understood by studying that author’s life and the time in which the book was written. When we can’t pin down a book to a certain time, things get complicated - or to put it in another way, a complicated matter becomes obvious.

Beowulf is one of these poems. All that is more or less certain is that it came long after the Germanic people described by Tacitus. It describes the coming of Scyld, which seems to be more legend than fact. It mentions Hengest and the Battle of Finnsburh, which happened around 450 CE. The extant text is in West Saxon, so the poem as it now exists was probably not written in the early years of Anglo-Saxon life in England. There are strong aspects of oral poetry and epic heroism, but also passages that were written by a Christian. Again, the depiction of Danes suggests that Beowulf may have been written after the establishment of the Danelaw. Even assuming that we can separate a core text from later interpellations by Christian scribes, when can we say it was written - or, as we must say, composed? In fact, can Beowulf be pinned down to a written text, or do we have to treat the poem as an amorphous object?

Now that’s enough of serious talk. Let’s see why Beowulf is clearly an American poem.

Rebirth: Drawing From The Past

12/5/2017

by Tarique Ejaz

"Sometimes some things can't be saved. You need to know what is worth saving and what is not."

TVF: Yet Another Perpetrator Of Rape Culture

14/3/2017

by Moyurie Som

What happens when you as a woman, speak up about your experience of getting molested by a man whose social standing is higher than yours?

Let us see, in the light of the accusations made against TVF comedian Arunabh Kumar.

Captain Fantastic: Paradise or Utopia? Left or Right?

4/3/2017

by Smita Ganguli

What you are about to read isn’t a review of the sorts. It is however, an expression of dubiety.
For those of you who haven’t watched Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic yet, why though? Get down to it as soon as possible because it is fucking VIGGO MORTENSEN and that’s all that should matter prior to watching it.

Donald Glover And The Art of Maintenance of Perfection: Gambino, Community, Atlanta and much more

22/2/2017

by Rick Mazumdar

I would be the equivalent of a bad rash located on the upper right buttock on a sultry summer's day in Kolkata if I mentioned for the billionth time how unrelentingly terrible 2016 was as a year IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE (I told my counselor "New Year, New Me," but I suppose that's not going to happen), but yet, regardless of all the celebrity deaths, of all the internet memes that became world leaders and all the countries facing upheaval of an nth degree; I, from a semi-privileged, not bigoted, socially and politically aware perspective (let's tick all the boxes here, shall we?) believe from the standpoint of media and culture that the best thing that has happened in the previous year was the rise and rise of one Donald Mckinley Glover.

This article basically serves to show how Glover's prowess as an artist has grown and has been moulded over time to reach the level of excellence he is at presently. We'll be focusing on his work on some of the episodes on Atlanta and "Awaken, My Love!" predominantly, while taking a look at all the previous work that has helped him gather the experience and technical nuances that has brought him to this present level.

Hype Backlash, Movie Defeatism, and LA LA LAND

21/2/2017

by Luv Mehta
Cover image provided by Arnab Mondal

So here's the thing. The Oscars are a bunch of snooty golden statuettes awarded by old directors and producers who like watching grand dramas, populated by Acting (with a capital A, of course) and subplots about how the medium of films is amazing.

Of course, this ends up with a system celebrating the same kinds of movies, year after year. And the frontrunner for this year's Best Picture, La La Land, certainly ticks a lot of the checkboxes to help it work its way to an easy win.

Which is where the moviegoing public finds itself with the responsibility to help weed out movies that get massively hyped up without reason, right? There are plenty of awards that have been given to undeserving candidates already - we need to balance the playing field, so to speak, don't we?

See, I'm not too sure about that.

A Lust For Life - A Look Back At 127 HOURS

12/2/2017

by Harsh Vardhan

It’s quite weird that, whenever something bad happens to us, the first thing we do is burst into lamentations about our fate, without looking back at what led us to this one moment in time. There have been so many occasions in this life of mine, so far, when I found myself questioning the partiality fate has for others over me, and contemplating things I couldn’t achieve, completely undermining the very blessed life I have been fortunate to live. To cut the narration short, I don’t think I have appreciated the gift of life enough and watching 127 Hours, for the second time, gave me a quite reminder of it.

To set things to perspective, I first saw 127 Hours back when it released and I thoroughly enjoyed the film for the sparkling storytelling it boasted of. The experience was great and I had thoroughly enjoyed it, but it eventually faded just like any other movie does (including the good ones).

So what made it different this time around?