Category Archives: Art and Culture

Why You Should Turn Your Passion Into Profession And What Makes It Difficult

Once question keeps popping up in my mind every now and then. Let me put it in this way. Everyone of us is educated, enters into some profession and earns a living. The rest of life is spent working hard, earning money which soon transforms into accumulating wealth, and then it all ends when we are old or retired, or both. Whenever someone asks why we undertake so much hardship, our quick answer is — financial security, our family responsibility, and above all, happiness. In a way, all reasons are related to each other and imply the same thing — happiness. My question is, instead of working so hard on something which we do not enjoy in order to earn a living so that we could be happy, why not start with happiness itself, i.e., do things that we enjoy and turn it into profession? That way life indeed would become fun and work would no longer be a labour. In fact, most of the time when we say we are tired, we actually mean that we are bored.

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Open Yourself To The Universe!

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It is amusing to note that human being who has created such marvels of culture and civilization has also invented several ways to destroy those very marvels. Mostly the human mind, which is credited for our accomplishments, is also blamed for the miseries faced by humanity. In all such debates and discussions, one factor that is often ignored is that mind itself is not the whole being; instead it is just a part of our overall identity. It has its importance, but has its limits also. Hence it should not encroach upon the territory which is not its domain — the fields of love, harmony and beauty. But still we love to think. We choose to think about beauty instead of looking at it, prefer to talk about it instead of understanding and appreciating it.

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Most Of Your Reasons For Not Pursuing Art And Literature Might Be Just Excuses

How Important Is Voice In Onscreen Depiction Of Argument?

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photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar Tiger argument via photopin (license)

For the last four posts, I have been discussing portrayal of conflicts in Hindi classic movies. In my opinion, these scenes offer us some real treasures of Indian drama. Today I will talk about something elementary. How does conflict start in the first place? I agree that this is a deep question which falls within the areas of philosophy and sociology. However, here we need not go into much detail, instead mention only main steps of interpersonal conflicts. First, there is a clash — of ideas and opinions, of dreams, ambitions, preferences and so on. We try to resolve such conflicts through dialogues, which are most often biased. We try to persuade the other person to move away from our path. When the other person does not follow, we try to convince him by logic and arguments. When that also fails, we try to show authority, strength, power, and in such way step by step the conflict takes higher notes of argument ultimately transforming into verbal duel followed by physical assaults. Continue reading →

When Shabana Azmi And Smita Patil Share Screen Space, The Result Is Sheer Magic!

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Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil with Soni Razdan in a scene from Mandi (1983), a yet another Shyam Benegal masterpiece. Photo source: TheQuint.

I will continue with my discussion on film appreciation based on onscreen depiction of conflicts. In the previous two parts of this series, I highlighted the different styles employed by actors to portray the characters they were playing. In the second part, I discussed geometry, inclination and orientation in a scene. I also mentioned importance of the 1/3 rule and the leading lines. Hope you remember those details. Otherwise it is a good idea to brush up your memory by revisiting those articles because discussion in this article and all forthcoming articles depends heavily on the concepts outlined in previous articles. Continue reading →

How To Watch A Movie Scene — Look For The Basic Rules Of Photography!

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When I was a child, I used to hate art movies. I always wondered how could anyone like such boring movies, which had no story, no dance or songs, no action scenes. And strangely, such movies got National awards! I always doubted some sort of foul play behind the jury decision. Of course, my favourite movies and artists did get the Filmfare awards, but then why not National awards? I always blamed it on cheating, which was my word for corruption. When I got older, I obtained the wisdom that boring movies get National awards whereas exciting (and hence good) movies get Filmfare awards! When I was in my late 20s, somehow I decided to take another look at some of these boring stuff of Indian cinema. I started with Paar, then Trikaal, Chakra and so on. And hell, I was so annoyed at myself! How could I have not liked such movies earlier! These movies and the various artists therein are real gems. How have I missed them all these years! And then there was no looking back. I explored further and tried to watch as many Indian art movies as I could find. Though I did like the narrative and the way it unfolded, and the skills of the people involved in making such artwork, somehow I always had a feeling that I was missing something more subtle. What is the grammar of art — as one of my seniors once asked me — the basic set of rules which makes any creative work a piece of art? I did not have an answer then, and even today I am exploring the answer to that question. Continue reading →

Clash Of Legends Reveals The Best Of Drama

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photo credit: Len Radin C.C. Showers argues with Ferris Layman in The Diviners via photopin (license)

I express my heartfelt gratitude to Rahul Gandhi — had he not sent his wishes to Narendra Modi on 27th March, perhaps I would never have known that that date is celebrated as the World Theatre Day. In that context, I would add that in spite of the enormous effort and time spent, no artist has ever been able to match the acting skills of any politician. Anyway, instead of discussing politics, I would rather write a few words to commemorate this day and to pay belated tribute to all the people who are involved in performing arts. Continue reading →

Holi Leaves Many Questions Unanswered

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photo credit: AdamCohn Pushing Men in Shri Dauji Temple, Chhabria for Holi via photopin (license)

Winter has already passed and we have already started getting ready for the summer ahead. Mornings and nights are still cold whereas afternoons are hot. Forenoons are pleasant, very very pleasant. Peculiar March weather. Yet another festival — Holi — is knocking at our doors. The whole campus is empty — students, professors, staff, nearly everybody has gone on leave. Yes, the whole campus is indeed empty, except only a few individuals. Most of them live such an isolated lives — engrossed in social media and/or video games — that even their neighbours aren’t aware of their existence. There are others of whom I could only say that it would have been better had they not existed at all. But this world doesn’t go by our choices or preferences, so we have to adjust ourselves and share this planet with such demons. Continue reading →

What Has Art To Do With Social Security?

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photo credit: Ukenaut Agra Fort – Abbey Road via photopin (license)

It was a dinner party. While food was getting ready, the host entertained his guests by raising several topics for discussion and entertainment. It was mostly for entertainment, as such parties are seldom an occasion for serious intellectual discussion. If someone makes any political statement, or explains any scientific theory or shares some issues of personal life, it should be considered as such without giving too much importance to it. It is just a social gathering and communication is the only objective there. In other words, contacts, relationship, communication is the primary goal there and the subject of discussion is secondary, just serving as a foundation or medium for that discussion to take place. This is important to note because time and again we come across occasions when a dinner party was spoiled by some stupid discussion on politics and/or religion. That is why these two topics are in general ‘prohibited’ from after-dinner discussions. Continue reading →

Three Takes On ‘Superstitious India’

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Photo by Amit Misra

I usually say that we as a people are not a scientific community. I still maintain this opinion. I do not concern here with what might be the reason behind such a mindset of Indians. May be in a future post we would delve deeper into that issue. Today I restrict myself with what makes me form such a strong opinion against intellectual health of Indians. Continue reading →