On the Road is considered the greatest book of the Beat movement and Jack Kerouac its unofficial spokesperson. Its tale of lost souls who dared to be free is timeless. Through its fascinating depictions of friendship, experiences on the road and the longing for ‘It’ – an expression that could signify anything from frenzy and exhilaration to salvation and bliss, the novel was way ahead of its time. The enormous impact of the book is as relevant today as it was groundbreaking then. Its tale of lost souls who dared to be free…

Chrisophe Barratier’s directorial debut The Chorus became an acclaimed masterstroke worldwide. About an inspirational music teacher who comes to teach at a boarding school for rebellious children, Les Choristes, was inspired by a little known French film La Cage aux Rossignols (The Cage of Nightingales). A deeply moving psychological film on childhood, The film is about the early feelings of injustice and abandon; the inbuilt sense of fright together with those rebellious impulses that lurk…

Vanaja (2006) is a quiet little film that has conquered its own domain, won its own set of hearts with its sheer brilliance in thematic and visual execution and perhaps gained an entry to the list of best films of that year. Mamatha Bhukya’s stellar performance elevates the film to extraordinary levels and it is evident that she can teach any so-called-veteran mainstream actresses a thing or two. The film carefully avoids all clichés and shows us that one need not treat independent films condescendingly.

For The Cleft, Lessing was inspired by a scientific report claiming that women were the first human species, and that men came along much later. In a story where she depicts our early ancestors, she draws a lazy picture of the first females, the “Clefts” who idle around the seashore, swim through the waves and loll about the rocks living languid days doing nothing. Their lives are perfectly harmonious, until the day the boy children began to be born. Doris Lessing was announced as the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Anjali Purohit is a reclusive artist working from Mumbai (Bombay) who has been articulating her sensibility with paper, paint and canvas. She has studied at the Sir J J School of Art. She held her first solo show in Bombay in 1995 and has been exhibiting her work since in the city as well as outside. She believes that art, like language or music, is a medium of communication whereby the artist attempts to express her reaction to the world - nature, people, events, emotions, memories and situations. Something in each of these experiences strikes the artist as significant, poignant, moving, curious or in some way worthy of note or observation

Jazz can be described in many ways – a JAZZY musical extravaganza with sterling performances and mellifluous music, a musical paean to the unsung musicians in Bollywood who work behind the scenes to compose some of the most memorable songs, or simply, a musical journey of an old man taking a trip down the memory lane. Whatever the description may go like, it will certainly appeal to the fastidious ears of a theatre critic or a music connoisseur, with its satirical wit, uncompromising conviction, and alluring music score.

I have always been fascinated by the geometric architectural structures within the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory; instruments that were used for keeping track of celestial bodies in time and space. Jantar Mantar – which is actually pronounced, as ‘Yantra Mantra’, yantra for instrument and mantra for formula – is not only a timekeeper of celestial bodies, it also tells a lot about the technological achievements under the Rajput kings and their attempt to resolve the mysteries regarding astronomy.

In a world strongly engulfed in the flames of conflicts, tensions, killing and hatred, love is rain that not only provides the respite, but overpowers the fire that results from years of communal and religious tensions. In his flagship album, The Idan Raichel Project, Idan has been able to douse these flames with his sweet, [...]