Innholdsfortegnelse for 16 July 2018 i Open Magazine

THE ORIGINAL BAD BOY While the movie Sanju is doing fairly well at the box office and with critics, it is questionable what the real motive behind the movie is (‘Baba Black Sheep’, July 9th, 2018). The title of the article has been apt because Sanjay Dutt is not only the ‘black sheep’ of his family but also of India’s film fraternity. However, like the movie, it does little to talk about his decision to make certain choices. At the end of the day, you cannot justify everything he did or suddenly forget he was a convict because of a film and a few press articles. Shreya It is often forgotten that it is Sanjay Dutt who is the original ‘bad boy’ of Hindi cinema; usually people use this phrase…

HOWEVER OFTEN I go to London, one afternoon is mandatorily spent at Trafalgar Square (by choice, of course). After all, the National Gallery—containing one of the world’s greatest art collections—is the main building there, and around it is the National Portrait Gallery. Then there in the middle, rising 52 metres, is Nelson’s Column, as high a tribute as any nation has paid to one of its heroes. Once you are there, you don’t have to be particularly observant to notice the Fourth Plinth. While Nelson casts his eye over the city from the centre, at the four corners of the square are plinths, the solid bases on top of which are generally placed sculptures of horses (actually, it’s the riders who are being commemorated, but let that pass). Trafalgar Square’s…

IT TAKES ALL types—moderates and bigots, socialists and capitalists, progressives and conservatives, corrupt and clean—to make a political party in India, and the Bharatiya Janata Party is no exception. Everytime it comes to power, the Hindu cultural right becomes ascendant. At its lowest common denominator, or the fringe, this is made up of Muslim haters who see in all of the country’s ills a policy of minority appeasement followed by post-independent India. This segment has been exploited by the BJP for votes and to create foot-soldiers during elections. In the social networking age, they constitute a vocal army of trolls, partly organised and the rest driven by armchair ideology. Over the last few weeks, there has been the unusual phenomenon of these trolls turning against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj,…

MOST PEOPLE WILL have heard of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). It is a good resource for the huge agenda of electoral reforms, though I can name several other good sources too. In the 2014 General Election, 8,230 candidates contested from 543 constituencies and they had to submit self-sworn affidavits. Every candidate has to submit such an affidavit in Form 26, along with the nomination papers. (We may have a legitimate problem with the quality and veracity of information given, but that is a separate issue.) The candidate has to state: ‘I am/am not accused of any offence(s) punishable with imprisonment for two years or more in a pending case(s) in which a charge(s) has/have been framed by the court(s) of competent jurisdiction.’ In case such a case is…

PATRIARCHAL PRIVILEGES IN A SOCIETY THAT IS LARGELY MATRILINEAL ENDURE AND FLOURISH, BUT WOMEN ARE NO LONGER READY TO TAKE THINGS LYING DOWN WHAT IS IT ABOUT the Malayali male that attracts equal parts respect and scorn? Normally, expectations from Kerala, a state that enjoys high social indicators, some of which are on par with Nordic countries, are that it is a fairer and far more egalitarian society compared with the rest of India. The sex ratio, the number of women compared with men, is above 0.99, a coveted figure even for advanced countries. Simply put, there are more women than men in the southern state, a rare feat in India. Many families here continue to follow the matrilineal system, as in times of yore. All of this ignites a…

BANDANA SAMANT LOOKED through a powerful microscope at a sample of ancient dinosaur faeces to find something remarkable. This was a few years ago. Samant, a bespectacled professor at Nagpur University, was part of a team of international researchers that was exploring the excreta of dinosaurs, excavated a few kilometres away from a tiny village in Maharashtra, to put together the dietary habits of these giant reptiles.There in the dung, from a species identified asTitanosaurus, considered to be among the largest dinosaurs, visible through the microscope, was evidence of digested rice. For several years, Pisdura, the tiny village a few kilometres from Nagpur, has thrown up a vast number of dinosaur fossils, eggs and bones. But what has been most striking here is the surfeit of coprolites or dinosaur excreta…

UPAMANYU CHATTERJEE would never win a congeniality contest. He’d, of course, say that the question of winning would never arise as wouldn’t deign to participate. But readers and acquaintances will admit that the 59-year-old author seems to have no desire to curry friends or influence people. But that is why his company is such a pleasure; it isn’t that of the needy or the sly. He isn’t interested in being part of one school or another, he is not out and about peddling his wares, and he rolls his eyes at ‘colleges of literature’. The best part is that his irreverence is not artifice, it is simply his default setting; what appears like impudence to us, to him is discernment. He sees the world in shades of dark, and debauchery…

TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH of poetry written in occupied Tibet are rare. Modern Tibetan literature, for an English reader, has largely meant literature written in exile, as the situation made proximity to English and its cultures possible for these communities. There are also dominant narratives, like the millennium-old one of Buddhism, and of revolt, intimately tied to Tibetan language and identity, which have bred preconceptions, something the reader must overcome to appreciate the poems in Burning the Sun’s Braids on their own terms. A variety of voices resound across the pages of this bilingual anthology, ranging from song-like outbursts with run-over lines, to attempts at paring down language to sing a ‘skeleton-coloured poem,/ with a tiny little hole in it,’ a language so devoid of referential detail that even a banal…

Sanjay Dutt deserves a film on his life more than any other actor (‘Baba Black Sheep’, July 9th, 2018). Not only has his life been spectacularly turbulent—with stories of drug abuse, womanising behaviour, failed marriages and of course links with the underworld having done the rounds for years now—he is also someone who has managed to rise above his past and retain his fan base. His comeback through Munnaibhai MBBS was one such moment when audiences, critics and the film world realised that his story is far from over despite having been in prison for his alleged involvement in the Bombay blasts of 1993. Sanjay Dutt is also the son of two famed actors, Nargis and Sunil Dutt, and it is interesting to note that the movie Sanju has roped…

INDIANS ARE A peculiar lot in how much they are willing to be pushed around, abused, exploited, robbed of their land and much more so long as the system is doing it. Their biggest tormenter is the Government itself. Underneath this fatalism, like a dormant volcano that builds up lava, ordinary men shoretheir propensity for extraordinary violence. Catch a pickpocket in a local train and they will without a second thought throw him off it. Let the whiff of a riot be in the air and they will come out and spontaneously organise themselves into murderous bands. And a week later, return to their workplace as your dependable peons in a neighbourhood bank. Is it any surprise that there are lynchings in India? That, when we read about a spate…

INEVITABLY, CALCUTTA RECALLS Winston Churchill. The Great Commoner who refused to be ‘Duke of London’ wrote to his mother when staying in the city in 1899 as guest of the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, that Calcutta was a great city. But it wasn’t for him. ‘I shall always be glad to have seen it—for the same reason Papa gave for being glad to have seen Lisbon—namely, that it will be unnecessary for me ever to see it again.’ But he would have approved of our own Great Commoner who asserts a fact when she proclaims with no question mark at the end, “Why can’t Kolkata be another London.” Her implicit message is: ‘It can and it will.’ Mamata Banerjee bears aloft the flag Churchill unfurled when he refused “to preside over…

TERRY RICHARDSON fashion photographer Over 15 women have spoken out against Richardson. He has been accused of verbal and sexual assault during shoots. He is under investigation by New York Police. He’s also been blacklisted by various brands such as Valentino, Bulgari and Condé Nast KEVIN SPACEY actor The 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor currently faces accusations of sexual assault from more than 30 men, reports BBC. Netflix has cut ties with him for House of Cards. Spacey is now taking time off for ‘evaluation and treatment’. London Police is investigating him LOUIS CK comedian Five women have accused him of sexual conduct. He has taken responsibility for his actions. Film distribution company The Orchard has cancelled the release of Louis CK’s new movie I Love You, Daddy.Netflix and HBO have also…

A study finds wild rice in dinosaur excreta, at least 65 million years old, in India, evidence that dinosaurs consumed them. Wild rice, and even grass, have never been considered to be this old. 65 million years ago, India was an island that had broken off from Madagascar and was yet to collide with Asia. Could wild rice have originated in India, and after its collision, spread into Asia? Another study finds evidence of domestic rice cultivation 9,250 years ago in a small village in India. An older study close to the area found charred rice grains estimated to be over 8,000 years old. Others argue both studies have probably found evidence of wild rice, not domesticated rice It is widely believed that rice, or Oryza sativa, was…

if a friend told you a story about the way her marriage unravelled, how would you and she go about finding a just way of apportioning blame? And in a story that involves the ‘I’, can one get close to the truth? Anthropologists, historians, artists, filmmakers and writers have struggled to develop a method that would minimise the ‘I’ in the narrative. One method illuminates the parochial perspectives on a marriage, murder or love story. Examples include Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon’s four contradictory accounts of a murder by four witnesses, Picasso’s multi-perspective paintings, Laurence Durrell’s examination of romantic love viewed through different characters in The Alexandria Quartet, and social scientists’ use of triangulated (mixed) methods strategy to validate a hypothesis. Rachel Cusk joins this brigade of truth seekers by experimenting…

OUR POLITICIANS ARE not the reading type. Most of them are barely literate. Unlike in the West, where there is a healthy tradition of leading politicians writing memoirs, a precious source for scholars to get an inside view of not-too-distant events, only a handful of our netas are intellectually equipped to write readable stuff. Jairam Ramesh’s name must top that short list. A nontraditional but nonetheless fulltime politician, he still finds time enough to research and write eminently readable tomes at regular intervals. His latest, Intertwined Lives: PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi, must be made compulsory reading for students of contemporary history. How Haksar single-handedly transformed Dr Ram Manohar Lohia’s ‘goongi gudiya’ into Durga Mata comes through from letters and other material sourced from her principal secretary’s archives. If she…

THE DAY AFTER the Supreme Court’s decision on the case about the limits of the power of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor has seen loud claims of victory by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The Lieutenant Governor has to take decisions according to the advice of the capital’s council of ministers, ruled the court. Within no time after the judgment on July 4th, AAP—led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal—exuberantly declared it a ‘victory for the people of Delhi’. The expression ‘victory’ is cathartic, no doubt. Little, however, has changed constitutionally. The provisions of the Constitution that have a bearing on how Delhi is governed—Articles 239, 239A and 239AA—remain as they were. The key provision that defines the relationship between the Lieutenant Governor and Delhi government, one that has been reiterated by the…

When Tata Motors unveiled its small car Nano back in 2008, the Group’s chief Ratan Tata claimed it was going to be a revolutionary moment in the automobile market. It was trumpted as the ‘world’s cheapest car’, its basic model priced at an unheard-of Rs 1 lakh. When there was talk of cost escalations, Ratan Tata insisted that “a promise was a promise”. But such a promise could never really be met. The revolution was a big failure. And the Nano is now dying a slow and painful death, with no one showing the gumption to pull the plug on this ‘legacy hotspot’. According to the company’s latest regulatory filing, only a single unit of the car was produced this June. There were no exports. And domestically, three units were…

KERALA, MYTHIFIED AS India’s most literate state, has dropped its façade of socio-political correctness, revealing an ugly secret: the regressive mindset of the Malayali male. Dileep, a popular actor facing charges of having planned the abduction and sexual assault of a woman colleaguelastFebruary,was welcomedback intoitsfoldrecently by the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) despite an ongoing trial that landed him behind bars for 85 days before he was let out on bail. Dileep’s homecoming was celebrated as if it were the return of the prodigal son. While AMMA has always been male dominated, the welcome accorded to the accused star sent shockwaves across the state and beyond. Four of its women members—including the survivor of the assault—quit in protest against the Association headed by Kerala’s most popular film star, Mohanlal.…

THE IRONY IS THAT AMMA AND ITS MEMBERS PLAY INNOCENT FOOLS REFUSING TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT THE TIMES HAVE CHANGED. THEY REMAIN OBLIVIOUS TO THE TREMORS OF THE GREAT #METOO MOVEMENT SOMETIME IN 1986,a veteran non-Malayali actor-playwright of national acclaim acted in a Malayalam film directed by a star director. In one scene, he had to slap the heroine, a teenaged character who had fallen in love with the protagonist he portrayed. Reportedly, even after many takes the slap wasn’t satisfactory. The director was impatient and wondered aloud why an acting genius like him had to struggle with an ordinary slap on the face. “I have never ever slapped a woman in my life,” replied the actor. “Don’t worry, just imagine she is your wife and give a thrashing,”…

THE AFTERSHOCK OF RUSSIA’S VICTORY CAUSED THE COUNTRY’S PERMISSIVE CLASS TO UNLEASH THEIR IDEA OF RUSSIAN PRIDE THOSE WHO WERE there claim that first the stadium shook; only then did the seismic waves of noise and love consume an entire city. But this story begins moments earlier, at the epicentre—a goalpost at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow—experiencing a few uneasy seconds of calm. Under the goalpost, Igor Akinfeev is wiping his face. Perhaps those sticky black gloves are clearing droplets of sweat from the Russian goalkeeper’s eyelashes. Or, perhaps, those palms are simply hooding his vision from the on-coming penalty-taker, Spain’s Iago Aspas, who has begun his walk from the half-line. It’s hard to tell. But by the time Akinfeev—goalie, captain and hope of a nation—looks up from his fingers…

“I AM LIKE A CONDUCTOR WHO COMPOSES FROM ALL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. YOU CAN’T SAY THAT I WILL ONLY PLAY VIOLIN AND NOT GUITAR, PIANO AND DRUMS” ZURAB TSERETELI artist ONE RECENT summer morning in Moscow, dressed in a woollen jacket with a red silk scarf thrown neatly over his neck—more a style statement than to ward off the Russian chill— Zurab Tsereteli is waiting to receive Naina Yeltsina. Boris Yeltsin’s widow, Yeltsina is here to unveil Tsereteli’s bust of the Russian Federation’s first president. Amidst light, essentially ceremonial security cover, she finally arrives. Tsereteli and she meet and hug like old friends (which they are). The bust of Boris Yeltsin is one in a long line of Russian historical figures that have obsessed Tsereteli for decades now. Hobnobbing with the…

WENDY DONIGER’S BOOKS over the years have been either vast and encyclopaedic (The Hindus: An Alternative History, 2009, On Hinduism, 2013, and The Ring of Truth, 2017) or minutely detailed (The Woman who Pretended to Be Who She Was, 2004, and Reading the Kamasutra, 2016). They remind us of two things about her remarkable intelligence and her therefore remarkable scholarship. One, that she knows a lot of things about a lot of things and can bring them together in unusual and intriguing ways, and two, that she has the patience and sensitivity to read a text minutely and carefully, opening it up in ways that were hitherto unconsidered. To our great advantage, she manifests both these talents in Beyond Dharma, where she argues (in the main) that Kautilya’s Artha Shastra…

The Odd One Out Social media stalkers have noticed that Daisy Shah (she of Jai Ho, Hate Story 3, and Race 3 shame…oops, fame) appears to have been left out of the Dabangg tour ‘girl gang’—which includes Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez and Sonakshi Sinha—that’s currently performing at stage shows across the US and Canada along with Salman Khan. It’s very clear from Instagram videos posted by the stars on tour that while Daisy is a part of the troupe, she hasn’t been embraced by the other three actresses who’ve formed a clique of sorts that has no place for the former backup dancer. Proving rumours wrong that Katrina has a cold war going on with Jacqueline, her own social media posts reveal that they get along famously. Ditto for Sonakshi,…