The essay compares and contrasts Krishna Udayasankar’s science fiction fantasy Aryavarta Chronicles (2012–14) and Amruta Patil’s graphic novel Adi Parva (2012). It argues that while these works are vastly different from each other, they... more
The essay compares and contrasts Krishna Udayasankar’s science fiction fantasy Aryavarta Chronicles (2012–14) and Amruta Patil’s graphic novel Adi Parva (2012). It argues that while these works are vastly different from each other, they are both part of the push by Indian English publishers to ‘ride’ the mythological wave. The essay situates the texts within their production and cultural contexts, arguing that Udayasankar and Patil are part of the expanding Indian English literary circuits where globalisation is making its effects felt through multinational publishing companies, social media presence and heavily influential Anglo-American aesthetics of high fantasy, high art and the modern age of comic books
South Asian Filmscapes: Transregional Encounters is an ambitious volume of essays with scholars from various disciplines engaging in space in film and media historiography. Emerging from the efforts of an alliance of scholars from... more
South Asian Filmscapes: Transregional Encounters is an ambitious volume of essays with scholars from various disciplines engaging in space in film and media historiography. Emerging from the efforts of an alliance of scholars from different disciplines—the South Asia Regional Media Scholars Network (SARMSNet)—the volume rethinks South Asia as a space and place, and recover cinema as a transnational itinerary and history. Set against the traumatic births of South Asian nation states, the volume centres hitherto marginalised and/or translocal/transnational screen cultures, histories and networks which stretch across barbed wires and through violence and loss. It brings together scholars from different fields including cinema and television studies, cultural and linguistic anthropology, film and political histories to analyse cinema (and cinematic) archives, cinematic figurations, material contexts and cultural milieus of production. It is a refreshing look at South Asian cinema which decentres India, and is important addition to the field as it recovers forgotten archives and histories of cinema, space and place. (Special thanks to Kartik Nair who edited this piece)
Short essay on the Cold War era, Indian English magazine, Quest, run by the Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom, and its founding editor, the renowned poet Nissim Ezekiel.
