Cinema and other things… with Shyam Benegal

‘It’s a bit noisy here in the lobby’ he said ‘the ambient sound may disturb your recording, let us go up to my room instead’.  Raghu picked up his camera and tripod, I followed the two of them into the elevator and then to his room. He perched himself on an armchair at the window, while Raghu and I struggled with the equipment. ‘Set it up right here’ we found him pointing to a spot towards his right. ‘You can cut out all the unwanted shadows this way’ he advised. We obeyed. A quick sound check, I glanced through my notes and we were good to go.

This interview is probably almost a year old now, but speaking to one of India’s leading film icons, a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke and Padma Bhushan, was certainly most inspiring. Speaking of films – here is what Shyam Benegal had to say to The Colloquium.

Cinema: the Technology Behind the Art

The celebration of the centenary year of Indian Cinema approaches its twilight – it has truly been a pride-filled celebration for all of India’s art lovers. Come the 3^rd of May and it would be exactly 101 years since Dada Saheb Phalke’s, Raja Harishchandra was screened for the public at Coronation Cinematograph in Mumbai. While the art is celebrated, a point that also needs to be reminded of is that cinema is also an industry and technology, which continues to play a central role in its evolution.

Malayalam Cinema: From Adoor to the Avant Garde

In the decisive ten minutes of a recently released malayalam film, the male protagonist  is shown sprawled on the bed in a dimly lit room as another man fondled him unashamedly. The initiated viewer of Malayalam Cinema, who was now acclimatized with the archetypal ‘hero’, sat aghast. It was as uncanny as transmutation was for an evolutionary biologist. To put things in better perspective, the film was not a one-off aberration, but part of a larger reckoning. Cinema is being redesigned in Kerala.

Narendra Dhabolkar : A Crusader for Rationality

Gloom descended, as the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist and anti-obscurantist crusader Dr. Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on early morning of Tuesday 20th August, reached some of us who were in in Bangalore at that time attending a workshop on science popularisation.  Initially we were stunned with incredulity. A committed and unrelenting activist he was, but humble and ever gentle always. Who could have even thought of killing him? The disbelief gave way to dismay and despondence. Soon the sad and cruel act only helped us to steel our resolve to take the message of scientific temper widely and bit more vigorously.

The Corporate Takeover of Peasant Agriculture

Economic liberalism and free trade was put forward by Adam Smith and David Ricardo as the sure shot way to eternal economic prosperity for Imperialist British Empire. The era was marked by an endless pursuit for acquiring colonies which were to be raw material appendages as well as a ready market for absorbing the finished products of a rapidly industrialising Empire. Marx rightly said that free trade begets a brotherhood of nations which were hardly fraternal and promoted a cosmopolitan exploitation reproducing unlimited competition in gigantic proportions on the world market.

A Hypocrite’s Call for a Syrian Battle

The Syrian people started their fight more than two years ago, against the oppressive political regime and the suffocating economic conditions, like everywhere else in the Arab world. They would have least expected it to turn into the major humanitarian crisis that it is today. Who among them could have foreseen that Syria would become the chessboard on which the big players of the world polity would make their moves

The Bio-metrics Identification Imbroglio

Providing direct benefit transfer (DBT) is based primarily on authentication of an individual’s biometrics against stored biometric data captured on enrolment, by employing specialized hardware at every disbursing point, every time an individual seeks to obtain a benefit. Thus, hi-tech electronic hardware with backup power (battery and inverter) must be provided to every ration shop, MNREGA centre, every centre where salaries and pensions are paid, etc., across the country. If one does the arithmetic, it might mean billions of pieces of electronic hardware, each one of them needing an electric power source, and enormous expenditure for initial cost and maintenance-repair. Great days ahead for those who work out the contracts!

Rupee Quicksilver

On the 27^th of June 2013, the rupee price of the dollar touched Rs. 60. This peak happened to be only the tip of the iceberg. Thereafter, the rupee went into a free fall till it hit an all-time low of Rs. 68.85 on August 28^th, 2013. What went so drastically wrong? What was the tipping point?

Cinema by the People

crowd·fund·ing

ˈkroudˌfəndiNG/

noun

noun: Crowdfunding; noun: crowd-funding

1. The practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.

“Musicians, filmmakers, and artists have successfully raised funds and fostered awareness through Crowdfunding”

In pursuit of the unknown – 17 equations that changed the world

Book review: In Pursuit of the Unknown by Ian Stewart

“Symbolism” is a language by itself. Symbolism, communicates tones of information to ‘the’ cohort. People belonging to several backgrounds relate to Symbolism in different ways. But for those involved heavily in quantitative science, one form of symbolism is predominantly mired into their thought processes. This symbolism relates, agrees upon, disproves hypotheses or leaves it all in a deadlock situation. As a manifestation of this form of symbolism, ‘equations’ have survived the odds of multiple centuries and 17 of those survivors have been brought into the limelight in Ian Stewart’s engaging book, “In Pursuit of the Unknown – 17 Equations That Changed the World”, which is an insightful journey into the world of equations.