From shadows to the stars

Much was made about the fact that two members from the RSS were invited to speak at the celebrated Jaipur Literature Festival. By a lucky coincidence (maybe not so lucky), I was touring Jaipur during this time and would like to relay some of my thoughts about it. I felt that the two speakers handled themselves very well. They made some good points and some that weren't. While it is unfortunate that there was nobody on the panel to debate against the two Hindutva proponents - the organisers should have seen to it - the discussion was good nevertheless. The two speakers rightly pointed out that despite the targeted killings of RSS members in Kerala, there was no outrage against it. The government also doesn't seem to be very keen on ending this violence. Although, one of the speakers, Dattatreya Hosabale, slipped up. When asked if the RSS condones violence, he flatly said that it didn't. He then proceeded however, to say, "If some people are out to attack RSS person...

Bollywood's trend of adapting the lives of popular sporting heroes to the screen continues. In 2016, M S Dhoni and Azharuddin's lives were portrayed on screen. While these two movies received only modest response, the true winner was 'Dangal', the biopic of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. While Phogat himself was a wrestler, the story is about his ambition to win an international gold medal (for the country) through his daughters. I enjoyed the movie. Unlike most times when I have watched Indian movies, I didn't feel the urge to scream or hit my head against the wall. Of course, there were some problems with the depiction. Some of the more serious issues have been identified and critiqued. Here, I will talk about some other issues that I found in the film. Phogat's elder daughter Geeta is sent off to the national training camp and loses her path a little. The film links a slump in her performance levels to her interest in being more fashionable. As G...