In recent years, India has witnessed a rapid transformation in the face of its urban landscape. This transformation has come at a cost- the loss of several architectural gems that were once an intrinsic part of the Indian heritage. India is nothing if not for its monuments. While the country that’s seen so many regimes, changes under the crown of many different countries, it has enveloped the architectural traditions of these past monsters to amalgamate something novel.

As one sets out to explore the cities of India, it’s a quick realization that the landscape is in a state of constant flux. The bustling metropolis of Mumbai, with its glittering skyscrapers and chock-a-block streets, are almost unrecognizable from the Mumbai of older days. And yet, amidst that glitter and chaos, it is common for people to find themselves lamenting the loss of the city’s beautiful Art Deco buildings that were once a hallmark of its architectural landscape.

Sadly, it is not just Mumbai that is facing this issue. All over India, beautiful buildings are being razed to make way for cookie-cutter structures that are often unremarkable and devoid of character. The reasons behind this demolition mania are complex and varied- from property developers looking to make a quick buck to urban planners who believe that modernization necessitates destruction of the old. Another reason and the more pernicious seeping one is the forceful erasing of history. The monuments are a testament to the transpirations that happened on this piece of earth, truly the first foundations to these buildings are the conspiracies that led to the need of creating these edifices. To mark that they had come, conquered and they changed this little leg of the universe somewhat. After all no one builds a house to leave it empty. Whatever the reason, the cultural implications of this destruction are significant and cannot be ignored.

The first thing that strikes about the disappearing architectural gems of India is their historical significance. India is a land with a rich and diverse history, and its buildings are a testament to this heritage. Be it the grand Mughal monuments of Delhi, the beautiful Rajasthani havelis, or the charming colonial buildings of Kolkata, India’s architectural treasures are a reflection of its past. By destroying these buildings, we are not just losing a physical structure- we are losing a piece of our cultural identity.

It is not just the historical significance of these structures that is at stake. At a time when globalization is threatening to homogenize the world’s cultures, the disappearance of Indian architectural gems is a blow to cultural diversity. The beauty of these buildings lies in their unique blend of Indian and Western styles- be it the Indo-Saracenic architecture of the Victoria Terminus in Mumbai or the fusion of Hindu and Islamic styles in the Moti Masjid of Bhopal. These buildings are a manifestation of India’s cultural diversity, and their loss is a loss for the world at large.

But it is not just the cultural implications of this destruction that is of concern. The destruction of these buildings is also indicative of a larger problem- the prioritization of profit over people. In a country where economic growth is often viewed as the panacea for all problems, the needs and wants of ordinary citizens are often sidelined in favor of those who hold the purse strings. The demolition of old buildings to make way for new structures is a prime example of this trend. For the average citizen, these buildings are not just monuments of cultural heritage- they are often homes, community centers, or places of worship. By destroying these structures, we are robbing people of their sense of belonging and community.

Moreover, the demolition of these buildings often serves to exacerbate existing inequalities in society. The areas where these buildings are being razed are often low-income or working-class neighborhoods, where people have limited resources to fight back. In many cases, these demolitions are carried out without due process or consultation with the people who will be affected. The result is a situation where the powerful dictate the terms of development, without any regard for the needs and wants of those who will bear the brunt of their decisions.

And yet, amidst all this bleakness, there are glimmers of hope. There are organizations and individuals who are fighting to preserve India’s architectural heritage. Whether it is the 

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)

, which works to conserve historic buildings and sites across the country, or the citizens of Mumbai who have rallied against the destruction of their beloved Art Deco buildings, there are people who are willing to fight for what they believe in.

It is not too late to reverse the tide of destruction that is sweeping across India’s architectural landscape. To do so, however, we need collective action and a recognition of the value of these buildings beyond their monetary worth. We need to view these structures not just as physical entities but as repositories of our collective memories and identities. Only then can we hope to halt the demolition mania that is threatening to erase our history and culture.

 Landscape in Constant Flux

A landscape in constant flux

In the grand tapestry of Indian culture, one may easily overlook the delicate threads that weave together the country’s ballet scene. Ballet, an art form typically associated with Western tradition, has found a captivating home in the vast and diverse landscape of India. As one delves into this captivating world, it becomes evident that Indian ballet is more than a mere imitation of its Western counterpart; it is a unique blend of tradition and modernity, evoking a rich tapestry of emotions and narratives.

To understand the essence of Indian ballet, one must grasp the significance of tradition within the Indian cultural fabric. India, a land steeped in ancient customs and rituals, has a rich history of storytelling through dance forms such as 

. These classical Indian dances, with their intricate footwork, graceful movements, and expressive storytelling, serve as the foundation upon which Indian ballet has flourished.

What sets Indian ballet apart from its Western counterpart is its seamless integration of Indian classical dance forms with the Western ballet vocabulary. This amalgamation results in a style that beautifully fuses the fluidity and grace of Indian dance with the technical precision and discipline of ballet. As dancers take to the stage, their movements transcend borders, effortlessly melding the rhythmic footwork of Kathak with the ethereal arabesques of ballet. The result is a visual spectacle that mesmerizes audiences, transporting them to a realm where tradition and modernity converge.

The narratives depicted in Indian ballet are a reflection of the country’s rich mythological heritage, where gods, goddesses, and legendary figures come to life on stage. Through graceful movements and evocative expressions, dancers breathe life into ancient tales of love, valor, and spiritual awakening. Whether it is the ethereal love story of 

, Indian ballet captures the essence of these narratives, transcending language barriers and captivating audiences with its universal appeal.

While tradition forms the soul of Indian ballet, the art form has also embraced the winds of change and adapted to the demands of the modern world. Contemporary choreographers have taken the reins, infusing ballet with themes that resonate with the contemporary Indian experience. The ballet stage becomes a platform for expression, where dancers transcend the confines of societal expectations and explore themes of gender, identity, and social justice. It’s a rebellion that unfolds through the precise movements of a ballet dancer’s body, defying the boundaries of tradition and demanding recognition and change.

In the midst of this chaotic ballet culture, there is an undeniable beauty. It’s the beauty of dancers who defy societal norms, the beauty of an art form that defies expectations, and the beauty of a paradox that shouldn’t work but somehow does. It’s an intoxicating cocktail of chaos and elegance, tradition and rebellion, that keeps drawing audiences in, curious to witness this bewildering collision.

Indian ballet has also found resonance beyond the borders of its homeland. Across the globe, renowned ballet companies have embraced Indian influences, incorporating Indian dance styles and music into their performances. This cross-cultural exchange has not only enriched the global ballet landscape but has also opened doors for Indian ballet dancers to showcase their talents on an international stage.

Of course, it hasn’t been an easy journey. Indian ballet faces its fair share of challenges. Funding? Forget about it. Infrastructure? Good luck finding a proper dance studio that doesn’t double as a yoga retreat. And on top of all this a society that often dismisses ballet as a Western import.

But you know what? These dancers are like the 

 of the ballet world. They train in cramped spaces, leap over hurdles, and sweat it out, all for the love of their art. Passionate individuals and dance academies tirelessly work to nurture and preserve this art form, ensuring its continuity for generations to come. The allure of Indian ballet lies in its ability to simultaneously transport audiences to the realms of ancient mythology and challenge them to confront the complexities of the contemporary world. They’re breaking stereotypes, defying expectations, and showing the world that ballet isn’t just for pale, waif-like ballerinas in tulle skirts.

To witness an Indian ballet performance is to embark on a sensory journey, where the captivating music, vibrant costumes, and enchanting choreography comes together to create an unforgettable experience. It is a celebration of India’s cultural heritage, a testament to the power of artistic expression, and a reminder of the universality of human emotions. In the world of Indian ballet, tradition and modernity dance hand in hand, creating a unique artistic expression that transcends boundaries and captivates.

The Indian Ballet - A Spectacle of Tradition and Modernity

There is a certain unease that settles over the land when El Niño arrives. It is not just the heat, the unrelenting sun glaring down like an accusatory eye. It is something deeper, a disturbance that permeates the atmosphere, unsettling the delicate equilibrium we have come to rely on.

 is not a simple weather phenomenon; it is a disruption, a reminder that nature is not a fixed entity but a capricious force, capable of altering the very fabric of our existence.

When El Niño rears its head, the consequences are far-reaching, like a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world, causing a hurricane on the other. Rainfall patterns shift, rivers dry up, and once-fertile lands become barren. It’s as if nature has decided to rewrite its rules, leaving us scrambling to adapt. When El Niño comes to call, India watches as its weather script is rewritten. A land accustomed to the timely arrival of monsoon winds, vital for crops and livelihoods, finds itself waiting in vain. The heavens withhold their blessings, and the land turns parched. Rivers that once flowed with abundance slow to a trickle, echoing the anxious hearts of farmers who depend on them. It’s a slow-motion crisis, like watching the heartbeat of the nation fall.

The consequences are layered, far-reaching, a series of interconnected ripples that disrupt the rhythm of Indian life. Agriculture, the backbone of the nation, feels the brunt. Crops shrivel in the fields, while farmers watch helplessly, their dreams of a bountiful harvest withering alongside their withered plants. Food prices spike, and the divide between plenty and paucity deepens.

But the fallout is not just economic. The delicate tapestry of ecosystems is torn asunder. Species struggle to adapt, their habitats reshaped by the erratic rhythms of an El Niño-altered climate. Forests grow silent, as migratory birds that once filled the skies with song find their path disrupted, their rhythm disrupted by a force they cannot comprehend.

In a country where water holds profound cultural significance, the disruption of rain patterns is a spiritual upheaval. 

, a river intertwined with the soul of India, loses its customary flow. Pilgrims watch, disheartened, as the waters that have carried prayers for generations dwindle. It’s as if the very essence of faith is being tested by these climatic upheavals.

Urban centers, hotbeds of commerce and culture, feel the repercussions too. A nation already grappling with its urban sprawl finds its cities choking on the dust of drought-stricken fields. Water scarcity leads to civic tensions, a reminder that even in the most technologically advanced age, nature’s whims remain beyond control.

The recent heat wave experience across the subcontinent also owes a great deal to the convective limbs of the 

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh

, the government has found that the warming of the tropical Indian Ocean and more frequent El Niño events in the future may lead to more frequent and long-lasting heat waves over India. It’s return after an eight year break had caused the heat wave this year to be more intense, as it did in 2015 and 2016, the last we were hosts to the little child.

Though the literature on the subject might be bit lacking a study by the 

 provides a bit of evidence for the link. The majority of heat waves in India occur during the pre-monsoon summer season, typically from March to May especially during El Niño years, the pre-monsoon summer might extend to July. This suggests a possible relationship between El Niño years and heat waves in India. A delay in the onset of the ISM will result in the extension of the pre-monsoon summer season, thereby enhancing heat wave characteristics, such as frequency, maximum temperature and duration. According to the study a large percentage of Indian states experienced higher duration and days during El Niño years compared to normal years. This indicates that heat waves were more frequent and lasted longer during El Niño years.

As El Niño continues to exert its influence, India’s heatwave serves as a poignant reminder of our vulnerability. It challenges us to confront the limits of our dominion over the environment, to recognize that even in an age of technological prowess, we are still humbled by the larger rhythms of the Earth.

El Niño: When Nature’s Whims Tip the Balance

Using celluloid to manipulate public consciousness is not a novel concept. Propaganda on film has existed as long as film itself. During the World War II era, the leaders of the third Reich commissioned Leni Riefenstahl with producing moving picture propaganda in service of Nazism. ‘Triumph of the Will’ and ‘Olympia’ are still to this day, while still depicting the leaders of fascism basking in glory, lauded as artistic enterprises and for their innovations in technicalities. On the other side of the battle, the allied forces, rallying behind the US, have an even longer and deeper history of depicting propaganda on camera.

W G Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ (1915)

—a three-hour epic, full of eye-popping editing and avant-garde photography—ran parallel to the film’s unapologetic plea for white supremacy, and its nostalgia about an antebellum South. The very first Academy Award for Best Picture winner, 1927’s ‘

’, was created with the American army’s support. In recent decades, the filmmaking industry dovetailing with the military has led to the creation of an entire military-entertainment industrial complex.

So we learn that propaganda is entrenched in entertainment. And thus we turn the looking glass back inward into domestic territory. Bollywood lacks that same sort of avant-garde prestige that is awarded to these industries making up in quantity over what it lacks in formal experimentation. The most common output from the industry has been fun rom-coms and the other being moralistic tales about culture, tradition and family. But lately, there has been an ostentatious change in output with the industry pumping out military propaganda and tales of military accomplishments, and such in numbers never before seen. Though nothing novel, I suppose there’s something much more nefarious in adulterating ‘

’ with these saffron ideologies. Any foray into serious academic film study will stress upon the chasm between film and movies. 

. Bollywood is movies, talkies and flicks; not worthy of statuary. And it is probably one of the reasons why the pernicious coming to the surface politics of these films tend to not bother audiences when they do break through the domestic barrier. With the recent success of ‘

’, most foreign audiences have been dismissive of the concerns raised by natives with respect to the treatment of lower caste people and 

’s in the film. When discussing the fascist elements emerging in this New Pan-Indian film scene, you’re mostly met with incredulous looks.

’ have an even more important place in understanding the semiotics of the images we consume. ‘Movies’ reaffirm the status quo-planting seeds that cops, the military, and subservience to the pre-existing system are all good at the end of day and that we need these structures to exist. Since 

 coming to power in the early 2010s, there’s been a discernible shift in expressing ideologies that are permissible and that are to be believed in. That there exists salvation in it and your favourite silver screen actor doused in tainted mythologism reaffirms it to you. 

Nationalism, Hindu honour, legendary Hindu icons, Hindu suffering

 have all become popular subjects for filmmakers in Bollywood. Simultaneously, there has been a subtle and increasingly not-so-subtle 

 through a rhetoric that emphasises the brutality of Islamic invaders and their zeal for forcibly converting the native population.

’ was released in theatres on March 11. The only well-known actor in the lead cast of the film is Anupam Kher, but it became a massive hit, earning Rs 100 crore in just eight days. The film is a fictional story inspired by real events surrounding the forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their homeland in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. While several Kashmiri Pandits have applauded the film for portraying their real life trauma, others from the community have distanced themselves from its factual inaccuracies and palpable anti-Muslim propaganda. Earlier this year Siddharth Malhotra was announced in yet another fictionalization of military exploits in the India-Pakistan border, the metaphorical primordial soup out of which every homunculus of Indian fundamentalism emerges. Military engagements in this area are especially loved by Bollywood; a privilege hardly granted to skirmishes between China or the failed peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka undertaken in the 90s, because unequivocal victory is guaranteed.

ore than a representation of brewing public sentiment, these movies are actively aiding the nationalistic project undertaking by the concumbent government furthering the nationalist agenda purported by the BJP government.

‘In saffron hued CinemaScope’

Once every decade, film critics, directors, and other industry workers, set aside their differences to contemplate the entire film canon. It seems a little daunting, especially from the perspective of budding film enthusiasts, out of the exponential number of films to choose from and to narrow it all down to a hundred. Still, a hundred is a convenient number, and it is always fun to compare the lists from the previous decade to map out the ever-mutating form of the film and the social conditions they are a manner of.

Compared to previous years, this year’s edition is the largest ever. 

 expanded its rolls from 145 critics, distributors, and selected academics and professionals to a generous 1,639 participating international film critics, academics, distributors, writers, curators, and archivists concurrently. This left a speculation that consensus might form around a new set of films, the first step in their slow journey towards consecration.

The shakeup at the top happened, and hysteria ensued. This year, the best film of all time, 

23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

 is, or rather was, directed by a woman – the deceased Belgian legend 

, which had held it for 50 years. Citizen Kane is now pushed to the number three slot. It has long enjoyed a reputation as some remote, inaccessible art-house monolith that seems to be going under a public reappraisal liberated from the ‘

” label, which burdened it with a heavy significance that no film should ever have to carry. There’s less incentive to performatively act like it’s not all that.

 were the only films by female filmmakers in the top 100 in 2012. But this year’s poll features eleven films by female filmmakers in the top 100 and four in the top 20.

It is exciting for a film nerd like me, for people to find out about the whale that is Jeanne Dielman. Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is to describe in one word, excruciating; to describe in two, excruciatingly slow. It is the least accessible of all the films on the poll, not only in terms of its avant-garde nature but just plain consumption. The film is not easily available for streaming on demand on any of the major sites or to buy/rent in most countries. Thankfully, to commemorate this achievement, 

 has added it to their BFI Player streaming service.

The previously held positions for best film were Citizens Kane (

); departing from tradition, these movies, although undoubtedly transgressive and expanding the cinematic form greatly, were still “

” movies and not too esoteric to completely pass by your average layman. On the other hand, Dielman is long comfortable shots of the titular character Jeanne, preparing breakfast for herself and her son, folding clothes, washing dishes and murdering a man. A landmark piece of experimental feminist filmmaking featuring an 80% female crew, Akerman set to prove that a woman washing dishes can be art. No other film artist has explored the frustration of post-modern living with such tender care or acuity. She took a depression familiar to many of us and reflected it on the world with virtuosity. Lauding this posthumously feels messed up, but it is vital.

The usual response to these kinds of lists is to see how many inclusions you agree with but also to nit-pick and find the one film that didn’t make it onto the list, thus giving you a reason to argue about the arbitrariness of selecting films that have shared cultural importance. More movies coming out in the last decade means some potential to shift things around as people submit a top 10. The ten years is key here, along with more voters, because of a lot of things: a newer “

”, culture shifts, and the push for women filmmakers to be taken more seriously. One wonders how the percentage of women who could submit votes has changed since last time. And in the end, isn’t the mutating nature of these lists the most cathartic? What makes way for new films? How does one balance a film’s impact on the history of cinema with its unique importance to you?

The film landscape is ever-changing and some people find it hard to cope with. 

, a brilliant artist and horrible person, in a hilarious tantrum, claimed a sort of election fraud because Dielman, a movie he personally likes, has climbed up too quickly. Paul Schrader’s dispute over Jeanne Dielman’s Number 1 spot, is for it not being a reflection of ‘

’. His argument that it is predominantly white and male, relies on the misconception that film history has only ever been filled by white men.

The canon, for years, has excluded women and people of colour, though these people have been making movies since the days of silent cinema. A broader, more varied base of people amending the form’s canon must not be viewed as the bastardization of that canon but simply much-needed rectification.

Articles by Sumaiya Shakil

Landscape in Constant Flux

A landscape in constant flux

The Indian Ballet - A Spectacle of Tradition and Modernity

El Niño: When Nature’s Whims Tip the Balance

‘In saffron hued CinemaScope’

Creating a New Film Canon: Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time

Landscape in Constant Flux

A landscape in constant flux

The Indian Ballet - A Spectacle of Tradition and Modernity

El Niño: When Nature’s Whims Tip the Balance

‘In saffron hued CinemaScope’

Creating a New Film Canon: Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time