The Pickpocket as a Working Man

For all its engagement with subaltern humour in many avatars, Haksar’s is a serious film. Hiding behind images of rib-tickling ribaldry, bolstered by original one-liners, is an insightful critique of the moral degeneration that has come to attend labour politics, especially since the advent of liberalisation some three decades ago, but never so severe as in the present times.

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‘The Afghanistan Papers: a Secret History of the War’ by Craig Whitlock

Joe Biden did not begin the Big Botch-Up in Kabul. George W Bush started it all, and Barack Obama and Donald Trump continued the golden legacy. Backed by the top brass of the political and war machine of the American establishment. A journalistic bombshell of our times, a new book of scathing revelations by a seasoned investigative reporter of The Washington Post, exposes it all.

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FILM AND FAMILY : Revisiting an early Patwardhan classic

In search of an elusive new order where religious and political intolerance would be a little less, and where frictions between classes, genders, faiths and ideologies would have to come up against the solidarity of reason, hope and compassion, Anand Patwardhan marches on with only his deliberately and consciously-chosen ‘imperfect’ camera and his conscience as his constant companions.

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