The Right View

When I first saw him in his debut movie Nishant in 1975, I became his huge fan. He went on to do many such stellar roles in what was called in those days as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema. I watched almost all of those movies and continued to be his fan. To list all of them would be a tedious task. To name just a few, Baazar, Albert Pinto ko Gussa kyun aata hai and Sparsh come to my mind immediately. He slowly made the move to commercial roles and no one held any grudge against him for it. Jaane Bhi do Yaaron is still one of the all-time best comedy movies in Hindi cinema. We loved him even in his negative roles in Mohra, Mirchi Masala, Sarfarosh etc. I think I saw him last in 2005 in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal as a drunk disillusioned cynical character. Looks like Naseeruddin Shah has not come out of that character. Moving on to another icon of his day. It is rightly said Cricket is the religion of India. Anyone who helps the Indian team perform well is treated as God. So it i...

Allegory is a literary device used by poets to convey thoughts through symbols while the literal meaning of what is written maybe something different. It is particularly useful in political context when direct criticism of those in power could land the writer in trouble. Veiled metaphors are used instead. It is natural that a revolutionary poet like Faiz Ahmed Faiz used this tool very effectively as he was very critical of the oppressive regime in Pakistan. We have great poets who penned inspiring lines during our freedom struggle. My personal favourite is Bismil’s “sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai,   Dekhna hai zor kitna bazue kaatil mein hai”. It isn’t mere coincidence that the agitating “students” of IIT Kanpur chose a Pakistani poet Faiz and the choice of the poem Hum Dekhenge is no coincidence either. Only the really naïve would believe that these protesters were referring to the hidden meaning in the lines ‘bas naam rahega allah ka’ or ‘but ko hata ...