Nebulous Narratives
A review of Rajkamal Jha's novel She Will Build Him A City (2015)
Biblio / February 2015 / [Pdf , 69.4 KB]
I'm a freelance writer based in Delhi. I write about films, books, photography, travel, art and other stuff usually classified as culture. You can follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/chhotahazri. Email me at trishagupta@gmail.com
A review of Rajkamal Jha's novel She Will Build Him A City (2015)
Biblio / February 2015 / [Pdf , 69.4 KB]
BN Goswamy illuminates a lost world of Indian painting.
The Caravan / January 2015
A parallel review of the memoirs of two of Indian cinema's most interesting actors, Dilip Kumar and Naseeruddin Shah.
The Caravan / November 2014
My review of The Archivist, a photo-book by Nony Singh.
Biblio / February 2014 / [Pdf , 312 KB]
In which I argue that Rituparno Ghosh's intimate chamber dramas were closely observed portraits of the Bengali middle class at home, and sex and sexuality were integral to that picture right from the start.
The Caravan / July 2013
Pradip Krishen's journey from film to forest
The Caravan / February 2014
"What offers him something like stability are objects." On Donna Tartt's glorious new novel, 'The Goldfinch'.
The Asian Age / February 2014
What films about sex stars tell us about ourselves. The first instalment of Picture This, my new film column for the Hindu Business Line's new Saturday paper.
BLink / February 2014
What does it mean to have servants?
The Sunday Guardian / January 2014
Mussoorie's oldest and grandest hotel returns to life.
Outlook Traveller / December 2013
"By bringing together this immensely varied work, the KNMA show makes it impossible for anyone to suggest ever again that the category ‘women artists’ is somehow a self-explanatory one." On Nasreen Mohamedi, Amrita Shergil and seven contemporary artists.
Open magazine / December 2013
On the worlds of men and women in three recent Indian documentaries: Rahul Roy's 'Till We Meet Again', Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin's 'When Hari Got Married' and Pushpa Rawat and Anupama Srinivisan's 'Nirnay' ('Decision').
The Caravan / November 2013
On Vinod Mehta's reissued biography of Meena Kumari
Time Out Delhi / October 2013
A review of Amitava Kumar's book 'A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna'
Biblio / October 2013
Do photographs simply capture reality, or do they create it? An essay on the work of Suresh Punjabi and Cop Shiva.
Open magazine / October 2013
Thoughts on women, work and lakshman rekhas.
The Asian Age / September 2013
My Post Facto column, on watching Ray's Mahanagar fifty years after it was made
The Sunday Guardian / September 2013
My Post Facto column on dabbas, tiffins and audiences.
The Sunday Guardian / September 2013
My Post Facto column on what photographs do in our lives.
The Sunday Guardian / August 2013
"Rasoolan Bai gave up the mujra – the expressive, sometimes suggestive kathak-based dance that accompanied the tawaif’s music – in 1948." What is it about dancing women that so threatens society?
Tehelka / November 2009
"What happens when an artist’s ‘exterior visualisations’ cannot be mirrored in the minds of his public, because they share with him almost none of his cultural context?" On the sculptures of Sukhnandi Vyam.
Caravan magazine / May 2010
Siddhartha Deb's 'The Beautiful and the Damned' reveals a disturbing discomfort with Indian middle-class aspirations.
Himal magazine / October 2011
The fate of both peasants and animals in Ramkinkar Baij’s art is a record of change in a post-industrial world.
Open magazine / March 2012
"Salvation, or the possibility of it, is precisely what Shanghai does not offer us." A rejoinder to Mihir. S. Sharma's indictment of Shanghai.
Business Standard / July 2012
My love letter to Rishi Kapoor. :)
Open magazine / February 2012
In Jaisalmer, tour guides and hotel managers can be as interesting as the place itself
Open magazine (Travel Special) / November 2011
What does it mean for the future of Hindi cinema if most films are now in fact conceived, thrashed out and largely executed not in Hindi but in English? Will filmmakers only tell the stories of a minuscule section of the population?
Caravan magazine / May 2011
On Kapil Das's photographs
Open magazine / October 2011
While Alice Albinia, the non-fiction writer, refuses to tell a well-worn tale, Albinia the novelist succumbs easily to reductive depictions
Open magazine / June 2011
Samit Das's images allow us to think about Tagore's sense of space
Open magazine / August 2011
Scrutinising the cinema of Prakash Jha, and coming away disappointed.
The Caravan / August 2011
A profile of the photographer Sunil Gupta
Open magazine / May 2011
"In film after film, we see events through the eyes of the educated Bengali man trying to deal with a world that has either changed too much—or too little."
The Caravan / July 2011
A review essay on vintage photographs of Delhi.
The Caravan / November 2010
Finding warmth in a Kasauli winter.
Outlook Traveller / March 2008
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