My Teachers
I look back on the teachers who shaped me—not only through what they taught, but through encouragement, discipline, personality and the confidence they gave me at different stages of my life.
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The Music room
Have you seen the music room? No- not in the day When it is agog with people as the court demands its share of fun Not when the Sunlight is bright and clear When the roses in the vase are young and fresh The birds come to visit Through the open windows Not when a…
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One-Liners Medley
In the film Ben-Hur Judah Ben-Hur who is on a torture trip along with the other prisoners and criminals is denied water. As he pleads “Oh God” Christ comes with a pitcher of water, washes his face and gives him more water to drink. The guard notices this and says, “I said-no water for him.”…
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The Western as a Genre
From John Ford to High Noon and The Magnificent Seven, Krishna Mohan reflects on the moral codes, archetypes and vast landscapes that give the Western its enduring power.
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Luis Buñuel and Surrealist Cinema
Luis Bunuel was one of the founders of the surrealist movement in films along with Salvador Dali. Surrealism is the exploration of something beyond the real. It is digging into the dream like, deep unconscious to discover new realms of expression. It is the mind’s unconditioned, unhampered response to ideas. It is not rational, not pragmatic…
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The Novel as a Form of Literary Expression
Of all the literary genres that one becomes familiar with as a student of Literature, it is the novel which is impactful because of its presence and dominance. One cannot diminish the importance of other modes of literary expression just because one fancies the Novel but the truth is that the novel has overwhelmed the…
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom is a wonderful sketch for two reasons;The way Tom liberates his soul from his body, and lets them know they can maul and mutilate his body, but they cannot touch his soul, And then the way he refuses to stoop down to wickedness and incurs the wrath of his master Simon Legree. The…
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A Passage to India
E.M.Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’ narrates the social and political condition of the days of the British Raj and the relation between the colonial masters and their Indian subjects. The relationship was strained and fragile. The novel presents the fractious and mistrustful sentiment that permeated this unequal relation and even gestures or attitudes which…
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The Prince and the Pauper & The Prisoner of Zenda
Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ is a romantic tale of mistaken identity and how the situation of the Prince, who is identical in appearance to the pauper, becomes miserable after the exchange. His romantic notion of freedom and liberty from the artifice and monotony of his existence turns out to be an irreversible…
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Setting in Fiction and Film
The setting in film Noir movies of Hollywood of the 1950s and 60s, portrayed the cynical attitude and dark motivation of the characters. The “Wrong Man, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Maltese falcon, The Woman in the window, Scarlet street, Detour, Touch of Evil, Diabolique (French), The Stranger, The Innocents (British), Woman on the Run…
