Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant and other Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, South Asia, occasional forays into southern Italy, Spain or eastern Europe, minorities, the nation-state and nationalism — and whatever other quirks or obsessions lurk inside my head.
A huge loss for Bengal, Indian film and world cinema.
These photos of Chatterjee are from what I think is his most rivetting and sexy performance, as Amal in Satyajit Ray‘s Charulata. The relationship between an older brother’s bride and the immediate younger brother is traditionally a very intimate one in India; apparently she becomes a kind of a big sister or younger vice-mom to him. Intimate, but of course not that intimate, which makes the whole idea strange to begin with because why should intimacy be encouraged in such a potentially transgressive situation at all. But, well, I guess that’s India: full of totally weird things whose genius takes time to reveal itself. And, weird or not, in this film Amal and his sister-in-law Charulata (the great Madhabi Mukherjee) do become intimate in very, very subtle but ultimately convulsive ways.
And here’s the whole film. It’s from a beautiful print and it has easy to read subtitles. Watch it with whiskey and some butter-toasted cashews tonight instead of wasting your time and money doing dumb shit. It’s captivating, from the first frame.
The odd κουνιάδο-νύφη relationship, with its tricky boundaries, is also why Janardhan Jakhar “Jordan” (the Ranbir Kapoor character) in Imtiaz Ali‘s 2011 mega-hit film Rockstar, is thrown out of his family home in the story’s opening.
Abhisharika-nayika takes an arduous journey on a starry night, in the dark to meet her lover. Mandi Himachal, ca 1815Abhisarika nayika, “the heroine going to meet her lover”. She turns back to look at a golden anklet, which has just fallen off. There are also snakes below and lightning aboveKhandita rebuking her loverProshita-patika mourning
The full taxonomy below. Assuming that Krishna and Radha come up very often as models for each of these erotic-psychic states, since their love manifests itself in almost every conceivable amorous form, from the most divine and exalted states of theosis, to the most delightfully petty states of betrayal, jealousy, spite, vengeance, longing and depressed insomnia, especially in the Gita Govinda. See also:Radha-Krishna.
1
Vasakasajja Nayika
वासकसज्जा नायिका
One dressed up for union
2
Virahotkanthita Nayika
विरहोत्कंठिता नायिका
One distressed by separation
3
Svadhinabhartruka Nayika
स्वाधीनभर्तृका नायिका
One having her husband in subjection
4
Kalahantarita Nayika
कलहांतरिता नायिका
One separated by quarrel
5
Khandita Nayika
खंडिता नायिका
One enraged with her lover
6
Vipralabdha Nayika
विप्रलब्धा नायिका
One deceived by her lover
7
Proshitabhartruka Nayika
प्रोषितभर्तृका नायिका
One with a sojourning husband
8
Abhisarika Nayika
अभिसारिका नायिका
One going to meet her lover
One of the most fun moments in the Gita Govinda is when Radha, suffering from Krishna’s sleep-around indiscretions with the gopis, the cow girls of Vrindavan, finds the strength to blow off Krishna, and immediately gets “hand” in the relationship, as we used to say, leaving the young prince-god stressed out, depressed and insomnia-plagued. Who hasn’t known the sweet pleasure of successfully turning the tables on somebody you’re involved with like that? “I care nothing for your sufferings.“ as Heathcliff (or is it Catherine?) says in Wuthering Heights; or at least I’ll pretend that I don’t care. Then they reconcile and engage in some raunch-lite love, complete with bloody scratch marks on backs and bights and sloppy kisses… Great stuff, especially when we remember that this handsome young lover with a lover in his arms who’s salivating on his already sweaty, saffron-smeared chest is a manifestation of God himself, or, as the other …Gita tells us, the Very Principle of Existence Itself: “I am the taste of water.”
“And that, Charlie Brown, is what [Hindusim] is all about.”
‘Krishna and the Gopis on the Bank of the Yamuna River’; miniature painting from the ‘Tehri Garwhal’ Gita Govinda, circa 1775–1780Krishna, Sleepless in Vrindavan. Manaku, 1730.Henry Hopwood Phillips, @byzantinepower
It was India’s historic destiny that many human races and cultures and religious faiths should flow to her, that many beliefs take root in her fertile soil, and that many a caravan should find rest here. One of the last of these caravans was that of the followers of Islam. We brought our treasures with us, and India too was full of the riches of her own precious heritage. Full eleven centuries have passed by since then. Islam has now as great a claim on the soil of India as Hinduism. If Hinduism has been the religion of the people here for several thousand years, Islam has also been their religion for a thousand years. Just as a Hindu can say with pride that he is an Indian and follows Hinduism, so also we can say that we are Indians and follow Islam. I shall enlarge this orbit still further. The Indian Christian is equally entitled to say with pride that he is an Indian and is following a religion of India, namely Christianity.
Eleven hundred years of common history have enriched India with our common achievement. Our languages, our poetry, our literature, our culture, our art, our dress, our manners and customs, the innumerable happenings of our daily life, everything bears the stamp of our joint endeavor. There is indeed no aspect of our life which has escaped this stamp.
The joint wealth is the heritage of common nationality and we do not want to leave it and go to the times when this joint life had not begun.
* From Abul Kalam Azad’s speech, as the president of the Indian National Congress, in 1940
India’s first Prime Minister of Education of India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
A statue for Nathuram Vinayak Godse, who assassinated Mohandas K. Gandhi, at the office of Hindu Mahasabha, a group that espouses militant Hindu nationalism, in Meerut, India, last week on the anniversary of Gandhi’s death. Credit…Smita Sharma for The New York Times
Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant and rest of ME, Iran, South Asia
Me, I'm Nicholas Bakos, a.k.a. "NikoBako." I'm Greek (Roman really, but when I say that in English some five people in the world today understand what I'm talking about, so I use "Greek" for shorthand). I'm from New York. I live all over the place these days. The rest should become obvious from the blog.
Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal 