Category: Review
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Film Review : Vazhakku Enn 18/9
Cast : Mithun Murali, Sri, Urmila Mahanta, Manisha, Muthuraman, Chinnaswamy Director : Balaji Shaktivel Though India is the largest producer of films, only a few films really reflect its reality. In the midst of a highly commercialized industry, Balaji Shaktivel’s Tamil film Vazhakku En 18/9 is an exception in many ways. Vazhakku En 18/9 is…
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Film Review: Jai Bhim, Comrade
“Every day two Dalits are raped and three killed, in the world’s largest democracy” Flim maker and radical activist Anand Patwardhan’s latest documentary – Jai Bhim, Comrade is a heart rending experience of caste atrocities against Daliths in Ramabai Colony, Mumbai (Maharashtra). It provides a glimpse into their conditions and the manner in which even…
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Film Review: Look for the Small Print
‘Look for the Small Print’, a documentary film made by Jobin K Andrews, was screened on 3rd March 2012 at SCM Hall, Bangalore. The film screening was organized by Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns-Bangalore (that includes the New Socialist Alternative – CWI India). The film depicts the impact of globalisation on the personal lives of especially software…
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China: Market rule or party rule?
Review – “The Party: The secret world of China’s Communist rulers”, by Richard McGregor, Allen Lane, 2010. RICHARD McGREGOR previously worked as the China correspondent for the Australian. This book is a summary of his observations of how the role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has evolved over the last decade. McGregor does not…
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Film Review: Aarakshan (Reservation)
A name that still rattles the nerves of many people especially the youth across India is the issue of reservation (affirmative action) and has been used by governments time and again to divide people along their caste lines. This film by the noted director – Prakash Jha, which was released recently stoked controversy mainly among…
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‘Bhimayana’ – untouchability past and present
Bhimayana: experiences of untouchability. Narvana Publication The continuing struggle against caste oppression Bhimayana is a beautifully illustrated, simple and sometimes amusing account of one of the ugliest and cruellest features of Indian society, the Hindu caste system. There are 170 million in the most oppressed caste or Dalits, referred to as ‘untouchables’, in India today.…
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China: Halfway house
‘Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise’ Book review by Peter Taaffe, from Socialism Today, July/August 2011 issue Serious capitalist representatives and Marxists often have shared analyses of events. Where they differ is in the diametrically opposed class conclusions that they draw from these. This important book on China illustrates this well.…
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Book Review: The Truth About Me – A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi
The English version of ‘The Truth about me’ by A Revathi, an autobiography by a Indian Hijra (transgender community), is a rich addition to the literature on the same and a first of its kind by an Indian transgender. The book takes us into the often traumatic and terror filled life of Revathi who was…
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Is Red Plenty possible?
The planned economy and the struggle for socialism Red Plenty, by Francis Spufford, mixes fact and fiction to describe post-second world war Russia. The author sets out to expose Stalinist mismanagement and authoritarian rule – and, by extension, any notion of socialist planning. Inadvertently, however, he also shows the great potential of socialism – if…
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Review: Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy
Reading Arundhati Roy’s collection of lectures and articles about India could make you want to weep, or to emit the ‘feral howl’ she herself is tempted to resort to. Her main aim is to reveal the sordid truth about the death, destruction and devastating injustice that underlies the so-called ‘democracy’ and ‘progress’ of which India’s ‘leaders’…