India
The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team, Amazon Prime review - how ball-tampering scandal forced a cricket revolutionSaturday, 14 March 2020
It was in March 2018 that Australia’s cricketers were caught ball-tampering during a Test match in Cape Town. The resulting public outcry and sanctions against the guilty players and assorted backroom staff shook the Australian game to the core.... Read more... |
Jeet Thayil: Low – grief’s seedy distractionsSunday, 19 January 2020
Like many writers, Jeet Thayil is a bit of an outsider. And, if his track record is anything to go by, he has been happy to keep it that way. The poet, novelist, editor, performer and former addict spent a couple of decades rubbing shoulders with... Read more... |
Sukanya, RFH review - Ravi Shankar's bright-eyed, varied fableThursday, 16 January 2020
Admirable as it was of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to launch its concerts in 2020 with a performance celebrating the Ravi Shankar centenary, the hard fact remains that this lively spectacle might have worked better without two-thirds of its... Read more... |
'Divinity is all around us': soprano Susanna Hurrell on Ravi Shankar's 'Sukanya'Sunday, 12 January 2020
In 2010, my best friend and I made a whimsical decision to go backpacking in India over the Easter break. I had developed an interest in Eastern philosophy through exposure to the teachings of the ancient Vedas, and through the practice of... Read more... |
Hotel Mumbai review – Dev Patel shines in harrowing real-life dramaThursday, 26 September 2019
Like recent films about the Anders Breivik terror attacks in Norway, Hotel Mumbai unavoidably raises questions of taste. Do audiences really need to be subjected to harrowing recreations of real-life suffering, when the events themselves... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 24 - hot subcontinental sounds with guest Viveick RajagopalanSaturday, 21 September 2019
This episode of Peter Culshaw's occasional global music radio update features guest interview Viveick Rajagopalan, one of the hits of this summers WOMAD Festival. He talks (from 40 minutes in) about how he mixes South Indian rhythms and contemporary... Read more... |
A Doll's House, Lyric Hammersmith review - Ibsen tellingly transposed to colonial IndiaThursday, 12 September 2019
Newly arrived from a much-lauded stint at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, Rachel O'Riordan has undertaken to make "work of scale by women" during her time as artistic director of the Lyric. What better place to start than with Ibsen's once-shocking... Read more... |
William Dalrymple: The Anarchy review – masterly history of the first rogue corporationSunday, 08 September 2019
Serious historians don’t much care for counter-factual speculations. Readers, however, often enjoy them. So here’s mine. In 1780, the seemingly invincible forces of the East India Company had suffered a crushing defeat at Pollilur, west of Madras.... Read more... |
Photograph review - a fresh take on old love storiesFriday, 02 August 2019
“Movies are all the same,” says one character in Photograph, the latest film from India independent director, Ritesh Batra. It’s true, the plot feels familiar, but if stories are all the same, it’s how you play with the form that makes a film a... Read more... |
WOMAD, Charlton Park review - a gloriously defiant global music celebrationThursday, 01 August 2019
This was a year of superb musical standards, smooth organisation and a real sense of celebration. In the last couple of years, WOMAD being more liberal and internationalist than nearly anywhere else, there was a sense in the air of a collective... Read more... |
Beecham House, ITV review - a cartoon version of 18th century IndiaMonday, 24 June 2019
It has become routine to accuse Brexiteers of wanting to bring back the British Empire (though obviously it's OK to run an empire from Brussels), but the charge might more accurately be levelled at ITV. They’ve brought the ratings rolling in with... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Soumik DattaTuesday, 30 April 2019
“I think we need to get rid of labels, certainly World Music,” insists Soumik Datta, who is both composer and musician, and has lived in the UK since the age of 11. “It is possible to be a musician in the Indian tradition, as well as an electronic... Read more... |
