Reviews & Musings

There are some filmmakers whose work doesn’t just entertain; it lingers, like an old melody that finds a way to stay with you long after the credits roll. Basu Chatterjee was one of them. His cinema wasn’t loud or grand, nor did it demand to be dissected and analyzed. It simply unfolded—soft, unhurried, full of everyday lives and everyday people, leaving us with stories that felt like home. 

I picked up Kishore Kumar’s biography expecting to read about the maverick genius behind some of India’s most iconic songs. What I didn’t expect was to find a mirror—a reflection of every creative person who has ever struggled to fit into a world that demands conformity. 

In 2021 I stopped accepting unsolicited review requests for multiple reasons. (Well, that calls for another long post.) I still do review books but they are very few and the titles are very carefully chosen. Throughout 2022 I read books that I fancied choosing randomly.  In early 2023 I decided to start reading books by/on artists I admired on creativity, the art of creation, and the love of creation. These artists were not just limited to the world of writing. It included singers, lyricists, directors, actors, and a whole of artists from other fields. The process was slow because it was no longer just about reading a book. It was also about analyzing it, processing it, and learning from the book. And thus, was born a new journal – Learnings from the Masters .