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Articles by Uttaran Das Gupta
The man who hated films: Gandhi's encounters with the world of cinema
In 1921, the silent film ‘Bhakta Vidur’, directed by Kanjibhai Rathod, was banned in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Karachi by censors appointed by the British colonial government. The film drew upon the Mahabharata and focused on the character of Vidur, a wise man who served as the prime minister of Hastinapur. Now a lost film, ‘Bhakta Vidur’ ran into trouble with the authorities because it alluded to contemporary political developments.
India's school education needs reforms. 'Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya' shows why
At Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya (ABV), the highlight of the week is the kheer (dessert) served for midday meals on Tuesdays. A government school in Tinki Toli, a fictional, working-class, peri-urban neighbourhood on the outskirts of Delhi, ABV is chronically underfunded, and its students and teachers lack motivation to improve.
When Does a Protest Become a Carnival?
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Death as a Žižekian Event
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Why Stratford-upon-Avon is still the centre of Shakespearean tourism
Arriving at Stratford-upon-Avon on the morning of Good Friday this year, I was filled with apprehension that the day trip my friends and I had planned was going to be a washout. Storm Dave was building up over northern England, Wales and Scotland, threatening to dampen Easter with showers and windy conditions.
Why Stratford-upon-Avon is still the centre of Shakespearean tourism
Posted On: 2026-04-25 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Entertainment Health & Lifestyle Travel Education Cities Real Estate & Construction MINT New Delhi, April 25 -- Arriving at Stratford-upon-Avon on the morning of Good Friday this year, I was filled with apprehension that the day trip my friends and I had planned was going to be a washout. Storm Dave was building up over northern England, Wales and Scotland, threatening to dampen Easter with showers and windy conditions.
From The Latest Issue: How Cricket Shapes Indian Identity And Inspires Travel Worldwide
At the end of Day 3, an Indian defeat at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata seemed imminent. Having scored 445 in the first innings, Australia had dismissed the home team for 171, forcing them to follow on. Though India’s second innings began on a more optimistic note, with openers S.S. Das and S. Ramesh putting on a 50-run partnership, the team were soon in trouble: Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for 10, and captain Sourav Ganguly missed out on a well-deserved half-century.
Mahasweta Devi; beyond binaries
On 16 August 1992, Chuni Kotal, a 27-year-old woman, committed suicide by hanging at her husband’s home in Kharagpur, an industrial city about 130 km west of Kolkata. Kotal was a postgraduate student in anthropology at Vidyasagar University in the Paschim Medinipur district of southern West Bengal; she was also the first woman from her community of Lodhas, a “de-notified tribe”, to graduate in 1985.
HT Syndication: Review: The Only City edited by Anindita Ghose
Posted On: 2026-01-10 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Health & Lifestyle Education Technology Real Estate & Construction Hindustan Times India, Jan. 10 -- In Shanta Gokhale's short story, The Storyteller's Tale, the narrator Kinnari buys an anthology of stories from a bookstore in Mumbai. "(E)everybody was reading it and raving about it, and I. was looking forward to reading and raving about it too," says Kinnari.
Review: The Only City edited by Anindita Ghose
In Shanta Gokhale’s short story, The Storyteller’s Tale, the narrator Kinnari buys an anthology of stories from a bookstore in Mumbai. “(E)everybody was reading it and raving about it, and I… was looking forward to reading and raving about it too,” says Kinnari.
Serendipity Arts Festival 2025
The art of curation and the Serendipity Arts Festival. The author reports from Goa Uttaran Das Gupta Published 04.01.26, 07:52 AM ONBOARD: The Barge at the Captains of Ports Jetty, Old Goa Pictures: The Telegraph At the Captains of Ports Jetty in Old Goa, a 450-foot-long barge was anchored during the 10th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) from December 12 to 21.
HT reviewer Uttaran Das Gupta picks his favourite read of 2025
The most interesting book that I read this year was Rosinka Chaudhuri’s India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire. Chaudhuri is one of India’s leading scholars of literature and a literary historian, and her latest book returns to subjects she has explored in earlier ones such as Freedom and Beef Steaks: Colonial Calcutta Culture, 2012, and Derozio, Poet of India: The Definitive Edition, 2008, on the remarkable figure of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.
Tom Stoppard and the triviality of history
In 1917, as the First World War roiled Europe and other parts of the globe, Zurich was a rare oasis of peace. The largest city of neutral Switzerland attracted spies, exiles and anti-war activists, including some very influential ones such as the Irish novelist James Joyce, the Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and the Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara.
Uttaran Das Gupta
Uttaran Das Gupta is a New Delhi-based writer and journalist, who teaches at O P Jindal Global University. His novel, Ritual, was published in February 2020.
The Bhima Koregaon case and the cracks in Indian democracy
The 2019 commemoration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Long a place of political pilgrimage for India’s Dalits, the site has become a focal point in the contest between Hindu nationalism and progressive politics. ON 6 JUNE 2018, Indian police raided the homes of numerous human-rights activists and lawyers, arresting five individuals.
When Durga Immersion on the Ichamati River Blurs Borders Between India and Bangladesh
On that bank is India, and on this Bangladesh; so to whom does the Ichamati river belong? A young boy asks his mother this question at the beginning of the 2017 Bengali film "Bishorjon." The boy is going with his father to witness the famous ritual of Durga idol immersion—called bishorjon in Bengali—in the river, on the border of the two nations. He asks his mother to come along, but she refuses.
When Durga Immersion on the Ichamati River Blurs Borders Between India and Bangladesh
On that bank is India, and on this Bangladesh; so to whom does the Ichamati river belong? A young boy asks his mother this question at the beginning of the 2017 Bengali film "Bishorjon." The boy is going with his father to witness the famous ritual of Durga idol immersion—called bishorjon in Bengali—in the river, on the border of the two nations. He asks his mother to come along, but she refuses.
Empuraan vs Sabarmati Report: The politics of remembering Gujarat 2002
Soon after its release on March 27, the Malayalam film L2: Empuraan, directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran and starring Mohanlal in a leading role, found itself in troubled waters. Several right-wing groups campaigned against the film, alleging that its depiction of the 2002 riots in Gujarat was anti-government. However, the response to L2: Empuraan has been a complete contrast to the response to the Hindi film, The Sabarmati Report, which deals with the Godhra train-burning and subsequent riots.
Review: India’s First Radicals by Rosinka Chaudhuri
The author rescues Young Bengal, lost in the fog of misinformation and apathy, in her new book, with startling resonances for our times In 1838, a scandal broke out in the then princely state of Burdwan (now, Bardhaman in West Bengal), when Basantakumari, one of the widows of the deceased king, Tejchandra, eloped with Dakshinaranjan Mukhopadhyay, a Calcutta-based lawyer. Basantakumari had hired Dakshinaranjan, along with two other lawyers, to represent her in a property dispute.
The Mississippi’s Legacy: Re-examining ‘Huckleberry Finn’ In A Modern Light
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Mapping Indian Cities, in Verse
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Review: Soumitra Chatterjee and his World by Sanghamitra Chakraborty
A few weeks before the release of Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), directed by Satyajit Ray, Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight was re-released in Calcutta (now Kolkata). A large hoarding in the city displayed the film’s poster. The actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who was making his silver screen debut with Ray’s film, would “admire this larger-than-life poster as he passed the area” on his way to work, writes journalist Sanghamitra Chakraborty.
HT Syndication: Review: Soumitra Chatterjee and his World by Sanghamitra Chakraborty
Posted On: 2025-05-30 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Health & Lifestyle Education Cities Sports Hindustan Times India, May 30 -- A few weeks before the release of Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), directed by Satyajit Ray, Charlie Chaplin's Limelight was re-released in Calcutta (now Kolkata). A large hoarding in the city displayed the film's poster.
Fun and games, from Satyajit Ray and Wes Anderson
In Asteroid City (2023), directed by Wes Anderson, five teenagers play a memory game. According to its rules, the first player names a well-known person, living or dead. The second repeats that name and adds another. The third repeats both and adds a third, and so on. The game continues in a circle until someone forgets a name-they are then declared out. The last player remaining is the winner.
Rewatching Jabbar Patel's 'Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar'
When Dr B R Ambedkar arrives in Baroda to take up a job in the administration of the then princely state, he spends an entire day roaming around the city in a tonga, looking for accommodation. Dr Ambedkar was given a scholarship by the Baroda state to pursue higher studies, but it also required him to serve in its administration for 10 years. In Baroda, however, he finds it impossible to get accommodation.
Aurangzeb joins Gabbar and Mogambo in infamy
In recent years, Aurangzeb Alamgir, the sixth Mughal emperor who ruled large swathes of the Indian subcontinent from 1658 to 1707, has joined the disreputable rogues gallery of Gabbar Singh, Shakal, Mogambo, Dr Dang and other memorable villains produced by Bollywood over the decades.
Jungles That Shaped Poetry
International Day of Forests: Shakti Chattopadhyay was missing. His friends had no clue where he was. This was not unusual—Shakti liked taking off. But this time, he did not return for months. At Coffee House, the legendary hangout of poets and artists near Calcutta University, rumours started floating about his whereabouts.
Iowa Residency: End of the road?
When Bengali poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay was writing his first novel, Atmaprakash (Self Revelation, 1964), he used a narrative technique he had learned from American Beat writer Jack Kerouac. “I don’t have to go looking around for plots,” Gangopadhyay recalls Kerouac telling him, in his autobiography Ardhek Jibon (Half a Life, 2000). “Before starting a novel, I try to recollect some of my experiences. What was I doing that month of that year? When I remember, I start writing from there.
HT Syndication: Iowa Residency: End of the road?
India, March 20 -- When Bengali poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay was writing his first novel, Atmaprakash (Self Revelation, 1964), he used a narrative technique he had learned from American Beat writer Jack Kerouac. "I don't have to go looking around for plots," Gangopadhyay recalls Kerouac telling him, in his autobiography Ardhek Jibon (Half a Life, 2000). "Before starting a novel, I try to recollect some of my experiences. What was I doing that month of that year?
How Deewaar reimagined an episode from Les Miserables
Police sub-inspector Ravi Verma (Shashi Kapoor) is walking down the streets of Bombay (Mumbai), lost in his own thoughts, when he suddenly hears cries of "Chor! Chor! (Thief! Thief!)" With the bull-dog instinct of a policeman, he chases the suspect. He calls out to the runner several times to stop, but when the latter does not, Ravi shoots him with his service revolver. The thief is injured in his leg and falls down. As Ravi catches up with him, he finds that the thief is only a teenager.
HT Syndication: 'The Amateur' by Saikat Majumdar: The evolution of a radical rule-breaker
Posted On: 2025-02-09 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Health & Lifestyle Education Employment Cities MINT New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- In his 1929 essay, Wordsworth in the Tropics, English writer Aldous Huxley ridiculed 19th-century British romantic poet William Wordsworth and his followers for waxing eloquent about the uplifting potential of nature.
‘The Amateur’ by Saikat Majumdar: The evolution of a radical rule-breaker
Though literary scholars have since challenged Huxley’s appraisal of Wordsworth’s relationship to nature, almost every school student in the former British colonies forced to read The Daffodils (sometimes called I Wander Lonely As a Cloud) in English literature classes is aware of the irony of doing so.
HT Syndication: Review: Satyajit Ray; Feluda in the Golden Fortress
Posted On: 2025-02-08 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Health & Lifestyle Travel Cities Hindustan Times India, Feb. 8 -- In December 2013, a few friends and I took the Corbett Park Express from Old Delhi railway station two days before Christmas. Our holiday destination was Jaisalmer, a distance of about 980km that the train covered in 20 hours. It was about 8:30 pm on Christmas Eve when the train finally reached Ramdevra, two stations before the final stop.
Review: Satyajit Ray; Feluda in the Golden Fortress
In December 2013, a few friends and I took the Corbett Park Express from Old Delhi railway station two days before Christmas. Our holiday destination was Jaisalmer, a distance of about 980km that the train covered in 20 hours. It was about 8:30 pm on Christmas Eve when the train finally reached Ramdevra, two stations before the final stop. My friends and I were eagerly waiting for this.
HT Syndication: Reading David Lodge's 'Nice Work' in difficult times
Posted On: 2025-01-17 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Entertainment Health & Lifestyle Auto Education International Hindustan Times India, Jan. 17 -- One of the first novels I read after moving to Birmingham in the UK in September last year was David Lodge's Nice Work. Lodge's eighth novel, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1988; it lost to Peter Cary's Oscar and Lucinda.
Reading David Lodge’s ‘Nice Work’ in difficult times
One of the first novels I read after moving to Birmingham in the UK in September last year was David Lodge’s Nice Work. Lodge’s eighth novel, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1988; it lost to Peter Cary’s Oscar and Lucinda.
Long Before The Grand Budapest: Kolkata’s Great Eastern Hotel And Its Timeless Charm
In 1888, while travelling through Calcutta, British poet and writer Rudyard Kipling stayed at the Great Eastern Hotel in the centre of the city. Now known mostly for "The Jungle Book" (1894), Kipling was born in Bombay and lived and worked in India for many years.
Long Before The Grand Budapest: Kolkata’s Great Eastern Hotel And Its Timeless Charm
Mark Twain described The Great Eastern Hotel as 'the best hotel east of Suez' “The Great Eastern hums with life through all its hundred rooms,” wrote Kipling. “Doors slam merrily, and all the nations of the earth run up and down the staircases.
Kolkata trams, now on their way out, inspired city's best-known filmmakers
In 1888, British writer and poet Rudyard Kipling visited Calcutta (now Kolkata), then the capital of the British Empire in India. The sprawling metropolis, where unimaginable wealth and decadence existed cheek by jowl with desperate poverty and disease, was described by Kipling, who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, as "the city of dreadful night".
Why are audiences loving re-released Bollywood films?
In recent months, a number of older Hindi films have been re-released in cinemas - with some box office success. These include blockbusters such as Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Pardes (1997), and Taal (1999), as well as hits from this century: Veer Zaara (2004), Jab We Met (2007), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), Rockstar (2011), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), and Dangal (2016).
Rupleena Bose’s ‘Summer of Then’: The story of an unpleasant woman
In the world of Bose’s novel, the minds and bodies of women are constantly under scrutiny. The men in their lives want to possess them like property. The state and society push them into performing utilitarian roles, like producing children or taking care of their families. Accompanying a friend to a fertility clinic, the protagonist is reminded of the first time she had her legs waxed. “I screamed as wax strips pulled the hair from my leg," she recalls.
Rupleena Bose's 'Summer of Then': The story of an unpleasant woman
Posted On: 2024-10-19 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Health & Lifestyle Education Real Estate & Construction MINT New Delhi, Oct. 19 -- Contrary to the experience of the Baudelaire children in Lemony Snicket's series of popular books, the unnamed protagonist of academic and screenwriter Rupleena Bose's debut novel, Summer of Then, experiences a series of fortunate events. And yet, none of it makes her happy. When the novel opens in 2010, she is an aspiring academic and writer.
The Rhythm Of Bollywood
On 7 July 1896, as Bombay was recovering from the plague, Marius Sestier, a French cinematographer, screened six short films at the "whites-only" Watson Hotel. Among the films shown was "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat" (Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat), a 50-second, silent documentary showing a steam engine pulling a train into La Ciotat, a town near Marseille in France.
The Rhythm Of Bollywood
A collage of film posters having famous dance sequences On 7 July 1896, as Bombay was recovering from the plague, Marius Sestier, a French cinematographer, screened six short films at the "whites-only" Watson Hotel. Among the films shown was "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat" (Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat), a 50-second, silent documentary showing a steam engine pulling a train into La Ciotat, a town near Marseille in France.
Of Kumbhakarna, Huck Finn and football
Posted On: 2024-08-24 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Business & Finance Technology HT Lucknow India, Aug. 24 -- In late 2023, NR Narayana Murthy, founder of the multinational technology giant Infosys, sparked a global debate when he claimed that young people should work 70 hours a week.
Review: In Praise of Laziness and Other Essays by Indrajit Hazra
In late 2023, NR Narayana Murthy, founder of the multinational technology giant Infosys, sparked a global debate when he claimed that young people should work 70 hours a week. While the jury is still out on whether this was the let-them-eat-cake moment of the Indian corporate sector, several critics of Narayana Murthy, father-in-law of former British prime minister Rishi Sunak, described his suggestion to be symptomatic of the toxic work culture that is often promoted as industriousness.
Review: In Praise of Laziness and Other Essays by Indrajit Hazra
Posted On: 2024-08-23 Posted By: Uttaran Das Gupta Business & Finance Health & Lifestyle Education Technology Cities Hindustan Times India, Aug. 23 -- In late 2023, NR Narayana Murthy, founder of the multinational technology giant Infosys, sparked a global debate when he claimed that young people should work 70 hours a week.
What is Poetry? by Gozo Yoshimasu - Words Without Borders
Preface—For a Book with an Intimidating Title1 Why and how does this thing called “poesy” or poetic mind occur in our mind? I’m giving a humble introduction to this book that has a somewhat intimidating title, What is Poetry, while clumsily speaking and carefully listening to my own voice.
Two Summers, Too Short
This is not your typical love story; it is a Yash Chopra film. That’s what my friend said when I recollected to her my travels across Europe, meeting and bidding farewell to M—. I met M— in New Delhi in 2017 and again in Europe the next year as we tried to work out if our romance was meant to be a short-lived summer fling or had the potential for a longer engagement. In the end, we decided it was not going to work out.
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