After reading up on the Islamic Revolution, I was on the lookout for something to watch and chanced upon this documentary titled: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. The 90 minute documentary chronicles the evolution of Iranian cinema beginning from the reign of the Shah till the early aughts when the theocracy was firmly in power. The … Continue reading Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution
I spent the Eid weekend, revisiting the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Scott Anderson’s ‘King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah and the Revolution That Forged Modern Iran’ and Ryszard Kapuscinski’s ‘Shah of Shahs’ (which I’m revisting after 15 years) are good primers about the revolution. Over the last two years, seeing the protests of … Continue reading The 1979 Islamic Revolution
The 2022 Iranian-French movie ‘Holy Spider’ was a treat at multiple levels. The movie is based on a real-life serial killer who murdered sixteen women in the late 90s in the city of Mashhad, Iran. The pull of world cinema is that it immerses you in geographies and historical periods that create a vivid impression, … Continue reading Holy Spider
Last year, I spent a long weekend in Lucknow. While the cuisine was the main draw, the Shiite influence over the city is unmissable. Large and small Imambaras dot the city and remind us of the relatively short-lived dynasty of the Nawabs that ruled Oudh. (Imambaras, unlike mosques, are not merely prayer spaces but structures … Continue reading Lucknow’s Shiite Influence
