Mithu Sen | In Transit

The Indian contemporary artist Mithu Sen talks about her inspirations, the making-of process and the shift in her artwork creations. Her work is strong and impactful. She uses images of moving objects, uprooted trees and plants, suitcases and luggage as metaphors for these journeys and migrations. Her work conveys both the apprehension that we may all feel when venturing into the unknown, but at the same time reveal the artist's inner strength and determined resolve.

Terra Masala | Udu Artist

For more Terra Masala's music -- http://soundcloud.com/terramasala

To help Cheb I Sabbah -- http://chebisabbah.org/

SLUTWALK | coming soon to Bombay

After Delhi, its time for Bombay to show support for the 'SLUTWALK' checkout the video & HOLLA BACK! Its time for Bombay. Its time for India.

The official video of SlutWalk Delhi 2011 is an approach of conveying our demands to the society. For we believe that the system along with the people of India need a revelation and to do that we are presenting you a message. A message to inspire you. Greater is the sin of not speaking when a woman is being raped than that of raping her. How many times must we mind our own business when a woman is being harassed? Would we expect the same when it happens to our beloved ones? This video will answer all your questions. Also, it is not to propagate or advertise short clothes. A woman fully dressed in a salwar-kameez is as likely to get raped as the one in a mini-skirt. Stop and think. She needs your help because she is tired of being suppressed, tired of all that is unjust. So wake up. Indians the time is now. Speak, do.

Connect with Slutwalk on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_165762856819801&ap=1

More support -- http://mumbai.ihollaback.org/

Khoya Khoya Chand | Suman Sridhar

Photo - Shiv Ahuja

The song that MASI was eagerly waiting to be released in the public domain is finally out! A timeless classic gets revamped and re-jazzed as 'The Bartender' album serves 'Khoya Khoya Chand' from Shaitan -- shaken, not stirred! The remix version of Mikey McCleary's Khoya khoya Chand in Shaitan was sung by Suman Shridhar.

Susheela Raman

Susheela Raman is a critically acclaimed British Tamil singer, songwriter and composer. Watch the songstress speak about her musical journey.

THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE AIR.....

THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE AIR is a short film about many things – about longing and transgression, and fairies and djinns, to list a few. The mode of investigation is personal, and expression is non-ethnographic. The film blends documentary and fiction tropes to weave a narrative that is based on ‘hearsay’. There are no experts here, and no eyewitnesses. The narrators could also be unreliable.

The film begins with a psychiatric clinic, but the drama largely takes place in dream-scapes, and at a medieval Sufi shrine in Badayun (Uttar Pradesh, north India). It brings together accounts of women who claim to be ‘afflicted’ by something in the air – be it a spirit, demon, ghost, or djinn. In popular parlance, the condition is termed ‘hawai marz’ or ‘affliction of air’, while ‘hawa lag jana’ implies ‘a vagrant influence’… the documentary lies at the confluence of such influences and strange afflictions of air.

There Is Something In The Air, while being a film about women, who claim to be spiritually possessed, who would possibly be clinically mentally ill, is not a description of ‘insanity’… in fact it is a film that aims to make one think of the ‘possibilities’ of insanity… what does insanity allow?

The documentary escapes the biographical; it stars Muslim women, without labeling them so. It brings together accounts of insane, lunatic, mad, unapologetic women – who perhaps have ‘chosen’ to be so. Insanity can be acquired. One only needs to long enough… Longing for something, someplace that is evasive. The film is about women who want to bridge the distance between what is lived and what is desired, between what is experienced and what is longed for. The film searches for a language of this ‘longing’.

The shrine assumes the role of a hospital and a court of law. ‘Patient – petitioners’ come from all over the country and each ‘case’ is heard in the dead Saint’s ‘Court’ – twice a day. Sometimes it takes years before a patient is healed – if at all. The process begins with patients writing a ‘petition’ with the help of care-takers of the shrine, and putting in an ‘appearance’ before the Saint. The ‘patient – petitioners’ live in and around the shrine, making ‘appearances’ in the Court of the Saint everyday. They don’t need lawyers, witnesses or a body of proof. The truth claim of their speech-act under possession is unquestioned.

The film should not be read as a documentation of processes of alternate healing at a non- Wahabi, Sufi shrine in South Asia because there are no ‘native informants’ here. The film does not provide direct answers, illustrations, or explanations. It functions in the realm of fantasy, and poses questions to the ‘real’. This documentary is not a mere illustration of a cause-effect relationship between the pedagogic project of religion and the freedoms of transgressions through insanity. It looks at the ‘state of madness’ through other prisms besides those of health, women’s rights, affirmative action etc. It takes into account love, longing, desire, agency, and negotiation.


Source: http://tisita.wordpress.com/