Slaves of Babylon (1953)

Despite having been the subject of some of the very earliest Bible films, the various stories from the Book of Daniel rather fell from favou...

On Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, and other books about cultural heritage

[ From my Forbes Life column ] As a film buff, I am often appalled by how much neglect or apathy there is when it comes to India’s cinemat...

The Canon in the Early Sound Era

This is the latest in a series of posts about the relationship between the Bible, the idea of canonicity and film. The start of the sound e...

A love story about corpses: on KR Meera's The Gospel of Yudas

[ Did this review for Scroll ] ------------------------ “I had heard that the blood-red, gooey mud at the bottom of the lake had magnetic po...

Blade Af Satans Bog (1921)

Carl Theodor Dreyer is rightly revered as a filmmaker of some repute, whose bold and uncompromising films, such as Ordet  (1954) and La Pass...

Why you mustn't trust anything (least of all the human mind) - plus 2 encounters with Gulzar

[ M y Mint Lounge column for this week ] One of the most fun things I did last year was sit down with a group of critics and filmmakers to d...

ISIS brides in a spiritual wasteland: on Tabish Khair’s Jihadi Jane

[ Wrote a version of this review for Open magazine ] Read a novel about religious terrorism these days, and chances are that there will be a...