This wasn't Barkha’s first error of judgment, and it won't be her last. Open did the right thing by 'exposing' public faces of journalism.
Readings:
The Unfortunate Analogy: a post from Kathmandu Speaks from February 2009, also related to Barkha Dutt brand of journalism.
The Public Right to Know [The Hindu]
The spotlight is on media now [The Hindu]
Videos:
Karan Thapar: Radia tapes dent 'the fourth estate' (Part I, Part II)
NDTV: Barkha Dutt, other editors on Radia tapes controversy
Clarification: The furor is not about Barkha Dutt, the woman
or the person, but Barkha Dutt, the journalist.
November 30, 2010
The Radia tapes: 'Tip of an iceberg'
November 17, 2010
Politics in Cinema: The Guerrilla Fighter
There isn’t an immediate cure to indoctrination or ignorance. The only way out is to start questioning the status quo. If your questions are pertinent, and you’re obsessed with finding the truth, you must be also open minded to accept the forthcoming answers and strong enough to take a new path, if necessary.
"This quicksilver, un-pin-downable quality makes Mrinal Sen endearing. You can see it in his films too. Take the first of his city trilogy Interview (followed in turn by Calcutta 71 and Padatik). It was made around the same time as Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi, and with the same theme of an unemployed young man, but there the similarity ends. While Ray's film follows a classic, subtle path of satire, Sen has stylistic devices ricocheting off the screen, not always making hits, but eager and robust. They question and castigate the socio-political system, unable to extricate itself from its feudal, regressive, post-colonial shackles. He demands reappraisals of individual and community.
In the film the young man fails to get the job, because along the way he is caught up willy-nilly in a street demonstration and loses the suit he had borrowed for the interview. How can he make an impression without it? Sen records gleefully that he even made his protagonist speak a line from Ray's film that had come to him through the grapevine, but modified to suit his purpose. Interestingly, Sen had the Pratidwandi debutant Dhritiman Chaterji play a young extremist in Padatik, committed to party ideals but disillusioned with the smug leaders. The overtly political film spewed debates and controversies for critiquing Left leadership.
The trilogy also testifies to the filmmaker's deep devotion to Calcutta (Kolkata). He had been dispatched to the metropolis at age 17 to study physics, from hometown Faridpur, now in Bangladesh, where he was born (1923) among seven brothers and five sisters. The city's milling crowds, its apathy and anonymity, instilled fear in the country lad, who underwent arrest and inquiry for suspected links with the underground movement. The terror was soon replaced by love. Although he never lost his feeling for rural, village life, and has made films on even marginalised tribal people facing unspeakable injustice as in Mrigaya and Oka Orie Katha (Telugu), Calcutta became Mrinal Sen's home."
Excerpts from World Within, World Without
Mrinal Sen: Padatik- The Guerrilla Fighter (Youtube)
Satyajit Ray: Pratidwadi- The Adversary (Youtube)
November 14, 2010
मर गया देश, अरे, जीवित रह गये तुम
सतह से उठता आदमी, गजानन माधव 'मुक्तिबोध' ओ मेरे आदर्शवादी मन,ओ मेरे सिद्धान्तवादी मन,अब तक क्या किया ?जीवन क्या जिया !!उदरम्भरि बन अनात्म बन गये,भूतों की शादी में कनात से तन गये,किसी व्यभिचारी के बन गये बिस्तर,दु:खों के दाग़ों को तमग़े सा पहना,अपने ही ख़यालों में दिन-रात रहना,असंग बुद्धि व अकेले में सहना,ज़िन्दगी निष्क्रिय बन गयी तलघर,अब तक क्य किया,जीवन क्या जिया!!................भावना के कर्तव्य त्याग दिये,हॄदय के मन्तव्य मर डाले!बुद्धि का भाल ही फोड़ दिया,तर्कों के हाथ ही उखाड़ दिये,जम गये, जाम हुए फंस गये,अपने ही कीचड़ में धंस गये !!विवेक बघार डाला स्वार्थों के तेल में,आदर्श खा गये.अब तक क्या किया,जीवन क्या जिया !!बहुत-बहुत ज़्यादा लिया,दिया बहुत-बहुत कममर गया देश, अरे, जीवित रह गये तुम !
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