Indian filmmaker Jyoti Nisha does not think anyone can claim B.R. Ambedkar’s image or politics. But with her upcoming film, B.R. Ambedkar: Now and Then, Jyoti weaves Ambedkar’s life and history as an opponent of Brahminical hegemony together with the current political climate and anti-caste movement, all from her own Bahujan feminist perspective. Kajal sat … Read More
Jude Ratnam didn’t realize he would be telling his own story. Initially, Ratnam set out to make a film about the Sri Lankan Civil War, using the railway connecting the Sinhalese-dominated south and the Tamil-dominated north as a springboard for his explorations. “You can’t rationally understand the process of art-making,” Ratnam told Kajal. “But one … Read More
Of The Island is a short film by Amanda Yogendran and Vidhya Manivannan that centers four young creatives of the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Burgher Sri Lankan diaspora – Ushka, Rolex Rasathy, ELSZ, and Santhya – who share their experiences of migration, culture, identity, art, and self-expression. “I feel like I always had an alter ego,” a voice in … Read More
Challia, Awaara, Shree 420 – the singer Mukesh’s soulful voice is found across the soundtracks of films in an early post-colonial India, narrating the vastly different post-partition life on the sub-continent. With Raj Kapoor, an accomplished actor and producer, Mukesh would go on to play an essential role in forming a young India’s national identity … Read More
CIRCLE, a film by Jayisha Patel that premiered last weekend at the Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of a young girl in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, and the physical manifestations of intergenerational trauma. The film follows the story of Khushbu, a survivor of sexual assault, as she recounts her gang-rape at the hands of … Read More
Australian comedian Aamer Rahman released the first episode of his new webseries “Can We Kick It?” Wednesday on YouTube. And his first guest was New York City-based fellow comedian Hari Kondabolu. Rahman and Kondabolu meet up in the episode the day before Kondabolu’s Netflix standup special “Warn Your Relatives” is released. The two stroll through … Read More
Netflix’s first Indian original series, Sacred Games, has notably excited our country’s entertainment and art-loving urban youth — a generation that has grown up witnessing idle productions overshadow serialized entertainment. A deluge of media coverage, social media statuses and tweets, and passionate reviews from peers convey awe and admiration. Reviewers chimed that Vikram Chandra’s 2006 novel could … Read More
In a short 55 second trailer, Surina & Mel. shows us what television shows could look like. Even though it’s not out yet, Surina & Mel. from actors Surina Jindal and Melanie Chandra and former Family Guy writer Sameer Gardezi, has us excited. Besides having two South Asian women as the show leads, Surina & Mel. promises to show … Read More
“My Choice,” the infamous video released by the #VogueEmpower campaign in 2015, creates a narrative arc through visual and auditory spectacle. The two and a half minute film featuring Bollywood darling Deepika Padukone begins with slow shots cutting between a seemingly heterogenous group of ninety nine women. The music is sombre, ominous. The women are … Read More
Director Sam Rega sat down with Kajal Magazine to discuss his documentary on South Asian-American success in the Scripps National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee has, for years, showcased some of the America’s top young spellers from across the country. In the last two decades, the uber-competitive world of spelling has seen what … Read More
