Caught between a disreputable and salacious past and an uncertain future, Kamathipura, the once-biggest red light district of India’s most populous metro, struggles for survival.
War is not only scary, it changes you. It overwhelms your senses, makes you excessively emotional.
If the last five years witnessed a visible reduction in alleged ‘excesses’ committed by armed forces, the 2022 assembly polls recorded unprecedented pre-poll violence
In the Hindi belt’s transactional politics, more and more caste groups are asserting their identity by harking back to historical or mythical icons, to demand a share of the electoral marketplace
The parallel world of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, with its aesthetically-lit windows and luxurious sentimentality that glows in the yellow fairy lights, doesn’t tell the story of the countless other Gangubais.
This poem appeared in Namdeo Dhasal’s 1981 Marathi collection, 'Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi' (What Grade Are You In), later translated to English by Dilip Chitre, and published by Navayana in 2007.
The West is well aware of Russia’s concerns and knows the potential dangers of keeping the NATO’s doors open to Ukraine’s membership, but it has gambled on the Russian sense of its weakness.
Never known for originality or verisimilitude, Bollywood scriptwriters trawl the absolute depths when creating on-screen prostitutes, in search of lucre
Very few Indian directors have handled the subject of sex workers sensitively. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai is an exception.
Multiple factors including the law have made it impossible to collectivise the women in the locality
Plans to revive Mumbai’s infamous locality of Kamathipura have remained, at best, a dream for its residents
An ambitious redevelopment plan is being readied for Kamathipura, whose lanes had seen a thriving sex trade. Forced out of the area, the sex workers will lose their homes as lowrises become highrises.
'There’s more hardship in sex work. The tawaif wants just a little bit of izzat, which the sex worker is denied to even dream about.'
A 2019 raid rescuing 141 girls held behind trap doors and steel cages raised a poignant question—how long will art continue imitating life?
