At Filmi Ladies, Pitu Sultan and the Gutter’s own Beth Watkins start a new series! “This is the first episode in a new series about films we associate with particular colors. Black may be the most complicated color, evoking traits from elegance and edge to sadness, anger, mourning, […]
A few weeks ago, the Indian cinema-focused Twitter account Cinema Rare posted a list of “some of the trippiest Indian films,” and with wording like that, I knew I had to investigate the whole thing, regardless of how likely I was to agree.* Skimming the 25 titles, I […]
Content warning: self-harm, sexual violence, police violence. From the trailer, I thought Dracula Sir was going to be the kind of film that the film industries of India do often and, generally speaking, very well: a reincarnation story. I was already hooked by the title alone, but a […]
The Gutter’s own Beth has new shenanigans to keep up on: Tolly Folly! Two of the hosts of the Khandaan Podcast and [Beth Watkins] are doing a mini series on the classic Bengali cinema of Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar, starting with Agni Pariksha.”
Bear with me: at first glance, this piece may fall outside the Cultural Gutter’s mission to share thoughtful writing about disreputable art. Kshudhita Pashan (1960) is based on a short story by Nobel laureate, author, musician, and all-around revered thinker Rabindranath Tagore. But its ghostly ladies, creepy palaces, […]
I’d like to introduce you to one of India’s greatest movie superstars. Active from around 1950 to 1980, Uttam Kumar is still the biggest name in the popular cinema made in Calcutta. The term “matinee idol” doesn’t imply enough scope or staying power to describe his career, and […]
Find t-shirts, mugs, totes and more at our new Guttermart location at Teepublic!
The Cultural Gutter 