Dheeraj Kalgutkar

Vijay Sthamb (victory pillar) - The pillar was erected by the East India Company in memory of those who fought the battle and includes the names of the Mahar soldiers who unknowingly brought an end to the Peshwa rule in 1818.   The battle on January 1, 1818, where the British, with just 834 infantrymen — about 500 of them from the Mahar community — and 12 officers defeated the 28,000-strong army of Peshwa Bajirao II - was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Peshwa domination. While this would tempt many to suggest Mahars/Dalits always sided with the British - absolutely nothing wrong if they did give the conditions they were forced to live in - in truth, they were before this battle part of the Maratha army. During Shivaji’s reign, especially before Peshwas, many didn’t realise that Peshwas were not a continuation of Marathas under Shivaji but a deviation from it. One would do well here to remember how Brahmins of his dominion refused to conduct ...

  Photo by Rodrigo Curi on Unsplash   There are very few things that send me into a quiet rage as much as food dishonesty. Let me demonstrate. Before I do that, let’s get a few things out of the way. There are no superhumans here. And superman is a figment of imagination. Likewise, not everyone can be a chef and not all chefs can cook all food items. There are as many cuisines and foodstuffs in the world as there are people. So to expect any one person to know every kind of cuisine/food is absolutely silly. And that is why every restaurant comes up with its own menu, a limited set of food items which they promise to serve their guests. So we now have restaurants declaring a set of dishes they promise to serve in the form of a menu and of their own volition. Naturally, this means they have a chef and/or cooks who know what these foodstuffs on their menu are and how they are made, also they know what goes into these items and obviously, they make sure the ingredients require...

That’s just a random picture of crowded Delhi. Photo by Fancycrave on  Unsplash         Bus rides are joyful experiences. To travel peacefully on a window seat staring quietly at the passerby's, looking at people on bikes and cars hurrying themselves to reach someplace quicker, buildings by buildings of varying sizes passing like a film via the window glass. And then if you are lucky you meet a nice fellow passenger, you both talk and somehow in its own small and strange ways, you become part of someone’s life who was stranger a while ago. Aha. That is if you are lucky. But I was with no luck in my pockets. I did not get a fellow passenger to talk to. I did not even get a seat to sit forget the window one. I was standing in a crowded bus near the back door of this public transport vehicle with my travel bag. Not big but not too small either. The bus had moved few stops from where I had boarded and had just stopped at another stop. Of the many people who...

  India is a strange country but more stranger are its people. The old towns and villages have their own gods and those gods have their own homes aka temples in this country. It’s an established order. The temples have their annual anniversaries, gods go to jungle tours, river bathing, to meet other gods in other temples; all on the decorated vehicles pulled by the ever-growing tribe of humans. But that’s in old towns and villages. What happens in newly built cities? The old temples I have visited have their own stories, how they came into being. The stories with myths and magic. If the building isn’t very old then there would be someone with a mystic dream in which certain god comes into their dream and throws in his/her wish (or rather a command) to have an abode of his own in that village. And in most cases, these stories are highly unverifiable (of course, what did you expect? — peer-reviewed theories?). It’s not my desire to find the god himself (or herself!) but ...

Nana Patekar. A power house of talent when meets Mahesh Manjrekar, the brilliant filmmaker, claps were certain to go high at the end of movie, not just any other claps but the loud ones coming straight from hearts, reserved only for few special occasions! Just came out from one such experience. I don't know when was the last time I had watched a Marathi movie in cinema hall, oh wait, I have seen none. This was my first. There have been many good stories, technological brilliances but good performances? Of late there was dearth of it all but thanks to Mahesh Manjrekar for filling that gap with this celluloid treat - Nana Patekar obviously but Medha Manjrekar and Vikram Gokhale, it was just oh-so-great combo. I wanted to watch it on first day but then I thought I won't, it's trailer was not bad but not something that provokes you to watch it, it looked like any other story, like those old movies with lots of drama but believe me, this one is lot more than JUST THA...

Bajirao Mastani, is a treat offered on celluloid for movie buffs, a brilliance at best but also a lost opportunity in portraying the greatness of the best known Peshwa! A canvas where love story has taken centre-stage while in life it was battles, 40 straight wins is no joke my friend! But then you can't really blame Bhansali because going by the title it was meant to put the story of two protagonists above all and he achieved it with brilliance, a little less I would say! I'm no reviewer and won't go into nuances of the art of doing what I'm not but I believe you need to give it a watch. For the brilliant sets, colorful canvas, larger than life imagery, things for which Bhansali is best known in the industry! And stellar piece of acting from Ranveer Singh and others. In fact Ranveer is the life of this credulous display of a time from history known for its larger than life living and blood soaked battlegrouds. I can't believe I had doubts initially when cast...