Somak Ghoshal

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

A forgotten artist from Bengal gets a new life

Earlier this month when Princeps, the auction house, put up the works from the estate of Bengali painter Atul Bose (1898-1977) for sale, the founder Indrajit Chatterjee didn't know what to expect. But the response from the bidders was overwhelming. "I...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

'The Surgeon's Cut': How the world’s greatest doctors stay human

If you go to as a fan of, hoping for the heady excitement and nerve-wracking suspense that characterise the US medical drama, chances are you may be a tad disappointed. However, once you reckon with the fact that the four episodes in this limited...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

The fine art of capturing the faraway and the nearby

New Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery’s (VAG) latest online show, , is driven by two complementary ideas. “We thought it was especially important during these challenging times to support the work of emerging artists,” says Roshini Vadehra, director of...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

Into the rabbit hole of Sohrab Hura's art

When I started making , I realised I don’t have a unidimensional relationship with photography,” says Sohrab Hura, referring to his latest body of work, which is currently showing at Experimenter-Ballygunge Place, Kolkata, and on the online viewing...

Mintlounge • 19th November 2020

Revisiting Ram Kumar’s unsung genius at Art Basel

It may be hard to believe that Ram Kumar, retiring and reclusive as he was all his life, belonged to that fiery bunch of trailblazers who came together to form the Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947. Initially known for his Hindi short stories (it was...

Mint lounge • 19th October 2020

Is pasta the new pizza for middle-class Indian consumers?

For the 57 seconds that the footage runs, it’s hard to pull away your eyes from the screen. First, dosa batter is thickly spread on a skillet, followed by what appears to be a generous slathering of butter. Then chopped vegetables, dollops of luridly...

mint • 12th September 2020

‘The Social Dilemma’ review: Can we clean up big tech’s big mess?

Jeff Orlowski’s The Social Dilemma, a documentary which released on Netflix this week, follows a familiar plot. A bunch of Silicon Valley “whiz kids", who once helped establish and perpetuate habits of internet addiction on a global scale, come on...

Mint • 7th September 2020

Chef’s Table BBQ: There’s more to barbeque cooking than meat and fire

Barbeque cooking seems like a no-brainer. With only a handful of ingredients involved, it is arguably the most ancient culinary style practiced by humankind, depending primarily on fire. And yet, as the new season of Chef’s Table shows, there’s much...

Mint • 5th September 2020

How Ravi Shankar defied classical music’s orthodoxy

The year 1967 was a watershed moment for the global music industry. That year, The Beatles released one of their iconic albums, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which soared to the top of the charts all over the world. Millions lost their minds...

Livemint • 18th July 2020

Bharat Sikka on ‘The Sapper’ and his search for his father

Bharat Sikka on ‘The Sapper’ and his search for his father Artist Bharat Sikka’s ongoing photo-based project aims to rediscover his father, who was mostly absent during his growing years

Livemint • 12th July 2020

#AnneFrank Parallel Stories review: How not to turn history into hashtags

#AnneFrank Parallel Stories review: How not to turn history into hashtags This Netflix documentary about Anne Frank and Holocaust survivors misses the chance to make a powerful statement

Livemint • 15th February 2020

The ‘ghoti’ versus ‘bangal’ rivalry in Bengali cinema

Romantic comedy in 1950s Bengali cinema explored neighbourly tensions between Bengalis from two sides of the divided state

Livemint • 31st January 2020

Indian art’s decade on Instagram

In the 10 years since the photo-sharing app was launched, artists across the world, including India, have adopted the medium to amplify their work and philosophy

Livemint • 20th December 2019

Charles Dickens and the legacy of a Calcutta Christmas

At the school I went to in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the 1980s and 1990s, students were subjected to one “rapid reader" after another for several years in the junior classes. The idea was to introduce us to texts that were easy to read, comprehend and...

CNN • 25th October 2019

A fashion blogger's guide to Indian street style

One of Scott Schuman's portraits shows a man in the Indian city of Kolkata with glitter on his face, shining like stardust. But the photographer initially missed this detail. Schuman had run into the stranger -- "a young man in a hoodie who had a...

Livemint • 18th October 2019

Jogen Chowdhury: Breathing life into forms

At 80, Jogen Chowdhury is remarkably spry, brimming with ideas and observations. “When does an image become art? What is the difference between a painter and an artist? I would throw questions like these at my students when I began teaching at Kala...

Livemint • 12th October 2019

100 years of art in Santiniketan

Kala Bhavana, the art school founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan, celebrates its centenary this year. Lounge visits the campus near Kolkata to trace its evolution

Livemint • 14th July 2019

Time slows down in this Parisian fairyland

Most tourists hear Paris and think of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe also of the elegant cafés, innumerable museums and popular landmarks strewn all around the city. But in this glorious roster of spectacles comprising the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Place de...

Livemint • 26th April 2019

Joaquin Sorolla: The Master of Spanish Sunlight

It was as though the heavens had conspired to release the sun from its cloudy prison after a long week of gloomy weather. A golden glow, bearing the promise of summer, sparkled on the façade of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London as I...

Livemint • 24th March 2019

In the epic embrace of Peter Brook's 'Mahabharata'

In 1982, the English theatre and film director Peter Brook met the chief of a village in Purulia, West Bengal, while he was touring India in preparation for his 9-hour play based on the epic Mahabharata. With Brook was Jean-Claude Carrière, who...