Tag: featured

‘Farhana’: Shaping a Muslim Woman in Unprecedented Settings

Cinema, Film Review

Review by MUHAMMED NOUSHAD; originally published in Maktoob Media. Tamil movie industry doesn’t bring many Muslim heroes and heroines; hence, a hijabi woman as the title protagonist in a story unfolding in a non-community setting, definitely arouses curiosity, particularly in India’s alarmingly Islamophobic environment. That’s what Farhana does, and concomitantly, there was an unfortunate controversy prior to the release of the movie,

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Iran is a common foe for Israelis, Gulf monarchs; hence normalisation of ties: Prof. Bernard Haykel

Interview

Prof. Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, is a historian and political analyst. He has extensively studied the social and political history of West Asia, both countries and movements, particularly Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the ISIS. He co-edited Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights of Social, Political and Religious Change in 2015. He also serves as director

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Suffering in The Whale: Oscillating Between Physical and Emotional

Cinema

The Whale has stereotypical scenes of fat bodies, though its makers claim to establish the humanity of obese souls. However, the lead actor Brendan Fraser does a remarkable job, opines MUHAMMED NOUSHAD. “Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring?” asks a dying Charlie, an excessively obese man, in The Whale, to his only friend

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Songs for Iftar: 30 Tracks From Around the Muslim World

Music

‘Songs for Iftar’ was an online series of songs from across the Muslim world, curated by MUHAMMED NOUSHAD, in the month of Ramadan in 2023, for Kagrart and Sideratul Muntaha. This is an attempt to capture the musical tradition of various Muslim communities in a representative manner – in terms of ethnicity, genre and styles. 01. Kashmir | Faheem Abdullah

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The Living Legacy of Kayalpattinam: Sufis, Sultans, Scholars, Traders and Invaders

History, Kayalpattinam, Travel

Kayalpattinam has invited all sorts of people and civilizations to its erstwhile bustling seaport. MUHAMMED NOUSHAD visits the historic town and meets its people to narrate its fascinating tale of the past and the present. ‘It’s a small town with an excessive baggage of history’, a few well-meaning friends had warned me, before I set off my journey to Kayalpattinam. The

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