Calcutta Arthouse

Greetings from the snowy North! To close out the year, we sat down to discuss Uri Zohar's Peeping Toms, a cult classic of questionale taste, and talk beach life, nihilism, French new wave, speedos, Mediterannean masculinities and of course...no, wait, we forgot the biscuits this time! 

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, scenes of adult nature. 

We're BAAACK! After much delay, we're finally back with season 2 of Calcutta Arthouse. This season, we move from the tropic heat of West Bengal to the humid shores of the Mediterannean, for a deep - but still irreverent -  dive into the films of Isreal. For our season opener, we sat down to watch Salah Shabati, and talk immigrtaion, integration, agricultural socialism, and of course, buiscuits. Join us for Tel-Aviv Maintream.  

A special bonus episode! Just as we were about to despair, we found a copy of Choker Bali, the Aishwarya Rai Tagore movie, and so we sat down to discuss widowhood, tea, novelistic cinematography, and intertexuality. And of course, Pramit takes back any thing bad he ever said about Aishwarya Rai. 

It's been a hot minutes, but we are back with the season 1 finale! Pramit and Ayelet discuss the most memorable moments of each film, our favorites and least favorites, big surprises, and sound effects! We also tease our next season, coming soon to your favorite podcast app! 

A double-header, biscuit round-up, and Naxalites. This week has something for everyone. 

If you want to help the unfolding COVID crisis in India, here are some suggestions: 

Tribal Connect: https://www.facebook.com/Tribal-Connect-109831657511643

India Development and Relief Fund: https://www.idrf.org/get-involved/make-a-gift/

Direct Relief: https://secure.directrelief.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2924&mfc_pref=T&2924.donation=form1

Finally, a bit of comic relief! In this episode, we tackle West Bengal's beloved children's classic, Goopy Gyne Bhaga Byne, a tale of musicianship, adventure, and magic. We also take in the Mahabarata, funky outfits, experimental jazz, the Wizard of Oz, Alexander Lemtov (#LemtovForever), and of course, biscuit report! 

Ayelet and Pramit sit down to discuss Charulata, probably our favorite movie so far. We take in wallpapers, politics, Hollywood glamour, the Bengal Renaissance, and get deep into triangles (so many triangles). We also bring a new - salacious! - biscuit, and digress into our newest obsession, Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga. 

In today's episode, we discuss The Big City, get both feisty and political, plus a double biscuit feature! In a particularly irreverant departure, Ayelet demands a feminist remake starring Aishwarya Rai and Melissa McCarthy, and Pramit gets into class dynamics and very full episode synopses - and we both agree that the forgotten heroine of this film is in fact Edith. Oh, Edith. 

We're excited to introduce a new feature: Pick Ups! An occasional series of mini episodes, Pick Ups is the place for all (well, some) the clever things we should have said but didn't. In this episode, we revisit fan-favorite Devi, to discuss names and tantric sacrifices. It's a slightly dark turn to our usual irreverence, but we hope you enjoy.