Logging life

It is a really interesting movie. There are no dialogues, no character and in fact, no story. Shot beautifully in 24 countries- people, history, culture, religious life- this brings to life humanity and its relationship with each other and the world around them. Just by incredible photography and equally superb music, this movie generated lot of emotions in 96 minutes. Truly, an incredible experience. I had seen this movie earlier in 2003 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, saw it again recently on DVD. Baraka means blessings. more: http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/baraka

A directorial debut movie for Ismail Merchant, In Custody or "Muhafiz" is a beautiful movie about Urdu, poetry and Urdu poetry. Shot in Bhopal and released in 1993 this is a marvelous movie with lot of messages about the condition of Urdu and a glimpse of Muslim culture from past to present. The message of the movie is clear - if Urdu has to survive in India, Hindus need to accept and cherish it.

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net Since 1980s, globalization has been a much used and rather abused word. But the fact is that trade between civilizations, countries, and continents have been going on for thousands of years. Until the middle of the twentieth century, borders between countries were never well defined. All empires and regimes had areas of influence which was used to tax the population and produce. True, they did levy taxes on trade coming in their region but goods and people freely moved about on land and water. Trade through ocean helped Islam spread to Southern India and South East Asia. Silk route is another famous example of globalized nature of trade over land. The silk route connected China and India to Central Asian and Mediterranean countries. In 1940s the borders that had remained on paper got manifested on the ground. All trade activities came to a halt as a result of border closure. People and goods that have moved in the region for thousands of years suddenly...

Sometimes I wonder what cost of freedom is. How many lives how many generations a community will lose to violence before saying this is not worth it. Sanjay Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit, in his documentary ‘Jashn-e-Azadi’ captures the cost of violence in Kashmir- for Kashmiris it is a struggle for freedom for Indian soldiers it is a battle for defending India. But for a small piece of lands thousands have lives have been lost over the years and millions lives destroyed. In November 2007 I wrote this piece on psychological impact that violence is having on Kashmiris and Indian soldiers are not doing any better. Jashn-e-Azadi is a sad visual ghazal, each story in the documentary is like a sher (couplet) of a ghazal beautiful words but telling a sad tale. Watch the movie below and movie website is here: http://kashmirfilm.wordpress.com/