Searching for Saraswati

Is it better to suffer the consequences of a lockdown or of Covid-19? That’s the harsh choice facing 11 million migrant workers in India when they have to leave their workplaces in the cities without warning. The country’s prime minister Narendra Modi sees a lockdown for India’s 1.3 billion inhabitants as a collective sacrifice that’s necessary to combat the spread of the virus, but his call to suffering only serves to outsource the miseries of the pandemic to the poorest of the poor.

Three friends who bonded over their radical beliefs in the 1930s reunite after becoming estranged over a book one of them wrote.

Showmen riding cinema lorries have brought the wonder of the movies to faraway villages in India once every year. Seven decades on, as their cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, their patrons are lured by slick digital technology. A benevolent showman, a shrewd exhibitor and a maverick projector mechanic bear a beautiful burden - to keep the last traveling cinemas of the world running. A critically acclaimed, poignant documentary that celebrates India’s travelling picture shows and laments their demise, filled with exquisite visuals and marvellous eccentrics.

Since Narendra Modi first took office in 2014, 47 people have been killed in cow-related hate crimes in India. 76 percent of those who died were Muslim. Asmeena mourns the death of her husband, a dairy farmer named Rakbar, who was allegedly murdered by “cow vigilantes.”