This book aims to challenge the prevailing notion that gold represents prosperity and success by exploring its darker side. It begins with a family of weavers in ancient Eastern Bengal who, fleeing British oppression, settle in West Bengal near the Bhagirathi River. Their fortunes change when they rise from poverty to become a royal dynasty, thanks to a divine decree and the acquisition of a gold crown. However, the insatiable desire for the crown becomes their undoing, as it unleashes a series of devastating events that ultimately lead to their downfall. The author masterfully weaves together elements of the paranormal, toxic relationships, and unethical actions, all of which become magnetized by the power of gold. Throughout the narrative, the book also highlights the strength and resilience of feminine beings. It delves into the history of muslin, a fabric associated with femininity, to illustrate how women have used it as a symbol of protection and empowerment. By doing so, the book prompts readers to question the conventional perception of gold and its association with positive attributes. It invites us to explore a different perspective on the interplay between gold, power, and femininity. Through the mysteries and transformations embedded in the story, the author compels us to redefine our understanding of gold and its connection to feminine power.

Satyajit Ray was India's first film-maker to gain international recognition as a master of the medium, and today he continues to be regarded as one of the world's finest directors of all time. This book looks at his work.

Aloka Pal inspected "Jalsaghar", for the engagement of her son Dr. Moni Pal and Bina Roy and was happy.At night, after dinner, Moni Pal was found dead, probably murdered, as it appeared.Who killed Moni Pal?Investigation team was led by LalBazar detective Mita Ghosh and her supporters.A few months later, Dipak Ghosh, a close friend of Bina was murdered in Jalsaghar as well. Has the same person murdered both?Or, are there multiple murderers?Won't you read the book to find the truth?

About the Book AN ESSENTIAL BOOK FOR EVERY CINEPHILE’S LIBRARY Satyajit Ray is the tallest Indian figure in world cinema. Retrospectives across the globe, perhaps even more than at home, have kept his legacy alive. But how do we understand his cinema in the context of a vastly different world? What keeps great cinema from becoming dated? What are the particularities of Ray’s movies that cause them to endure? Bhaskar Chattopadhyay’s literary engagement with Ray’s cinema spans years. In this book, he revisits each one of Satyajit Ray’s thirty-nine feature films, shorts and documentaries to investigate their cinematic and social context. He also speaks to a number of the master’s collaborators as well as other directors and critics to truly understand Ray and his work. Packed with delightful anecdotes and fresh insights, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray is an essential book for every cinephile’s library.

Indispensable for students of film studies, in this book Reena Dube explores Satyajit Ray's films, and The Chess Players in particular, in the context of discourses of labour in colonial and postcolonial conditions. Starting from Daniel Defoe and moving through history, short story and film to the present, Dube widens her analysis with comparisons in which Indian films are situated alongside Hollywood and other films, and interweaves historical and cultural debates within film theory. Her book treats film as part of the larger cultural production of India and provides a historical sense of the cross genre borrowings, traditions and debates that have deeply influenced Indian cinema and its viewers.

This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to rethink the multiple dimensions of marginality – political, societal, economic, cultural, legal and spatial. It explores their new representations in colonial and post-colonial India. Departing from extant analyses of experiences of marginalization in diverse social groups, it proposes to problematize the conceptualization of marginality, focusing on its evolution through space and time. A relational position, marginality, it is argued, presupposes a confrontation with centrality or the ‘mainstream’ within a common discourse of knowledge and power. The volume emphasizes that the process of marginalization is not a ‘marginal’ phenomenon and draws attention to the historical processes which determine, establish and perpetuate the margins. The book reflects on varied aspects of evolving marginalities – structural, cultural and psychological – in South Asia in diverse temporal, spatial or societal contexts. It examines the discourses, institutional mechanisms and economic processes within which marginalities are located. This work will be an important read for scholars and researchers of history, anthropology, subaltern studies, exclusion studies, South Asian history, post-colonial studies, political studies, Indian history, cultural studies and history, in general.

Two interviews with the Indian film director, producer, and author.