Pakistan
Soulful Islamic passion: the Najmuddin Saifuddin groupThursday, 25 August 2016
Qawwali music is amongst the most soulful, passionate music in the world. Many people have discovered it through the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who was one the greatest singers of the last half century. Seeing him perform at an early WOMAD was... Read more... |
The Invisible Hand, Tricycle TheatreFriday, 20 May 2016
In the long tradition of fictional characters who embody their monikers, the naming of Nick Bright hardly counts as the most colourful, but it has a sardonic edge. Clearly the young American banker at the centre of Ayad Akhtar’s tight political... Read more... |
How Gay Is Pakistan?, BBC ThreeWednesday, 21 October 2015
As a YouTube comic Mawaan Rizwan is clearly at ease on screen, and right at the beginning of How Gay Is Pakistan? he was telling us about coming out as gay to his family last year: it was “the worst news ever for Pakistani parents”. Director Masood... Read more... |
Treasures of the Indus, BBC FourTuesday, 08 September 2015
The BBC India Season is bringing us a cluster of programmes amounting to a fascinatingly varied series of visits to the subcontinent. Incidentally, and not coincidentally, there is also an India Festival with myriad exhibitions, conferences and... Read more... |
DVD: War and PeaceTuesday, 04 August 2015
Indian documentarist Anand Patwardhan is far less known outside his native country than he deserves to be, and his 2002 film about nuclear proliferation on the subcontinent War and Peace (Jang aur Aman) is a good introduction to a filmmaker who has... Read more... |
10 Questions for Rumer 2015Monday, 02 February 2015
Last autumn Rumer reappeared with her third album, Into Colour, surprising everyone with a lead single that was disco-flavoured. The rest of the album was closer in scope to the opulent LA easy listening and classic West Coast singer-songwriter fare... Read more... |
Dara, National TheatreWednesday, 28 January 2015
The history play has roots that go deep into our culture. We love to see stories that are kitted out in fancy dress, and long to savour a past that resonates with our present. In the case of Dara, which is adapted by Tanya Ronder from an original by... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Playwright Ayub Khan DinSunday, 11 January 2015
It’s been quite a journey for Ayub Khan Din. Born in 1961, the acclaimed playwright grew up in a crowded Salford household, the youngest child of a Pakistani father and a white English mother. The cultural clashes he witnessed – as his Anglicised... Read more... |
Last Tango in Halifax, Series 3, BBC One / Homeland, Series 4 Finale, Channel 4Monday, 29 December 2014
Back for its third series [***], Sally Wainwright's saga of Yorkshire folk continues to tread a precarious line between syrupy soapfulness and a family drama with sharp little teeth. Its excellent cast helps to carry it over the worst of the soggy... Read more... |
Homeland, Series 4, Channel 4 / The Code, BBC FourMonday, 13 October 2014
It was tempting to assume that Homeland [****] had died along with Damian Lewis's Brody, last seen dangling gruesomely from a crane in Tehran at the end of series three, but this tense and uncomfortable season-opener suggested that all may not be... Read more... |
The Djinns of Eidgah, Royal Court TheatreWednesday, 23 October 2013
The Royal Court is justly proud of being the home of British new writing, but it is also a venue which has a great tradition of staging work from abroad. From bringing Brecht and Beckett here in the 1950s to its more recent international summer... Read more... |
DVD: Zero Dark ThirtyMonday, 10 June 2013
Despite its five Oscar nominations, in the end Zero Dark Thirty only won for Best Sound Editing, with the Academy showing a distinct preference for the more "thrillerised" version of US foreign affairs displayed in Ben Affleck's hugely entertaining... Read more... |
