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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Books / Film Jukeboxes on the Moon

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 3:52 PM

Rafil Kroll-Zaidi has written a surprising piece for Triple Canopy magazine about Bombay, Slumdog Millionaire, bildungsromane, and everything else:

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TWO WINTERS AGO, making their way through Bombay’s Victoria Terminus, two young Muslim men became famous. One was Jamal Malik, a fictional orphan in a movie. The other was Ajmal Amir Kasab, said to be from a clan of butchers in small-town Pakistani Punjab. The former, in the closing scenes of the film, is weedy, gawky; lets his mouth hang open in a pantomime of nervous exhilaration; is newly rich from winning a game show; kisses the girl and then dances with the rest of the cast. The latter, in the most widely seen photo, is stout, steroidful; wears too-short cargo pants, a knockoff VERSACE T-shirt, two backpacks filled with ammunition and snacks; carries a double-banana-clipped AK-47 that blurs as it swings through the depopulated space before him. On May 6, 2010, he was sentenced to be hanged.

This is smart, gorgeous, informative stuff. I hadn't heard of Triple Canopy before, but the whole magazine is impressive. They're doing the sort of stuff that people say is not happening on the internet: Intelligent reportage and analysis that isn't afraid to go in-depth. I'm going to be digging through the archives for a long time to come.

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Comments (3) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

So I like the article, but the PDF format is totally obnoxious.

Posted by Kariglitter on July 14, 2010 at 12:59 AM

Agreed, plus it has no photos, which add a lot to the online layout. Though the online layout had a little spat with my browser in one or two places. Possibly a function of outdated Firefox. Update, kids!

Posted by jaydub on July 14, 2010 at 7:54 AM