A digital magazine on sexuality, based in the Global South: We are working towards cultivating safe, inclusive, and self-affirming spaces in which all individuals can express themselves without fear, judgement or shame

Author: Syed Saad Ahmad

Poster of the film 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram', showing a man dressed in a red shirt caressing a woman dressed in a blouse and lehenga that exposes her midriff

राज कपूर की सत्यम शिवम् सुन्दरम में आकांक्षाएँ और समझौते

सयद साद अहमद द्वारा लिखित “हम क्या वास्तव में सच जानना चाहते हैं? सत्य की क्या आवश्यकता है? उसके बदले में झूठ क्यों नहीं? अनिश्चितता? अज्ञानता?...कोई वचन झूठ हो, ज़रूरी नहीं वो गलत हो...हमें ये देखना है कि वो कितनी ज़रूरी हैं हमारी ज़िन्दगी में...मनुष्यों का ऐसा झुकाव है कि बड़े से बड़ा झूठ हमारे…
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Still from a title song of Hindi film 'Satyam shivam sundaram'. A woman wearing light yellow-coloured saree with no blouse is clutching her dupatta that is covering her head. She is singing a song at night under a tree with small purple flowers.

Reel Review: Desire and Conciliation in Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Satyam Shivam Sundaram (Truth, God, Beauty) is the story of Rupa (Zeenat Aman), an archetypical abhagan (wretched girl), whose misery begins at her birth when her mother dies. She is immediately declared an accursed child and is shunned by others. Later, a freak accident results in scalding oil splashing across one side of her face, leaving her permanently scarred. Nevertheless, she goes about her daily life – alone, yet content.
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Still from a film. A man and a woman at a restaurant table, talking. A bunch of red flowers are kept on the table in front of them.

Reel Review: Romance Across Age and Race in ‘Ali: Fear Eats the Soul’

Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira), a widow in her sixties, walks into a bar to take shelter from the rain. She is met with hostile stares by a mixed group of Moroccan immigrants and Germans. As a joke, one of his friends challenges Ali (El Hedi ben Salem m'Barek Mohammed Mustafa), a young strapping Berber man, to ask her for a dance. He agrees, and thus begins a romance across the taboo lines of race and age.
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