Bookshelf - May 2026

30 April, 2026

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Karan Mahajan’s latest novel, set in the 1980s and ’90s, follows the feuding Chopra family between a dilapidated housing complex in Delhi and life in the US. It looks closely at the rifts within the family while also exploring ideological chasms, unravelling legacies, political ambition, betrayal, nationalism and the breakdown of the state.

Harper Collins, Fourth Estate India, Rs 799, 428 pages

This book takes a close look at the Malayalam cinema industry, from its origins—including the story of how the negatives of Vigathakumaran, the first-ever Malayalam film, were cut up and burnt by the filmmaker’s young children—to studio rivalry, the formation of film societies in the 1960s, the rise of independent cinema, the Women in Cinema Collective’s work and more.

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