Faces of Change: Arts

Salman Rushdie

Writer of the World

Salman Rushdie arrived in the early '80s, finding his metier with Midnight's Childrenhis first fantasy effort Grimus having defeated both critics and readers. Asprawling, rollicking, aggressive book, mixing fiction and fantasy with a Joycean exuberance of language never seen in Indo-Anglian writing before, Midnight's Children invented new idiom and metaphor to interpret the multitextured reality of the subcontinent.Rushdie became an international literary sensation. A new master in the Latin school of magic realism, ranked alongside Gabriel Garcia Marquez himself. Shame secured this reputation, and though The Jaguar Smile proved a tardy effortlampooned for the author's naivetyThe Satanic Verses was a much awaited book. With this Rushdie hoped to conclude his fact-fantasy oeuvre of the subcontinent's peoples that would assure him posterity in literature. Midnight's Children sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and The Satanic Verses received a mind-boggling advance of850,000 (Rs2.2 crore). More than 65.000 copies of the British hardback edition (price 12.95) have already been sold. (Satanic Storm, March 15, 1989)

Satyajit Ray during the making of the film Aparajito.

The Master of Light

In fact it is one of the inscrutable quirks of fate that India, with a tradition of epic poetry,dance, sculpture and architecture that dates back three millenia, is now represented best by an artist working in a medium no more than 75 years old. No creator of the arts in India, living or dead, has ever attained that shadowy pinnacle of fame as Ray has. And he has accomplished it in a sphere as fiercely competitive as the cinema,where works are pitted against each other every year at international festivals; fads and fashions change like patterns in a kaleidoscope; and only very few qualify to be treasured by posterity. (The Genius of Satyajit Ray, February 15, 1983)