This Week In Culture: Kerala-Themed, Sneaker, A Homegrown Pop-Punk EP, & Much More

Festival season is here; which means intensified house cleaning, making DIY sweets at home and waking up early by the sound of loudspeakers from your local pandal. Not a fan of the last one but hey, might as well use the morning hours for my winter arc.

The festivals are a time when no matter how bad your year was, you feel just a little better knowing that there is some sort of celebration coming. It doesn't matter if you stuck to your new year resolutions, the festivities are like a little pat on the back for coming this far that you get to indulge in with your family and friends.

I like the idea of that. A little break from the constant race that a capitalistic framework puts us into; of achieving and accomplishing certain goals by a certain age. All you have to do is look at pretty fireworks and eat some delicious food. This is something that the grind universe will never be able to take away from us: our culturally-sanctioned vacations where the entire purpose is a celebration of life.

Little breaks are everything. Little breaks make the world go round. While the festivities come in once a year. Our culture bulletin is a weekly phenomena that gives you a few moments to get off your feet and connect with what's happening across the country. Here's what we have for you this week:

'Manikbabur Megh' By Abhinandan Banerjee

Abhinandan Banerjee’s directorial debut intersects magical realism and urban fantasy. A surreal story about a man, a cloud, and a city, the film revolves around a middle-aged everyman in Kolkata. The monotony of his life is broken through the death of his father. After which, to his own surprise, a cloud starts following him everywhere he goes. With the city as its own character, Abhinandan's film weave a poetic narrative on hope and relationships through imaginative storytelling.

Read more about it here.

'Holy Cowboys' By Varun Chopra

Varun Chopra's latest documentary Holy Cowboys dives into cow vigilantism through the story about a group of teenage boys in rural Gujarat. The film chronicles how two young boys looking for purpose fall into the trap of a right wing group that uses cows, considered sacred in Hindu mythology as a weapon of radicalization and control.

Watch it here.

The Fear Of Falling In Love / The Fear Of Falling Apart By Ren

Pune-based outfit, Ren's latest EP is melancholic angst-ridden debut that threads the needle between familiarity and experimentation. Switching between alt-rock, pop-punk, and hyper-pop, the 5-track EP takes you through vignettes of rage, ecstasy, despair, and joy; tied together by a profoundly irrational and sentimental longing for a person that no longer exists. REN will be debuting the EP in full at the October 9 edition of the Mumbai underground gig series, ‘Degenerate Disco’ at antiSOCIAL Mumbai.

You can follow them here and listen to their EP here.

Homegrown Fantasy Novels

Indian literature may be brilliant in its own right but within the domain, fantasy is a genre that has seldom been explored: if you don't count our mythologies and Western depictions of India like The Jungle Book. A new wave of writers aim to change the narrative by giving us homegrown fantasy worlds through their novels.

Find them here.

Photographers Tell Us About One Photo That Impacted Them Deeply

All it takes is one piece of art to change the life of a budding creative. It becomes the difference between dreaming and chasing your dreams. For photographers, it's an image that they encounter before or during their career that change the way they look at the world. We asked some Indian photographers what that one picture for them was.

Click here to read their answers.

Naadu Sneakers By The Gully Labs

Gully Labs' latest drop that came out during Onam aims to immerse the wearers in Kerala's culture. Featuring green kantha woven patterns in the shape of elephant tusks over an off-white base that comes from Kerala sarees and mundus, the Naadu Sneakers dedicate its design to Kerala's spirit. The pookalam flower and the embroidered Malayalam script adds to the visual language as well.

Get it here.

Condiments By Small Batch Co

We might spend hours on YouTube and Instagram swooning over aesthetic cooking videos. But when it comes to recreating them, especially in this country, we tend fall into the same old meal patterns of what our families taught us growing up. In such times, some exciting sauces and condiments can inspire a new culinary idea and keep things fresh. Small Batch Co in one such brand that  combines everyday ingredients with refined flavours, making them versatile enough for cooking, and even dipping.

Check out their range of products here.

If you enjoyed reading this here's more from Homegrown:

The Gouda Life: A Guide To The Best Homegrown Artisanal Cheese Brands Across India

Visit The Aatma Manthan Museum In Rajasthan For A Quiet, Contemplative Experience

A Hindi Film Is The UK's Official Oscar Entry: What This Means For Indian Filmmaking