July 23, 1985, Forty Years Ago: Kanishka explosion
Rajiv-Longowal meet
The Akali Dal (L) president, Harchand Singh Longowal, will meet PM Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi. This will be the first contact between the Akali Dal leadership and the government since early 1984, when talks on the Punjab problem broke down. The meeting, which has come about at the Prime Minister's initiative, will be held in Parliament House.
PM talks to Reagan
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that he told US President Ronald Reagan that India would be hard-pressed to counter the nuclear threat from Pakistan if that country persisted in its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb. Although there were many points of divergence, Gandhi said he found Reagan to be 'very frank'.
DDA flats inspection
The Supreme Court appointed the chief engineer (quality control) of Delhi Development Authority as its commissioner to inspect the condition of the low-income group flats in KG 11, Vikaspuri, which were allegedly on the verge of crumbling down. In a petition, the KG 11 Residents Welfare Association said the condition of the flats, where over 400 families were living since 1982, was fast deteriorating.
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Hans India
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The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
TNCC to recognise people who worked for marginalised people
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Time of India
a day ago
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From Rajiv Gandhi to MGR: How OTT platforms are uncovering India's lesser-known political and freedom narratives
In recent years, Indian storytelling has witnessed a seismic shift in how it approaches its political past. No longer confined to history books or state-approved documentaries, stories of the nation's struggle for freedom and democracy are now being retold with cinematic richness — and, more importantly, with complexity and nuance. Thanks to the rise of Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, Indian filmmakers finally have the time, space, and creative freedom to delve into lesser-known or politically sensitive historical chapters. These include not just the independence movement or Partition, but also the lives of revolutionaries, assassinations of political leaders and regional evolution is redefining how Indians — especially younger generations — engage with history. The Hunt: Revisiting the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination One of the most compelling examples in this emerging genre is the recently released series The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case by Nagesh Kukunor . The show revisits one of the darkest and most controversial chapters in post-independence India: the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Brother Donates Kidney To Save Sister's Life. One Year Later, He Says, I Wish I Never Did It, When This Happens Articles Vally Undo What sets The Hunt apart is its investigative thriller approach. It goes beyond just the moment of the attack to explore the tangled web of politics, insurgency, intelligence lapses, and international relations that led up to it. By focusing on the detailed investigation — including the hunt for the conspirators and the role of Indian agencies — the series sheds light on the broader geopolitical context of India's involvement in Sri Lanka's civil war, as well as the internal contradictions in Indian politics at the time. A Parallel Movement: Revolutionaries and Forgotten Fighters At the other end of the political-history spectrum is the upcoming series The Revolutionaries, based on Sanjeev Sanyal's acclaimed book Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom by NIkkhil Advani. The show resurrects a cohort of firebrand nationalists who fought colonial oppression not with nonviolence, but with radical activism and armed resistance. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Bagha Jatin, Rashbehari Bose, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, and Subhas Chandra Bose — their stories offer a dramatically different view of India's freedom struggle. The series, in development for an OTT platform, aims to balance the mainstream Gandhian narrative by spotlighting the ideological diversity within the independence movement. This marks a vital shift: instead of placing historical figures on pedestals, filmmakers now treat them as complex individuals with conflicting motivations, doubts, and flaws — which only makes their contributions more human and powerful. Political Cinema Gets Bold Similarly, Ram Madhvani's An Awakening of the Nation revisits the Jallianwala Bagh massacre through a dramatized lens, offering a deeply personal account of one of the most brutal acts of British repression. Partition, one of the most traumatic events in South Asian history, continues to echo in collective memory. Nikkhil Advani's Freedom at Midnight , adapted from the celebrated book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, dramatizes the power politics and human stories behind India's independence and division. Mayasabha: The Politics of Performance in Tamil Nadu Not all political stories are rooted in Delhi or the freedom struggle. Mayasabha, an ambitious series inspired by the intertwined lives of M.G. Ramachandran , M. Karunanidhi, and J. Jayalalithaa, charts the unique overlap of cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu. These towering figures weren't just politicians — they were actors, scriptwriters, and cultural icons who used the screen to shape ideologies. The show explores how power, performance, and populism collided in a state where the line between reel and real was often deliberately blurred. Why OTT Works for Political History OTT platforms are rewriting the rules of engagement with Indian history. Unlike mainstream cinema, which often demands commercial compromise, streaming services offer a safer creative space. Long-form storytelling lets creators go beyond headlines, capturing the grey zones, ideological conflicts, and unspeakable horrors that defined India's political past. Conclusion: Streaming the Nation's Memory India's political history is no longer confined to museums and memorials. Thanks to a new generation of creators and streaming platforms willing to take risks, history is finally being dramatized with all its contradictions, horrors, and humanity intact. From The Hunt to The Revolutionaries to Mayasabha, to Freedom at Midnight OTT platforms are ensuring that stories long buried are finally being told. Not with reverence, but with realism. Not as myth, but as memory. And that may be the most revolutionary act of all.
