Tuli Research Centre for India Studies

Tuli Research Centre for India Studies Sharing Neville Tuli’s unique thirty year journey dedicated to building cultural institutions in India and their knowledge-bases

28/08/2026

How does “Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Bah Gaye” make loneliness visible through music, costume and cinematography?

“Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Bah Gaye” from B.R. Chopra’s Nikaah (1982), sung by Salma Agha, is a song about loneliness made visible in every frame.

Antara Mondal gives a fascinating reading of the song through its choice of costume, designed by Bhanu Athaiya, who used authentic Hyderabad pearls and ghararas of twenty-five to thirty yards to complement the grandeur of the palace. At the same time, the cinematography, using subdued candlelight and a camera positioned high above, looks down, effectively diminishing the figure of Salma Agha inside a palace that is too magnificent yet too empty, underlining her loneliness.

As part of the workshop ‘A Musical Glue for Nation-Building: Deconstructing the Hindi Film Song,’ the discussion explored the song’s origins, its enduring popularity, and the many ways it has circulated across audiences and generations. The panelists included Shikha Jhingan, Ravikant, Antara Mondal, and Neville Tuli.



[ Nikaah, Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Bah Gaye, B.R. Chopra, Salma Agha, Bhanu Athaiya, Antara Mondal, Shikha Jhingan, Ravikant, Neville Tuli, Hindi Film Song, Film Music, Costume Design, Cinematography, Tuli Research Centre, India Studies ]

27/08/2026

What makes “Din Hai Bahar Ke” from Waqt (1965) such a distinctive expression of youthful energy and urban modernity?

The playful, romantic duet sung by Asha Bhonsle and Mahendra Kapoor, “Din Hai Bahar Ke” from Waqt (1965), featuring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore, was composed by Ravi with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi. A pioneer in the use of ensemble casts, the film was directed by Yash Chopra and produced by B.R. Chopra.

Picturised on a boat, the song exudes a youthful energy, where two lovers engage in a conversation with each other in a public setting. The modernity of their outfits, the dance moves, reflect an urbanity in the joyful melody that is a fusion between folk music and the more modern sounds adopted by Hindi films at the time.

Part of the workshop, ‘A Musical Glue for Nation-Building: Deconstructing the Film Song,’ which entailed a broader exploration of four iconic songs from the cinema of B.R. Chopra, experts Shikha Jhingan, Ravikant, Antara Mondal and Neville Tuli engaged in a discussion to deconstruct facets of the song.



[ Waqt, Din Hai Bahar Ke, B.R. Chopra, Yash Chopra, Ravi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Asha Bhonsle, Mahendra Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Shikha Jhingan, Ravikant, Antara Mondal, Neville Tuli, Tuli Research Centre ]

26/08/2026

How does “Udein Jab Jab Zulfein Teri” transform a romantic song into an expression of community, labour and dignity?

The beautiful “Udein Jab Jab Zulfein Teri” from B.R. Chopra’s Naya Daur (1957) feels open-ended, almost timeless, because it draws from folklore and the rhythms of village life. In this clip, Ravikant, Professor, CSDS, examines the folk-inflected melody of the duet by Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle, with Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics and O.P. Nayyar’s music.

On the surface, the song is a romantic number between the main leads, Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala but the song sits inside a film whose central fear is people losing their jobs when machines arrive. Ravikant likens this anxiety with the current state of affairs wherein the threat of AI looms large in our lives. Against that backdrop, this song becomes more than just a romantic number. It becomes an expression of people’s power and dignity, a celebration of the community that is sustained by labour and solidarity.

This discussion was part of the series ‘Deconstructing the Film Song: A Musical Glue for Nation-Building,’ presented by the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S) as part of the 7th Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India Festival.



[ Naya Daur, Udein Jab Jab Zulfein Teri, B.R. Chopra, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Sahir Ludhianvi, O.P. Nayyar, Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Ravikant, Hindi Film Song, Film Music, Tuli Research Centre, Neville Tuli, India Studies ]

25/08/2026

What makes “Aye Maalik Tere Bande Ham” from Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) a song that continues to live beyond cinema?

V. Shantaram’s film about prisoners, reform and second chances, Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), gives us the bhajan “Aye Maalik Tere Bande Ham,” which transcended the film to become an integral part of school prayers.

Composed by Vasant Desai in a simple, hummable Bhairavi, with Bharat Vyas’s lyrics carrying a strong moral core, the song exists in two versions, as a male chorus building a community of voices, and Lata Mangeshkar’s solo, where her voice carries a frailty the male version never attempts.

Presented here is a glimpse from the session in which Shikha Jhingan, Associate Professor, Cinema Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, examines the two versions of the song, the community built through its chorus, and Shantaram’s German Expressionist play of light and darkness that accompanies the lyrics of the song. Together, these elements explain why the song remains woven into everyday Indian life.

This session was part of the series ‘Deconstructing the Film Song: A Musical Glue for Nation-Building,’ presented by the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.) as part of the 7th Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India Festival.



[ Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Aye Maalik Tere Bande Ham, V. Shantaram, Vasant Desai, Bharat Vyas, Lata Mangeshkar, Shikha Jhingan, German Expressionism, Hindi Film Song, Film Music, Tuli Research Centre, Neville Tuli, India Studies, Self Discovery via Rediscovering India Festival ]

25/08/2026

How do V. Shantaram and B.R. Chopra transform film songs from entertainment into language for society, memory and nation-building?

V. Shantaram and B.R. Chopra were two of Indian cinema’s most distinctive filmmakers, whose films engaged with questions of society, reform, morality and changing realities of India. Across their work, the film song became integral to their cinematic language, carrying ideas, emotions and social commentary through music, lyrics, performance and narrative.

‘A Musical Glue for Nation-Building: Deconstructing the Film Song’ examines four transformative songs from their films, exploring how songs reveal changing ideas of society, gender, relationships, morality and nationhood:

‘Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum’ | Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) | V. Shantaram

‘Udein Jab Jab Zulfen Teri’ | Naya Daur (1957) | B.R. Chopra

‘Din Hai Bahar Ke’ | Waqt (1965) | B.R. Chopra

‘Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Beh Gaye’ | Nikaah (1982) | B.R. Chopra

Spanning twenty-five years, these songs articulate meanings far beyond their immediate narratives. Featuring Madan Gopal Singh, Ravikant, Shikha Jhingan, Antara Mondal, Juhi Saklani and Neville Tuli, presented by the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies as part of the 7th Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India Festival.

Watch the full series on our YouTube channel to explore how these iconic film songs shaped Indian cinema and nation-building. Link in bio.



[ Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum, Do Aankhen Barah Haath, V. Shantaram, Vasant Desai, Bharat Vyas, Udein Jab Jab Zulfen Teri, Naya Daur, B.R. Chopra, Din Hai Bahar Ke, Waqt, Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Beh Gaye, Nikaah, Madan Gopal Singh, Ravikant, Shikha Jhingan, Antara Mondal, Juhi Saklani, Neville Tuli, Tuli Research Centre, India Studies ]

Thank you for making SWARAJ a shared and meaningful experience.Students from schools and colleges, scholars, artists, di...
21/08/2026

Thank you for making SWARAJ a shared and meaningful experience.

Students from schools and colleges, scholars, artists, diplomats, political figures, civil society members and visitors across generations encountered India’s political history through art, photography, print, cinema, books and visual-textual-audio archives with great joy. Your curiosity, conversations and responses brought the exhibition to life. No one who visited, left the exhibition with the same mindset regarding India and her political journey. New questions, new tangents, new journeys to unite and decipher. The scale and depth of the journey’s diversity was the wonder for all to behold.

At the heart of SWARAJ was an educational purpose: to excite and inspire young minds, and encourage them to question history more deeply. The exhibition presented the visual as a vital source of knowledge, creating a jugalbandi between image and text through which history could be seen, read, interpreted and debated.

Celebrating India’s 80th Independence Day through this collective engagement with history made the experience especially significant.

If you could not join us in Delhi, the journey continues online. Experience SWARAJ: Revisualising India’s Political History: www.tuliresearchcentre.org/calendar/swaraj-revisualising-india-s-political-history-12-16-august-2026-81

Visit www.tuliresearchcentre.org
to explore SWARAJ and discover upcoming exhibitions. (Link in bio)

With gratitude,
Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.)



[ SWARAJ, Revisualising India’s Political History, India Studies, Indian Political History, Tuli Research Centre for India Studies, Neville Tuli, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Indian Independence, Swaraj, Political History of India, Modern India, Indian Art, Indian History, Neville Tuli ]

When does a gathering become a force capable of changing history?In Demonstrators, Krishna Reddy captures the energy of ...
18/08/2026

When does a gathering become a force capable of changing history?

In Demonstrators, Krishna Reddy captures the energy of student protest through a dense field of rising forms. Figures emerge with arms raised, their bodies gathering into the rhythm of a crowd. Layered colours and deeply worked lines evoke movement, tension and solidarity.

Reddy created the work in Paris in 1968, amid student demonstrations, university occupations and workers’ strikes. He witnessed people questioning authority and demanding political, social and cultural freedom.

Many also consider this protest and the ideas associated with it as a pivotal moment to help further define the birth of postmodernism.

This experience shaped his image of a crowd entering public space and asserting its collective voice.

A pioneering modern printmaker, Reddy helped develop viscosity printing at Atelier 17, enabling several colours to be printed from a single plate. In Demonstrators, colours meet, surfaces resist and forms rise from the plate, mirroring the pressure of protest.

The exhibition also presents Reddy’s 1968-69 Demonstrators in synthetic resin, translating raised arms and closely gathered bodies into sculptural form. Together, the works explore the shared energy of protest across printmaking and sculpture.

Within SWARAJ: Revisualising India’s Political History, these works extend self-rule beyond national independence. Swaraj lives in the courage to question authority, participate in public life and imagine a more equitable society. Demonstrators reminds us that political change can begin when individual convictions gather into a shared demand for transformation.

Artwork 1: Demonstrators
Artist: Krishna Reddy
Medium: Coloured engraving on paper
Date: 1968

Artwork 2: Demonstrators
Artist: Krishna Reddy
Medium: Synthetic Resin
Date: 1968-69

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹: Wednesday, 19 August 2026
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲: 10:00 AM–7:00 PM
📍 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟭 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻!
Entry is Free and Open to all

🌐 www.tuliresearchcentre.org

17/08/2026

𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗵𝗶 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 and SWARAJ continues until 19 August.

The extraordinary response to SWARAJ: Revisualising India’s Political History has been deeply encouraging. Visitors have embraced its distinctive presentation of India’s political journey through art, image, text and sound. In response, the exhibition has been extended until Wednesday, 19 August 2026.

The exhibition has welcomed students, historians and academics, artists, diplomats, political figures, members of civil society, and people brought together by a shared curiosity about and love for India and India Studies. Their engagement, conversations and appreciation have transformed SWARAJ into a vibrant space for encountering and reconsidering the many ideas that shaped modern India.

The Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.) presents:

SWARAJ: Revisualising India’s Political History
Curated by Neville Tuli

The exhibition traces India’s journey towards political self-rule and self-discovery through modern and contemporary fine and popular arts, photography, film memorabilia, rare prints, books and visual-textual-audio archives.

Discover rarely seen material and encounter the people, movements, debates and creative expressions that shaped India’s evolving understanding of Swaraj.

If you have been planning to visit, this is your opportunity to experience an exhibition unlike any other in Delhi.

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹: Wednesday, 19 August 2026
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲: 10:00 AM–7:00 PM
📍 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻!
Entry is Free and Open to all

🌐 www.tuliresearchcentre.org



[ SWARAJ, Revisualising India’s Political History, Neville Tuli, Tuli Research Centre, India Studies, Visual Arts

Madan Mahatta’s photographs of 36 architectural models belong to a period when India was giving physical form to the amb...
17/08/2026

Madan Mahatta’s photographs of 36 architectural models belong to a period when India was giving physical form to the ambitions of a newly independent nation. From the 1950s through the 1980s, new universities, research centres, government offices, housing and cultural institutions were being planned across the country. Architects experimented with new materials, technologies and forms, while models became an important means of developing and presenting ideas before construction.
Born in Srinagar in 1932, Mahatta came from the Mahatta family of photographers and studied photography at the Guildford School of Art and Crafts in England. Returning to India in 1954, he worked from the family’s New Delhi studio, Mahatta & Co., developing a practice spanning commercial, industrial, architectural and documentary photography.

From the 1950s onwards, Mahatta photographed architects including Habib Rahman, Achyut P. Kanvinde, Joseph Allen Stein, Charles Correa, Raj Rewal, Kuldip Singh, Ram Sharma, Ranjit Sabhiki and Jasbir Sawhney. Their work reflects the changing vocabulary of post-Independence Indian architecture, from International Modernism and functionalism to Brutalism, Structural Expressionism and Critical Regionalism.

The 36 models bring this architectural imagination into focus, revealing how architects explored massing, structure, circulation, geometry, landscape and the relationship between building and city. Alongside his photographs of completed buildings, Mahatta’s model photography preserves architecture at the stage of conception, when ideas were still being tested and given form.

Visit the Exhibition 𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐉 | 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, curated by Neville Tuli, at 📍 Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 12-19 August 2026 (11:00 AM–7:00 PM)

𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻!
Entry is free and open to all
🌐 www.tuliresearchcentre.org



[ Madan Mahatta, Indian Architecture, Habib Rahman, Achyut P. Kanvinde, Joseph Allen Stein, Charles Correa, Raj Rewal, TRIS ]

How did Sudhir Patwardhan bring marginalised lives within the modern city into public view?In “Overbridge” (1981) four p...
15/08/2026

How did Sudhir Patwardhan bring marginalised lives within the modern city into public view?

In “Overbridge” (1981) four people coincide upon a pedestrian bridge. This wonderfully large pencil drawing preceded Patwardhan’s oil painting of the same title.

Two men walk with their arms across each other’s shoulders, suggesting that very Indian form of camaraderie within every city. A solitary man faces us Kafkaesque like, while a veiled woman at the edge appears marked by illness, possibly leprosy, and exclusion. Patwardhan observes them as they truly are, as stoic rather than heroic subjects.

Created amid social and economic change, Overbridge reflects urban alienation and marginalisation. Subaltern Studies was also taking shape, bringing lives excluded from dominant histories into focus. Patwardhan similarly gives overlooked urban subjects visibility and dignity.

Trained as a doctor, Patwardhan works as a radiologist in Thane alongside his self-taught artistic practice. Encounters with commuters, labourers and patients shape his urban realism, a genuinely empathic expression of our people and their daily grind endured with grace and resilience, but not romanticised.

Within SWARAJ: Revisualising India’s Political History Exhibition, the drawing asks how freedom is experienced at society’s margins, placing dignity, recognition and companionship at the heart of Swaraj.

Artwork: Overbridge (1981), Pencil Drawing on paper
Artist: Sudhir Patwardhan

Visit the Exhibition 𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐉 | 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, curated by Neville Tuli, at 📍 Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, from 12–19 August 2026 (11:00 AM–7:00 PM)

🌐 http://www.tuliresearchcentre.org

Entry is free and open to all



[ Sudhir Patwardhan, Overbridge, Swaraj, Revisualising India’s Political History, India Studies, Contemporary India Studies, Indian Studies, Study of India, Tuli Research Centre for India Studies, Neville Tuli, Modern Indian Art, Urban Labour, Mumbai, Social Responsibility of the Creative Mind, Indian Contemporary Art, Urban Life ]

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