Difference between revisions of "Blitz"

Revision as of 17:31, 3 July 2019

The Bombay tabloid Blitz epitomized the city’s mischievously modern spirit. The only one of its kind in India at the time, this provocative weekly unabashedly presented itself as the voice of the citizenry,  excoriating officialdom with over-the-top  reports  and articles. Adopting the  loud  and brash  character  of its  larger-than-life Parsi editor, Russi Karanjia, the tabloid was identified with the city. So was Behram Contractor, known by his pen name Busybee, who wrote his popular and characteristically witty “Round and About” columns,  first  in  the Evening News of India and  subsequently  in Mid-Day, before eventually settling on Afternoon Courier and Despatch, a tabloid he founded and edited. Poking gentle fun at everyone while offending no one, Busybee became known and loved as a  classic Bombay figure—at home in its metropolitan chaos while remaining alive to the absurdities of its everyday life. Similarly playfully critical was Gangadhar Gadgil. Trained as an economist, he wrote both in Marathi and in English with equal facility and prolificacy,  his satirical eye alighting on an eclectic choice of subjects—from an encounter with pickpockets in the city to the experience of traveling  in its crowded trains to the obsessions and practices of tea drinking in Bombay.

(Mumbai Fables, Gyan Prakash)

The Blitz over the years included features and columns by P. Sainath, KA Abbas (The Last Page), Olga Tellis (Anonymously) and the cartoonists RK Laxman and Abu Abraham. Cine Blitz was started in 1975 with Russi's daugther, Rita Mehta as its editor.

[[1981-Karanjia-How-Independent-Are-We-15-August.jpg|Blitz Cover, Independence Day 1981]