Saurabh Mahajan, a former Indian Army officer, is making history in medieval battles grounds. Rediff.com's Archana Masih meets the man who has supplied vintage armour and war props to Assassin's Creed, The Hobbit and knights in shining armour to the Tower of London.
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You'll be hard pressed to find another hero so totally, awesomely Super, insists Raja Sen.
Nitish Kumar is on the brink of taking another wrong turn. It is hard to fathom why he would tie up with the Congress, which has little political capital left in Bihar. Aditi Phadnis reports
Barack Obama will still be in the Oval Office till the morning of January 20, but gosh, we are already beginning to miss him.
Opener Kieran Powell's half century along with spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Nikita Miller's magical spell, tightened the West Indies A grip over India A on the third day of the first unofficial Test at Gangothri Glades Cricket Grounds in Mysore on Friday.
Brilliant movies from China, Ethiopia, Austria and India line up for Mumbai.
In a major breakthrough in China's worst terrorist attack at the Kunming railway station, police on Monday captured three militants from the restive Xinjiang province who fled the scene of slashing rampage that killed 33 people and injured 143 others.
The high-voltage campaign for the February 4 assembly elections in Punjab came to an end on Thursday evening following hectic campaigning by various political parties.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as National Unity Day, saying a nation that disregards its history cannot create one and made a veiled reference to anti-Sikh riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination this day 30 years ago.
Khoobsurat offers up the expected -- only it does so with a smirk, says Raja Sen.
The BJP's national leadership seems to have convinced itself that with a weakened, post-Jaya AIADMK for company, they should be able to strike roots before long, and start by winning about 10-15 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bollywood's fortunes might not hinge on Pakistani actors and singers, but the forced ban on them sends out a disturbing message.
'One lesson to emerge out of the Modi-Putin summit is that India can be more self-confident that it possesses inherent strengths to leverage its interlocutors to influence Pakistani policies,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The outcome of the Bangkok NSA-level talks underscores that Pakistan has got exactly what it wanted -- talks at different levels, talks on Kashmir, talks on mutual concerns regarding terrorism, talks on ceasefire on the border. What if any has been India's gains remains unexplained, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'For short-term gain, the BJP makes extraordinary promises, they take extraordinary decisions, but in the long term it is going to impact both them and the country.'
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Paloma Sharma feels Rajjo is a very confusing film.
Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda was on Wednesday remanded in seven days' police custody by a Delhi court after the investigators said those who had allegedly helped him in illegal infiltration of Pakistani nationals are yet to be identified.
'I just lucked out.' 'I got good roles. I was in the right phase, selected at the right time.' 'But I had no great ambition.' Suchitra Krishnamoorthy gives us a glimpse into her career.
When it comes to celebrating William Shakespeare, can India be far behind?
Having a young, untested leader makes sense for the Tamil Nadu BJP. But the new state president's immediate concern will be to gain acceptance within the state unit that is still in the grip of those with a strong RSS background, says N Sathiya Moorthy
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the demonetisation move, the united opposition hit back at the government over common man's suffering.
Virender Sehwag's experiment to bat in the middle-order failed, and Gautam Gambhir's woeful run of form continued, as India 'A' were restricted to 191 for 3 at stumps on the second day of the second unofficial 'Test' against West Indies 'A', at the Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering cricket ground, in Shimoga, on Thursday.
More than the traditional Dravidian political rivalry that's now on display, it's boiling down to father-son one-upmanship within the DMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Indian team's batting woes continued as they lost their opening warm-up tie of the ICC World T20 against Sri Lanka by five runs in Dhaka on Monday.
Rush is a rousing, thrilling film, feels Raja Sen.
Haider is a remarkable achievement and one of the most powerful political films we've ever made, a bonafide masterpiece that throbs with intensity and purpose.
'Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be anxious for a farewell visit to Washington in October,' says retired Ambassador K C Singh, 'but bending backwards on America's PRISM policy is going to earn him scorn at home and contempt abroad.'
When people say the two-day visit was been successful in taking back the bilateral relationship to the political plane, essentially the reference (mostly left unsaid) is to the wresting of initiative from the intelligence 'agencies', whose meddling had hurt bilateral ties, says the distinguished editor Kanak Mani Dixit.
The Pampore attack 'has the stamp of LeT written all over it.'
'They are exactly like the so-called fidayeen of the 1999-2003 phase, when J&K witnessed a surge in suicide attacks on various important garrisons,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), who served as the General Officer Commanding 15 Corps in Kashmir.
'Patel was more in tune with the popular mood than Jawaharlal Nehru. While the principle that Hindus and Muslims should be able to live together remained central to Nehru's vision for India, the Sardar was less sentimental.' 'Nehru would angrily face down mobs himself, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot. A veritable tent city, filled with Muslim refugees, sprouted on the lawns of his bungalow... Mountbatten feared Nehru's impulsiveness would get him killed, and assigned soldiers to watch over him.' Nisid Hajari's Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition casts fresh light on the events and personalities behind the horrific division of the subcontinent which haunts the India and Pakistan to this day.
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The UP government, if it manages to remain in power now, must take immediate steps to ensure that no violence takes place as the country gears up for the elections. Action has to be taken to prevent this, not just through the law and order machinery, but through a secular campaign in which all non-communal political parties participate, says Seema Mustafa.
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
Arun Nehru's image of a political strategist, dealmaker and trouble shooter never allowed him to become a political leader of people, says Sheela Bhatt
'Muslims, like people of all other faiths, are quite comfortable with the idea of nationalism and democracy today. But are they following Islam in its spirit? That is a different question.'
It is always wonderful to discover a gem of film at an international film festival. It is even more exciting when that film is from India.
