Jnanpith awardee and eminent Malayalam poet, lyricist and environmentalist O N V Kurup passed away at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday following cardiac arrest. He was 84.
'Whether I die in Calcutta or in Paris, on a Wednesday or a Saturday, it does not matter, but you would not want me to come to India's door and then return to France without having visited India.' 'Either I will die or I will visit India!' Claude Arpi hails Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister during the Great War, a great man who loved India.
It seems to be a Tom Hanks and Cate Blanchett show all the way!
Rediff.com looks at some prominent leaders in our past who evinced an affection for the words of Shakespeare. An anniversary special.
Buried in a Kolkata cemetery is an Englishman who served India well during her struggle for freedom. Charles Freer Andrews was a benevolent force that neither the Indians, nor the British could ignore.
'Sanjay Leela Bhansali's historical characters behave as though they are already aware of the chapters that will be dedicated to them and the sonnets that will be written in their memory.' 'And yet, they talk relentlessly about making and remaking history.' 'Can anything be more superficial?' asks Sreehari Nair.
Christie's second art auction in Mumbai saw 78 works by Indian artists fetching a total of Rs 75.27 crore.
Saratchandra wrote when India was under British raj, but his concerns were contemporary.
These predictions will ensure you have the perfect romantic day.
'Patriotism is like love: When it has to be enforced, it isn't real.' 'And the enforcement of a homogeneous view of love for the country is a particularly divisive feature that has ripped apart societies throughout history.'
'It's like a railway compartment which is really crowded and you have to make your own space, work harder for that seat.' Divya Dutta makes her presence felt.
'The very fact that she survived her migration to Bollywood, where many young lives have been sacrificed or abandoned to the streets, bears testimony to her grit, determination and good fortune,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Deep-learning machines are conquering realm after realm of human expertise, but is there a difference between Them and Us?
'I am angry because this ever happened.' 'I am sad because it's painful to think what they must be going through.' 'I am glad we've fought hard to break through such cruel tradition.' 'But it burns my blood to think we're still holding on to regressive culture that is stemmed from preserving this so-called honour,' says Sukanya Verma.
From Pakeezah to Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, from Shatranj ki Khilari to Umrao Jaan, the great city of Lucknow has made its way to the wornderful world of Hindi films.
The former cricketer reiterated his love for his state, saying he would choose it over any party or family.
For Aanchal Malhotra, the stories of Partition were stories that needed to be told; they needed to be chronicled.
'Parts of Pad Man look like a Vicco Turmeric commercial, parts of it look like a Tourism Ad and parts of it like a commercial for Etihad Airlines. But almost all of it, unmistakably, sounds like one big town-hall message,' says Sreehari Nair.
'No other actor in India was as lucky as me,' Soumitra Chatterjee tells Indrani Roy/ Rediff.com
'The BJP should avoid escalating every local issue and minor provocation into a national crisis and claiming a 'holier than thou' monopoly on patriotism.' 'And the Opposition should avoid paying the government back in the same coin by crying wolf about intolerance at the slightest provocation.'
Veteran music composer Khayyam revisits Umrao Jaan.
Prime Minister Modi described the DMK chief as a prolific thinker and a deep-rooted mass leader who stood for regional aspiration and national progress.
'As you trek back down the centuries, returning to myth and legend, to stories told by people gone for hundreds of years who had the same fears and hopes as you, who hoped that their future, the world you inhabit, would be a kinder and happier place, you understand that there will never be an end to the exploring,' says Nilanjana S Roy.
Queen Of Katwe feels almost like Mira Nair is making a Bollywood film in Africa, notes Raja Sen.
Stretch. Make some calls. Or simply organise your desk.
Here's more on the profession from Malishka.
'Our Indian culture system is very family oriented.' 'We value and respect the decisions of our parents to a great extent.' 'That can be a pro or con.' 'It's up to the parents to gauge how much motivation, pressure or space a child needs.' 'Every child is different.' 'We are all unique and that is what I intend to drive home to parents.'
Among many things that Amitabh Bachchan's onscreen credentials remains unrivalled for, dying is right at the top!
On Kishore Kumar's 86th birthday, we revisit a Rediff.com exclusive special by Pritish Nandy on the late legend.
'I'm a rascal, I'm going to play a paramahansa?!'
If the classical language is to live in India, its teachers and fans must separate their love for the language from that for the country or their religion, feels Arundhuti Dasgupta
'The non-cinephiles may hold up Sholay as their personal favourite and the cinephile lot may quote something like 8 1/2 as the movie to load with them on the ark.' 'But for a good percentage of these people from both categories, if there is one film to simply laze around with, a film that can extract them from their dull funk, it's definitely DCH.'
Aishwarya Rai confirmed in her September 27, 2002, interview to The Times Of India: 'Salman and I broke up last March, but he isn't able to come to terms with it.'
In the heat and dust of a Baramati rally with Supriya Sule.
On the occasion of her breaking the world's longest hunger strike, Rediff.com reproduces this 2011 feature on the activist and her life.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani has ruffled quite a few feathers among the descendants of the Peshwa and his Muslim wife.
The characters drawn for the 2016 film have an edge that wasn't present in the 1967 version. This is perhaps why The Jungle Book has been given an U/A certificate in India. For once, Pahlaj Nihalani may be right, feels Aseem Chhabra.
Nikita Puri introduces the Indian teenager who has joined the league of innovators with celestial bodies named after them.
'This is a movie, which if you allow it to, will wash itself all over you, so that you emerge from it a little drenched but wide awake,' says Sreehari Nair.
'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.'
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