20 years ago this week, India and Australia played one of the greatest Test matches in cricket history. Sreehari Nair relives the sound and the fury of that unforgettable game at the Eden Gardens.
For a person who hasn't overdosed on a TV series for decades -- not since the delightful Friends, and much further back, the homily-laden Hum Log or the excellent Buniyaad or Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi -- Game of Thrones has been a game changer for me, writes Shuma Raha.
'Omerta is a work of true moral force; it is, at the risk of sounding fancy, a motion picture for our times,' says Sreehari Nair.
'It (life) has completely become different from what it used to be.'
From Pari to PadMan, it's all there in the movies this year!
Jordan launched a competition among elite anti-terrorism squads from 18 countries, including fellow members of military coalitions fighting rebels in Yemen and Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Communalising law and order situations is fraught with danger; we need to tread cautiously. Interjecting a communal angle into what is purely a law and order issue does nobody good; it muddies the picture, fuels unrequited passion and distracts us from the core issue, says Vivek Gumaste.
Ghayal Once Again starts out wobbly but gains substantial momentum till interval point, only to go completely haywire in its latter half, writes Sukanya Verma.
'Both Main Aur Charles and Titli are essentially stories of two plot-devices that became protagonists. You cannot relate to Titli or Charles, without submitting to the knowledge that neither of them are well-rounded characters; they are more like artifacts -- Charles, a schlock artifact and Titli, an artifact of spirit toughened by years of live brutality.'
Aseem Chhabra lists the top 10 films at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
Articulate segments of Muzaffarpur have been at the the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation, which makes their silence over the atrocities in a shelter home in the town puzzling. Could it be that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to dominant castes and if the victims belong to the vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
Kangana Ranaut, the fiery movie star, continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.
'How can a State, which claims to be a responsible power, unilaterally grab a "disputed" area to build a road on it?' asks Claude Arpi.
Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
A US army psychiatrist, accused of the shooting rampage at a military base nearly four years ago, on Tuesday admitted to the attack that killed 13 people, calling himself a 'mujahideen' in a short and unrepentant opening statement at his trial.
If only making it official was as easy as falling in love, says Sukanya Verma.
Much of the pre-2014 peace in our hotspots is diminished. Kashmir is on the boil and the Northeast is anarchic, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at the movies!
What's eating the Kapoors? Sukanya Verma gives you some answers.
'This is such a dynamic time for our entire community.' Ami Bera tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com what his selection means for desis in America.
'Two years ago, people said I was making smart choices -- making films with the likes of Vishal Bhardwaj, Milan Lutharia... But what happened? Nothing. The choices were intelligent but we went wrong in making the films.' Imran Khan talks about his big learnings, and more.
The floods that engulfed the state of Jammu and Kashmir have been unprecedented in its history. In fact, the deluge of rains suffered by the state was at par --- and in some case, far worse --- than what was witnessed in Uttarakhand in June last year.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will have to treat these militias for what they are: Criminals armed with deadly weapons. Otherwise, nothing will distinguish the National Democratic Alliance government from the ten-year long perfidy of the UPA in Assam.'
Rediff reader Subin Mohan from Dubai, talks about owning a Royal Enfield.
'He is still compulsively an operations man. Just a whiff of a live operation, and he is back in the field, at least in his mind. That is why the immediate decision to send the NSG to Pathankot.' 'But there is a difference between classical intelligence or counter-terror operation and dealing with a larger threat to a place as sensitive and sprawling as an air force base. This is what led to confusion and mix-ups,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Mr Mehta's jousts with owners and politicians taught many in the trade that editorial freedom is not given, it has to be fought for daily, and seized, especially in these times when the borders between journalism and paid-for-content masquerading as the real thing has permeated almost every newspaper in the land barring a couple.'
Better Call Saul keeps your adrenaline levels high.
Saying that the country was passing through a deep economic crisis for the first time since Independence, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the country needed a 'realistic' prime minister and not an economist like Manmohan Singh.
Market experts on why the bulls will be on the rampage first thing on Monday after the scrapping of enhanced surcharge on FPIs and other measures to ease the systemic liquidity squeeze and boost demand. Prasanna D Zore reports.
Among the finest Indian actors, voices and smiles to grace the stage and screen, Om Puri's uniqueness, always so fluid and natural, cannot be summed up in a few words, feels Sukanya Verma.
'For people who are fed on nothing else but the media, what were prejudices become facts of life.' 'What my neighbour may see as just news, for me is a source of fear, living as I do, surrounded by non-Muslims.' 'So I would say it is important to talk to a Muslim, be it your neighbour or your colleague.' 'Have that conversation about what's happening to Muslims.'
'Find a great date, or great dates for the rest of your lives, or maybe a great friendship.'
Director Matt Brown tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com what it was about The Man Who Knew Infinity that made him persevere for a decade to turn the book into a film.
'All governments try owning the message, but the Modi-Shah BJP has developed it into a fine art.'
Why do the biggest, most talented and successful film-makers of India suck up to the establishment so breathlessly, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'If you have never seen Kangana Ranaut on screen before, and instead know more about her in real life and the spirited controversies that seem to happily follow her about, you realise that the actress puts a lot of herself into a screen role, feels Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Set in the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Santosh Sivan's Inam brings to light the plight of the thousands of hapless Lankan Tamils, who were caught in the crossfire between the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam) and the Sri Lankan government.
'Gandhi was ambivalent about the RSS; the Sangh, for their part, actively distrusted him.'
Bitter but not unnerved by the "lack of respect" for his team even back home, West Indies captain Darren Sammy said the side's stupendous World Twenty20 run has been possible because of the players' unity in the face of acute adversity. The West Indians almost did not make it to the World T20 owing to a bitter pay dispute with their Cricket Board. But once here, they showed sublime form to storm into Sunday's final where they will take on England. "People just paint us as money grabbing cricketers because of our success in Twenty20 cricket. But yes still they don't respect us in that format. We get that sometimes from our own board," Sammy said in the pre-match press conference. Blasting their critics, S "How could you describe people with 'no brains'? Animals got brains. We're not an object. To me that particular comment really set it off for us. You could see me talking about it. "It's kind of emotional, as for soammy said the more they are castigated, the more they are united. He was reacting to a jibe by former English cricketer Mark Nicholas, who described the Windies players as "short of brains" in an article.mebody whom I respect and had good rapport with that particular gentleman. To describe our team who were defending champions four years ago as we guys with no brains is really out of order," Sammy said.
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