'My fans don't mind me hamming.'
On Raj Kapoor's 38th death anniversary on June 2, 10 soundtracks that reflect the creative crescendos scaled by RK and his musical team.
Shailendra's songs were attuned to Raj Kapoor's explorations of the themes and dreams of the Everyman.
Shah Rukh Khan conducted an #AskSRK session on X recently to discuss his coming film Dunki and the release of his daughter Suhana Khan's debut film The Archies.
Sukanya Verma remembers the Boss in 30 of his underrated, overlooked gems in Hindi film music.
In the 25 odd days that he has appeared before CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale, you have experienced the entire range of emotions just observing him. Everything from pity to irritation. To bafflement. And shock. You have scoured his face, gazed into his eyes, watched his expressions and body language, searching vigilantly for motives. And come away no wiser. Who is Shyamvar Rai? Does anybody know?
From aadmi to andas, Bollywood songs dispense gyaan for every occasion. But nothing beats its obsession with pyaar.
'For those who like romance in their music, I suggest they search for this song.'
Bappida's softer more creative work got buried in the noise, rues Subhash K Jha as he picks the late lamented composer's most soulful songs.
They're so bad, they're good!
'I went to Nagpur for my engineering. I used to model there, those amateur fashion shows. Then you know, I thought why not try my luck in films and all?'
Narendra Modi is set to address a huge political rally in Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, January 2. The PM is expected to make some big announcements at the rally, his first after the 50-day deadline on demonetisation curbs expires. Utkarsh Mishra imagines what Modi will say at the rally, dubbed as Lucknow's 'biggest ever.'
'I was attracted to Javed because he was exactly like my father.'
The best analysis of politics does not come out of air conditioned newsrooms, but from the voices on India's streets. Rakesh Kumar Singhal -- once an army jawan, then an ONGC employee, then a tea shopwallah -- reveals why he left the Congress for Modi.
'If a hero wanted Mr Rafi to sing for him, naturally it had to be him.' 'Then if it was Dilip Kumar, who is a soft-spoken man, he naturally wanted Talat Mehmood.' 'Raj Kapoor wanted only Mukesh. Now you tell me, where did I stand a chance?'
Mekhail hopped off the bench in a hurry and turning his back to Indrani, stood at the window. Indrani ignored him too. Mekhail is getting married later this year. His mother will, of course, not be in attendance. Nor, of course, would he want her to be there, if she could.
'What we think is being patriotic is quite opposite to what actually is patriotism.' 'You have to do things for your country.' 'You have to add value and participate in actions that are not beneficial only to you.' 'That's when I decided to do a lot as an individual and as an artiste, who has 'x' number of followers on Instagram.' 'What is the point of having so many followers if I cannot use my voice for some good?'
One couldn't help feeling a certain melancholy viewing these now vagrant documents and photographs that would never be rightfully cherished. The pictures spoke to you. They offered slices of extinguished lives. They breathed sadness too, for what could have been and will never be. The sweet promises that Life made and insolently, arrogantly never kept.
Not Mekhail. Not Rahul. Not anyone. 'Wouldn't someone have asked?' Indrani asked.
The question being silently telegraphed around the court room was: When did this happen? Wasn't this trial about Indrani murdering her daughter to prevent her from marrying Rahul Mukerjea, her husband Peter Mukerjea's son from his first marriage?
'You don't want to admit that it is your wife in the video because she said you were arrested on Wednesday (August 19; Shyamvar Rai states he was arrested on August 21, a Friday).'
Mekhail delivered the most deliberate heart-tugging line of the day: "If a son asks his mother for money is wrong, then tell me." At the back Indrani gave one of her most beaming smiles that was meant to convey the exact opposite. This was no mother happy that her son had said he turned to her when he needed money because she was his mother.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
Hyderabad-based Anshul Sinha is making hard hitting films on important social issues, but there are no takers.
'As Rai spoke, in an unbelievably dead pan, almost off-the-cuff tone, about helping plan the murder of two youngsters, drugging them with vodka and whiskey spiked with dava (medicine), smothering one, dragging a body in rigor mortis out of a car, burning a corpse, destroying evidence, and so on, it felt like he was discussing nothing more surprising than the intricacies of the weather.'
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
