Pre-election campaigns -- this one particularly -- are always about personalities, never about issues. Bashing one another is the best political parties can do. Or pandering to their constituencies -- religious, caste, economic or whatever. Best to just enjoy the show without expecting any electrifying performances, feels Sherna Gandhy.
Kannada actress Parul Yadav talks about working with Yograj Bhat in Vaastu Prakaara and her forthcoming projects.
'Rather than an outcome of 'pro-incumbency', the exit poll results betray a completely lackadaisical approach of the Opposition parties.' 'While a new kind of politics was on display for the past five years, they were still mired in their old-style methods which will cost them the election,' predicts Utkarsh Mishra.
'Talvar belongs to Irrfan Khan, who plays the chief investigating officer. With each new film, this very fine actor continues to surprise us and delight us.'
'A false narrative is being created, that Modi is a habitual offender when it comes to lowering the political discourse in the country.' 'Nothing can be farther from the truth,' argues Sudhir Bisht.
'Movie plots clearly don't excite director Dileesh Pothan as much as true stories where life had come dizzyingly close to becoming like a movie and then, had fused back with life.' 'This means that a conversation he overhears at a tea shop is more likely to give Pothan a setting for his next picture than a brainstorming session inside a conference room,' says Sreehari Nair.
'When somebody comes forward in Hollywood, they don't risk losing their livelihood.' 'But here, they will risk losing their livelihood.' Richa Chadha opens up.
In the year since Modi cast the spotlight on Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan, India has not done much more than raise the issue at the UN a few times.
Ultra-nationalist and schooled in their country's historical grievances, Russian soccer hooligans see themselves as fighting the Kremlin's geopolitical battles in miniature when they clash with foreign fans at the Euro 2016 tournament.
Gerson da Cunha lists his favourite films from the recently concluded Cannes International Film Festival.
'Director Abhishek Chaubey didn't think I could be this girl. He didn't even think of coming to me. Shahid thought of coming to me and that's how everything happened. I feel if I don't take risks, I'll never know. I have to play around a little bit. I want to do a film like Udta Punjab as well as an out-and-out comedy.' Alia Bhatt is ready to fly high with Udta Punjab.
'A lot of people in the West think that India has a very conservative culture, so we don't show much intimacy and sex in movies here. But I always say that, without sex, India won't have a population of over 1.2 billion people.'
This, the Congress said in its political resolution, was necessary as there were misgivings on the 'misuse' of EVMs to 'manipulate the outcome contrary to popular verdict.' The resolution called for reverting to the old practice of paper ballot as adopted by other major democracies to help restore the credibility of the electoral process.
'In this resurgent India, class is the new caste. We are shaken up only occasionally, and briefly, when a battered, tribal teenager from Jharkhand looks us in the eye from our closet,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Mastizaade is a very unrealistic film -- there are talking horses, flying wheelchairs and a lot of stupidity. So when you're doing that, you let go, let all inhibitions go.' Vir Das prepares us for his latest film.
Aseem Chhabra picks the scenes that left him impressed this year.
From the Aadhaar verdict to #MeToo's arrival in the country to the entry into the Sabarimala temple -- India had a newsworthy 2018. As we step into 2019, these are the top moments from the year gone by.
the money involved is more than Rs 2,000 crore across Andhra Pradesh
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
A homoeopathic state of mind pervades our thinking in governance and infrastructure-building. Do it in small, harmless doses, but nothing bitter, sharp, or bloody, says Shekhar Gupta.
'You are sending the army to Rohtak? There are six paramilitary forces in the country. Why can't you use these people?' 'What is the need to call out the army? And that too at a place where there is an army man in every house.' 'Can you imagine how stupid this decision is? How insensitive?'
'To me,' says Aseem Chhabra, 'the Golden Globes hold the most meaning as one gets to see stars celebrating, getting emotional, letting their guard down and showing us their regular human side.'
As people wait in long queues outside banks, they appear happy that the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will unearth black money and root out corruption.
'It's a good thing that people will see our chemistry on screen. What happens off camera is not our concern.'
The need of the hour is not a divisive, slanging match of accusations and counter-accusations, but a call for sanity,' says Vivek Gumaste.
'We cannot be the country that created the Kamasutra and then we show flowers kiss and a child is born.'
Research students took out a protest rally on Monday around the university campus, shouting slogans against the management for 'victimising three students, a professor, guest lecturer and a clerk', with the PG students joining in.
'Then all the usual troubles will break out.'
'It is impossible for a decent man to live in Kairana town.' 'Any man who is not able to pay extortion money has left Kairana.' 'The people involved in this extortion want it to become a Hindu-Muslim problem.' 'The intention in Kashmir was that if Pandits leave Kashmir, all the property left behind will go to Muslims. The intention is the same in Kairana,'
As Delhi is heading for a three-cornered contest among the ruling Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party in the December 4 polls, the parties are likely to have a tough time wooing around 51 lakh women voters who feel security for them is a major issue.
'The danger today is that out of sheer fatigue and exasperation, the US might cut loose and exit from Afghanistan leaving it to the region to cope with the debris, which it is ill-equipped to handle,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"Will anybody want a servant that who is on vacation when needed at home? And nobody knows where he is," he continued.
The resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his failure to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the assembly has evoked mixed responses.
'The mobilisation is nothing but a political ploy -- a sort of a fixed match between Hindu and Muslim communal forces, towards polarisation, in a run-up to the next election,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Right actions might help reduce this trust deficit. But what we have today is over- enthusiastic vigilante groups targeting minorities over beef or 'love jihad', against whom the government does little apart from meek condemnation, says Utkarsh Misgra.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra takes stock of his Bollywood career and explains why he thought of foraying into Hollywood.
And you won't guess which film tops Raja's list! And why.
'She hasn't done anything wrong; she fought against the bad, she fought for justice.' 'So, I know she will get justice one day.'
'He is just a 22 year old who has no knowledge of India's laws or Constitution. How will such a man handle a discussion on reservations in an intelligent, lawful manner?' 'Let me alert everybody that he is using the 1985 formula. Back then they opposed reservations based on caste for OBCs and now they want to be included in the same category. This clearly tells us what their intention is. They don't want reservations; they want reservations to be cancelled altogether.'
