"Who will be his men?" a distinguished official close to the prime minister asked. Frankly, nobody has an idea. Hardly seven weeks are left for a regime change, but the idea of Narendra Modi on Raisina Hill looks abnormal, if not unreal. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt captures the uncertain mood in the capital's bureaucracy ahead of the largest democratic transfer of power in the world.
Hindi cinema seems readier than society to focus on women. It is not just rape one is talking about, though an act of rape and its consequent injustice unfolds most narratives. Suddenly women are central not just as problematic but as possibility, as agency, as alternative, feels Shiv Visvanathan.
'If you ask me what is God, I'd say, God is Mr World.'
And it's written with tears, blood and unspoken lines.
Modi will need to understand that the formula for success will have to be Local Leaders + Modi and not Modi alone...Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in the running for prime minister... The AAP will have to ally with other parties if it hopes to make any dent in the Lok Sabha election. Dr B Venkatesh Kumar, Professor at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, lists some learnings from the 2013 assembly election results.
It was an art, says Mandvi, that all Indian-American actors had to cultivate.
Indrani looked cheerful and upbeat and announced she had quite recovered from her wounds...
'Nehru had multiple chances to make compromises, that would have preserved a united India, and he chose not to,' Nisid Hajari tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com
'The hotel room number can never total up to 8.' 'I fly First Class and won't take a pre-9am flight.' Check out Bollywood's travel plans.
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Kaun Banega Crorepati 7 can only get better after a promising first episode, says Sukanya Verma.
Malayalam film audiences, who had spent close to two decades waiting for something truly interesting to watch at the movies, seem to be finally getting their due.
It has it all -- an iron-clad story, strong characters, more than believable performances and music you'll want to put on loop for days.
'Aamir has bigger goodwill than even the Tatas and Birlas.' 'The Sanjay Dutt biopic is amazing because of Rajkumar Hirani, because of Abhijat Joshi's writing and because of Ranbir Kapoor's acting.'
Aseem Chhabra gives us the top films that enriched his year.
When you walk out of Thithi, you walk out with a feeling of having been completely inside its characters' heads, says Sreehari Nair.
The attempts to unearth the document started getting more and more frantic. The clerks began to flip pages of files full of documents, some hand written, some bearing thick seals or multiple stamps, some in Hindi, some in Marathi. Several junior lawyers joined in, perusing different files and dockets. But in spite of the best of efforts the document was not to be found.
'Of all the Superstar Khans, I still believe that Shah Rukh Khan is the one most capable of surprising me,' says Sreehari Nair. 'I always have this feeling that that great Shah Rukh Khan turn that would somehow hold all his vaporously brilliant elements together is just around the corner.'
Payal Mohanka travelled to Morocco, that magical place where the past and the present don't jostle but instead coexist rather beautifully.
'Indrani gave a mirthless laugh on spying The Suitcase, from the accused enclosure and, in sign language, gestured the impossibility of anyone fitting in such a small bag.'
Chitrita Banerji's new book, Bengali Cooking, takes readers into the kitchens of West Bengal and Bangladesh through the changing seasons. And if it starts to rain, nothing matters more to the Bengali palate than the hilsa fish and the many ways it can be consumed.
Friends and colleagues pay rich tributes to the "charming, approachable, and very accessible" Indian Constitution scholar Granville 'Red' Austin.
'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.'
'Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something -- you know we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, 'Isn't it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor? Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be very proud of the work Hollywood honours here tonight.'
You'll see that there's more to the state than just its forts and havelis!
JP was a People's Hero unmatched in Independent India. Archana Masih goes to Jayaprakash Narayan's village looking for Bihar's greatest son as the claimants of his legacy go to war in what is being called the Election of Elections.
An A-Z of Bachchanalia, the letters expanding into unforgettable bits of his filmography.
The charm of Kolkata is still alive says Sumit Ganguli.
'From the beginning (I have told her) "Whatever it may be -- you are losing or winning -- on the ground you're not going to cry!" She never cried.' '"I don't want you to project that you are a loser. You are a winner".' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com speaks to Leela Raj about her famous daughter, now in the West Indies for the women's T20 World Cup.
In the coming days, the Congress may be run by a trimurti of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka, with Rahul holding the primary position both in Parliament and in the party and Sonia and Priyanka helping him out as and when required.
'Peddlers isn't a movie of grand cinematic achievements, but one of small yet startlingly original victories.'
Upstaged by the swanky malls in town, both M G Road and Brigade Road have lost their "happening" status
'Why is it that we are so forgiving of the glaring problems in grand multi-starrers like Dil Dhadakne Do,' asks Sreehari Nair, 'but when a small film with a truly personal vision seeks our approval, we analyse it through a prism of formal perfection?' 'With its Seinfeldian humour, episodic structure and performers who play off each other's energies, Meeruthiya Gangsters goes farther than most Hindi movies.'
Deepta Roy Chakraverti talks to Chandrima Pal about her book that chronicles her psychic investigations into what she says are unnatural occurrences in familiar places.
How the Galti Se Mistake song was filmed, and other stories from Jagga Jasoos...
Leander Paes talks to Harish Kotian/Rediff.com about his recent Australian Open mixed doubles triumph and the special bond he shares with his former Grand Slam-winning partner, Martina Navratilova.
'Without doubt, Narasimha Rao confronted huge challenges. Yet, in the very brief period I saw him at the closest of quarters, I have to say that he was simply magnificent. A lifetime of circumspection gave way to courage.'
y talking about her struggle with depression, Deepika Padukone has exposed the stress-filled lives of filmstars say Ranjita Ganesan and Veenu Sandhu.
On Air Force Day, a salute to a fighter pilot, who was an example in life and in death. Air Commodore Nitin Sathe pays tribute to an extraordinary officer and a gentleman.
The Queen has retired, the bosses have left, long live the prince as king, says Shiv Visvanathan.
Le MaxAvailable at Rs 32,999, Rs 36,999 and a steep Rs 69,999 for different variants, the pricing is surely going to throw a spanner in the sales of a Chinese phone that looks promising.
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