One always ponders over why the witnesses should not have poor memory when answering cross examination questions or recounting events that occurred six years ago. Too many witnesses seemed to have drunk some Harry Potter-esque Philosopher's Stone magic elixir that has Botoxed their fading memory to make it as good as new again.
'There is nothing more beautiful than celebrating with people who make you what you are.'
What's it like for two people of the same sex to be in love Mumbai? Anita Aikara/Rediff.com finds out.
'The disquiet in the Sangh is, of course, over demonetisation.' 'But more than that, it is about the growing centralisation in the running of the government and party,'
'Amitji called me after he watched the film and spoke for half an hour.' 'He said, "According to me, this is your best performance till date".' '"I feel like seeing the film two-three times just to watch your important scenes".' 'I was really thrilled.'
Dinesh Raheja salutes the legend's versatility in her heyday.
The ripping off the lid, that Mekhail did, on the chain of episodes that lead up to his sister's murder, while condemning Indrani for her actions, for the first time, paradoxically, allowed a more human -- if flawed and complicated -- picture to emerge of Indrani, allegedly The Woman Who Killed Her Own Daughter and shocked a nation.
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.'
'Why do we feel our parents are not human? That our mother is not a woman?'
Indrani is easily the most striking woman arriving in the court complex from jail on trial days. For those who don't know who she is, there is absurd puzzlement written large on faces when they bump into her. When she reaches or leaves the premises, one notices heads swivelling in jaw-dropping curiosity, as did a pair of transsexual undertrials who crossed her path at the last hearing of 2018, who were, not surprisingly, a less unusual sight than Indrani.
It was a crazy week for the world. Sukanya Verma cannot claim to be any different.
Kamal Haasan's unrivalled make up skills, Jack Nicholson's haunting imagery, Asha Parekh's life as a Hit Girl and the surprise package of Beauty and the Beast, it's all there in Sukanya Verma's super filmi week.
'Hrishi-da often voiced his disenchantment with Bachchan's Angry Young Man persona -- the 'maara-maari', the growth of sidelocks; he even said directors were killing Amitabh the actor and turning him into a stuntman. Yet, as Jaya Bhaduri jovially pointed out, the seeds of that seething persona can be found in Anand and Namak Haraam.'
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.
From being siblings in one film to sweetheart in the other, these actors have done it all.
'Her death has left a small hole in me. That little space that her songs and her screen image always filled in me. She had not worked in films for years, but somehow I always sensed she was there, somewhere in Bombay where movie magic is made.'
Total Siyappa is so insipid, it implores your mind to wander off every few minutes.
'I cried after my elimination from Indian Idol because I had got used to the lavish lifestyle, the good food, good hotels, good clothes and I was going to miss that.' Shivam Pathak returns to the good life, thanks to his hit music in Mary Kom.
We bring you glimpses of the Raksha Bandhan moments in Bollywood.
Pasbola wound up his cross examination, tabling a new narrative in the murder case. That Sheena Bora had been murdered not by her mother. But by her brother.
Throughout, Mekhail spoke calmly, with hardly an inflection making even the barest attempt to hijack his tone. His tone was so empty it made his narrative all the more touching. And ugly and grey, as the monsoon sky beyond the window.
'I returned to jail at 4.45. I was body searched and sent back to my cell.' 'A bowl of dal was kept there covered.' 'Another guard gave me a tablet and I became unconscious.' Accused One spoke about a similar incident happening to her in October 2015 and also with a bowl of dal.
Indrani called her personal assistant Kajal Sharma from the UK, May 3, 2012, and told her she had to sign Sheena's resignation letter as if she was Sheena signing it. But she had to first practice the signature and send Indrani proof of her proficiency in signing Sheena's name before sending the letter off. Sharma said she was reluctant and told the court that she told Indrani as much, but Indrani demanded it of her.
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.
'After Indrani's arrest did you go to the police and say I did this kind of forgery?'
'I'm not withdrawing any allegations. I want those CDRs (Peter's call data records).' 'Those are my feelings.'
as the trial proceeds, Peter is beginning to look more and more haggard while Indrani by contrast is blossoming. Khanna appeared exhausted and more down and out than usual at this hearing.
In dramatic scenes, Umar Khalid, the Jawaharlal Nehru University student who had been untraceable after being accused of sedition, returned to the campus late on Sunday evening. Khalid turned up at JNU's administration block, where hundreds of students began to gather, and gave a rousing speech just shy of 14 minutes, insisting that he would stand his ground and asked that all students unite against the attacks on our country. This is what he had to say.
'The numbers have been scaled down for the Trinamool Congress. Today, the upper number of victories seems to be 30, with 25 seats being the realistic option. The Trinamool Congress may still be the largest non-BJP, non-Congress party in the next Lok Sabha, but it may not make it to the Cabinet table, leave alone sit in the top chair,' says T V R Shenoy.
'I want my fans to remember me as the Sadhana of Love In Simla, Mere Mehboob, Woh Kaun Thi and Arzoo,' the Bollywood legend, who passed into the ages on Christmas Day, told Dinesh Raheja.
As a mother, as a woman, as a human being, Savera R Someshwar is horrified by some of the provisions of the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2016.
'Minorities should not fear a Modi sarkar... Who has given the right to kill in the name of religion? No one! You are not James Bond 007, that you will just take a shotgun and kill anybody at your whims and fancies. We are not living in a banana republic...' The inimitable Shatrughan Sinha on Narendra Modi as a dabbang action hero, what a Modi Sarkar would be like.
'Even if Akhilesh Yadav opens up the entire state treasury for us we will not vote for the Samajwadi Party... ''...I don't want to return to my village, my head will be chopped off. They want me to press the button on the lotus.' Caught between an aggressive BSP cornering Dalit votes and the BJP cornering other Hindu votes, the Muslims of Muzaffarnagar have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents the grim situation on the ground in western Uttar Pradesh.
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