A 25-year-old folk artist, Swaroop Khan, was killed and three others injured when a resort wall collapsed during a strong dust storm in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The incident occurred during an evening cultural programme in the Sam tourist area, disrupting power supply and raising concerns about resort safety.
Among the 12 media personnel awarded are the PTI Srinagar Bureau Chief, Inayat Jehangir and PTI video journalist, Jammu Somil Abrol. Other awardees in this category include Avtar Krishan Bhat, Vivek Suri, Sunil Ji Bhat, Dinesh Manhotra, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Razia Noor, Ishfaq Gowhar Zargar, Syed Khalid Hussain, Sarosh Kafeel, and Neeta Sharma.
Over 25 years, societies evolve and tastes change. Cinema absorbs and reflects this transformation. Picking only 25 films from the first quarter of the century is tough.
A new book details how a German submarine torpedoed the ship carrying B.R. Ambedkar's PhD dissertation and a vast collection of books during World War I. This setback did not deter the Dalit icon and architect of India's Constitution, who went on to earn multiple doctorates.
Chandragupta Maurya was the first king to establish an empire in India. He died a monk.
Uzbekistan lives comfortably in several centuries but is also a forward-looking nation, Deepa Gahlot discovers on a visit to this Central Asian country.
Animal's violence isn't for the fainted-hearted unless you have an appetite for Korean style mayhem, like Sukanya Verma.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
Does the "story" of a Mani Ratnam film come first or does its "spirit" asks Sreehari Nair.
On Tuesday, 49 people, including award-winning filmmakers Aparna Sen and Mani Ratnam, and historian Ramachandra Guha, wrote to PM Modi, urging him to intervene in cases of hate crimes and atrocities against minority communities.
'I want them to stand up against abuse, inequality and create a safe, equal world where men and women respect and value each other beyond caste and gender.'
'With the media and social media pulling them down every second day, there are no heroes left.' 'What we have are actors and we want to see them play characters which are real, human and identifiable.'
'Politicians have long appropriated the hero turned god as their totem, but never before with the ferocious intensity of the present regime,' notes Arundhuti Dasgupta.
'The protests make no sense, unless we judge them against the political climate in the country.' 'Having a CBFC is sheer hypocrisy when the government has set itself up as censor.'
'Oscar has been given to A R Rahman.' Ringa Ringa Ringa, Choli ki peeche kya hai -- What's the difference? Exactly the same. Also, Jai ho.' 'I did Ramba ho in 1985.' 'Rahman combined three of my songs and got Best Original Score.' 'The Ho came from me.' 'Bappi Lahiri brought the Ho to Bollywood.'
Top 20 images of all the events of the week that was.
There's the excitement of watching minor people commit major crimes and watching how that becomes their second nature, almost. Just when you think the show is extending outwards, it implodes. And with the ethical hinges off totally, you, the viewer, wouldn't know quite how to react, observes Sreehari Nair.
The letter says Maoists want to assassinate Modi the way former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed, say Maharashtra CM and the state police.
The hounding of Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput case is a drug that is being carefully pumped into India's veins to make it comfortably numb as it is wracked by economic ruin and disease, notes Sumit Bhattacharya.
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The film gets repetitive after a point.
'If questioning and dethroning hierarchies is your primary motive, why not put an end to the practice of announcing your shining star, your box office draw, in big flaming letters and mentioning everyone else's name in small font at the bottom of the screen?' asks Sreehari Nair.
'Sriram Raghavan is mainstream Hindi cinema's greatest gift to us,' declares Sreehari Nair after watching the director's latest movie caper.
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.
'This is a movie, which if you allow it to, will wash itself all over you, so that you emerge from it a little drenched but wide awake,' says Sreehari Nair.
'Mulk gets a lot of things right, including its vision of the country as a place where underneath the punctilious, forced-secular surface there are volatilities waiting to go off,' says Sreehari Nair.
Aseem Chhabra lists the top 10 films at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
'Article 15 is not the work of a hack, or of someone merely scooping a plot out of newspaper headlines.' 'It is a well-researched, clear-headed movie; but its findings have a purpose,' says Sreehari Nair.
'Mamata's fascination with stars is so deep-rooted that she uses her clout as chief minister to get close to them.'
'Love Sonia is a motion picture with the ambitions of a novel.' 'When I walked out of Love Sonia this Monday night, I walked out with a hushed audience that seemed too overcome by the raw power of the film to even pause for applause,' notes Sreehari Nair.
'If you batted an eyelid and drifted the vehicle a little, you'd certainly hit the unsteady rocks and meet your end. Or so it seemed.' 'By the way, did I tell you that we were cruising at approximately 12,000 feet and above?'
'Every Ali obituary I read made the point that he 'transcended his sport' -- a reference to the many battles he fought with America even as he fought in America.' 'What the obituaries leave out is that Ali equally transcended the boundaries of geography and of information -- as witness the Chennai teen who assimilated that most mobile of fighters through still images shorn of context.'
