North East: Ambit Of AFSPA Reduced In Three States, Final Triumph For Irom Sharmila!

In a historic move today the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has announced a reduction in the ambit of the dreaded Armed Forces Special Powers Act-1958 (AFSPA) in three North Eastern states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. As per the details of the announcement the AFSPA has been removed in 23 districts of Assam, in 7 in Nagaland and in 6 districts of Manipur (under 20 police stations). The home minister said that this decision is made following a drastic improvement in the security situation of the insurgency-infested states and a palpable progress in moving toward peace and development. He claims the move as a credit for the devoted commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No doubt, the present Chief Minister of Assam Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, after defecting from the Congress, had led BJP (ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) to victory in Assam in 2016 and in 2021, and has contributed immensely in establishing dominance of the BJP in nearly all states of the region. So then, some credit is obviously due to the ruling party and a positive move like this is always welcome despite the others on the contrary.

 

The AFSPA has, for the last few decades, always been bitterly contested in the three North East states and in Jammu and Kashmir for its draconian provisions of allowing the army and paramilitary forces to search or arrest or detain any property or individual without any warrant and also the right to shoot anyone on justified or mistaken doubts while enjoying full immunity against prosecution. Massacres of civilians have been happening in all these states over the decades and the Act has been consistently opposed on human rights violations. The United Nations had also questioned the constitutional validity of the AFSPA in view of basic human rights.

 

The AFSPA comes into force whenever the Government of India decides to declare a certain area as ‘disturbed’ due to the failure of local administration to control law and order or to carry on the counter-insurgency operations effectively. Once the AFSPA becomes operative the local police lose their powers to prosecute anybody and have to ask for the approval of the central military forces to go ahead. The killing of 14 civilians in Nagaland in December last year by paramilitary forces had ignited strong opposition against the Act one more time. In 2016 the Supreme Court of India made filing FIRs compulsory for any extrajudicial killings irrespective of whether the victims were common persons or terrorists. The Court was giving this verdict after examining the petition filed by the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings in Manipur seeking justice for the alleged fake encounters of 1528 civilians since the enforcement of AFSPA.

 

History was created in the protests against the AFSPA in Manipur in November 2000 when a massacre of 10 civilians at Malom convinced a young lady of 28 of the state to undertake a fast unto death. The massacre happened on 2^nd November and the lady started her hunger strike on 5^th November, vowing to not eat, drink, comb her hair or even look into the mirror. Three days after her strike the police arrested her on the charge of trying to commit suicide and remanded her to judicial custody. And her hunger strike continued for nearly 16 long years during which she got repeatedly arrested and released briefly every year while she was nasally force-fed (nasogastric intubation) in jail to keep her alive in custody. The lady is Irom Chanu Sharmila, called the ‘Iron Lady of Manipur’ and Mengoubi (the fair one), who came to be known as the ‘world’s longest hunger striker’.

 

Irom Sharmila has been an icon of public resistance and a human rights activist, widely acclaimed nationally and internationally. She came into contact with all crusading national and international leaders and also a few Nobel laureates. As the AFSPA continued to be in force in all her years of fast Irom got increasingly disillusioned and finally ended her fast on 9^th August 2016 with the objective of entering politics to carry on the fight more effectively. Declining offers from several parties she formed her own political party and fought the Manipur assembly elections in 2017, but lost miserably that made her give up all hope for her own people and land.

 

She then married her longtime fiancé Desmond Coutinho, a Goa-born British national, and left Manipur to live in Tamil Nadu and then in Karnataka. Fortunately for her, although there had been much discontent and rage among her supporters after her decision the Supreme Court verdict contributed to some extent in reducing AFSPA excesses. Today, Irom Sharmila’s astounding sacrifices have got some rewards at last and we salute the Iron Lady of Manipur at this historic moment.

 

Assam Chief Minister today has addressed the media expressing his gratitude to his central leadership and welcoming the decision while saying that the presence of the central paramilitary forces in Assam has become insignificant now and is set toward near-full removal with only three districts remaining under AFSPA after the decision. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh who just got his second term wholeheartedly welcomed the announcement and hoped that this would enable the state move fully in the path of peace and development. We also hope for the complete removal of the dreaded Act in all the states including Jammu and Kashmir in the near future while, at the same time, fully understanding the compulsions of the Government to carry on its counter-terrorism operations effectively.

IPL-2022 Starts From 26th March: New Format, New Teams And New Captains!

The TATA Indian Premiere League (IPL)-2022 starts in the state of Maharashtra from tomorrow, the 26^th of March, across three stadiums in Mumbai and one in Pune. This 15^th edition of the IPL is set to welcome the fans cum cricket revelers back to the stadiums after the Pandemic cricket-new-normal in 2020 and 2021 editions—the former delayed and had to be held in UAE while the latter started in India, but had to be stopped halfway and later shifted to UAE. As per COVID-19 norms at least 25% of the stadium capacity will be allowed and in light of relaxed restrictions all over India the crowd limit is all set to be increased later on. There will be a total of 74 matches during 26^th March-29^thMay out of which 70 league matches will be played in the stadiums mentioned above and the venues of the 4 play-off matches are yet to be decided. Ahmedabad was earlier earmarked for the final matches.

 

Only for the second time in the IPL history there are 10 teams or franchises in the IPL-2022 tournament and like in IPL-2011 the group-format is being introduced again to keep the total matches around 70. All the 10 teams are ranked as per their IPL Championship wins and other performance stats: from No.1 to No.10 and are divided into Group A and Group B; the ranks are reflected in the table in serial order across the groups; the teams in the same row across the groups will play each other twice and the remaining teams in one group will play with the remaining teams of the other group only once; and within a group the teams, as usual, will play each other twice. In all, as per earlier standards of the tournament each team will play 14 matches at the league stage.

 

The following table clears the scenario: the two new teams are Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT), naturally ranked 9 and 10 respectively; the Championship wins are marked in brackets against the earlier 8 teams.

	Group A		Group B
1	MI (5)	2	CSK (4)
3	KKR (2)	4	SRH (1)
5	RR (1)	6	RCB
7	DC	8	PBKS
9	LSG	10	GT

For example, the top team Mumbai Indians (MI) will play Chennai Super Kings (CSK) twice and the same follows down the order, in the last row LSG will play GT twice.

 

The IPL-2022 auctions conducted in February this year changed the structure of almost every franchise with the retention of players being only about 3-6 for each team and this resulted in the change of captaincy in all the teams except for MI, Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). The big news among captaincy changes is Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s surprise move of handing over captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja for CSK. Although this move from the 40-year-old former India skipper MSD had been expected the timing of the same did surprise everyone. Very popular in Chennai as ‘Thala’ (leader), Dhoni has made himself available as a player-cum-mentor for CSK while reiterating that he’d call quits only before his beloved fans in the franchise’s home ground, Chennai.

 

Earlier, the erstwhile India captain, Virat Kohli also quit his captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the South African Faf du Plessis is the new captain. Former captain of Punjab Kings (PBKS) KL Rahul was bought by the LSG and later appointed captain. India Test opener Mayank Agarwal takes the reins of captaining PBKS. The former captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Eoin Morgan is nowhere to be seen while the franchise’s earlier captain cum wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is bought by the RCB, and so KKR’s new captain is its new and dashing buy Shreyas Iyer. Hardik Pandya leads the new franchise GT. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is to lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) while its earlier stalwart-opener David Warner is bought away by the DC.  

 

So then, the biggest T20 cricket extravaganza of India starts tomorrow evening at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai featuring the opening match between the defending champions CSK and the KKR. Starting on Sunday, the 27^th of March, the IPL-2022 double-headers will be underway which will be a feature of every weekend during the over two-month long tournament. Regular greats of the IPL like Suresh Raina, Steven Smith and many others will be missed as they remained unsold after the auction.  

 

The IPL-2022 Group Matches Schedule:

Cricket Movie ‘83’: A Nostalgic Trip Back To The Moments Of Glory!

The movie aptly titled ‘83’ is really worth reliving Team India’s glorious World Cup victory at Lord’s in 1983 defeating the mighty West Indies, thus stopping the latter’s hat-trick moments after victories in 1975 and 1979; and in fact, the West Indies team is yet to win their third World Cup since then. I missed watching the movie on the big screen as moviegoing has been effectively stopped since the last two years, particularly for the elderly people like me. I grabbed the opportunity as soon as the great cricket movie was premiered on television yesterday. The movie too has suffered due to the pandemic: first it was slated for release in 2019 which, unfortunately, was postponed due to post-production reasons and after that the COVID-19 recurring bans and restrictions never allowed to make the movie reach millions of cricket fans. Finally, though it could be released in December 2021 its shows were again affected by the Omicron wave. Therefore, as it were, the movie could not recover its huge budget so far and technically was not a success at the box office.

 

During the time, June 9-25^th1983, we were living in the beautiful hilly town of Diphu in Assam and television sets, not even to mention telecasts, were totally absent. As avid cricket players and fans I along with my younger brother and occasionally my father always used to tune in to the radio commentaries whenever India played, since the early seventies. We used to stay awake late night and huddled around the radio set as and when the overseas Test matches demanded. I remember staying awake almost the whole night with my brother relishing one of the greatest Indian Test victories against the West Indies in 1976 as India managed to successfully chase the target of 405 runs batting last.

 

The ICC World Cup-1983 was another huge event not to be missed at any cost for us despite India’s laughable performances in the 1975 and 1979 and the general feeling that India had no chance at all in 1983 too. Such emotions were played in the movie beyond a measure, obviously to boost up the spirit of nationalism. However, this kind of cricket nationalism is okay as cricket is indeed a unifying force irrespective of caste, religion and languages in a diverse country like India and in light of the divisiveness of the present days. So, we were eagerly following the radio commentaries and expected India perform under Kapil Dev like the diehard optimists we were and always are.

 

The early Indian victory against the West Indies in the double round-robin Group-B matches really set us up and we never believed that Indian victories were flukes. That defeat for West Indies was their first ever in the World Cups. We sensed that this Team India, known as Kapil’s Devils, was indeed capable of winning and so it proved. Despite the huge losses against West Indies and Australia subsequently India again regrouped to annihilate Australia and made a historic entry into the Semi-finals winning against Zimbabwe with that record-breaking innings of 175 not out by Kapil Dev that put India back after being reduced to 17/5. And then the Semi-final victory against England in their own land to enter the Final. Therefore, the fluke-theory was never there for us, and I’d say again that this theory has been a bit overemphasized in the movie.

 

The Real Moment!

The hilly town naturally went to sleep early and the matches played in England and Wales were on till late hours (that time one-day matches were of 60 overs each) we continued to huddle around the radio set, playing it at a low volume to not risk waking up our parents. On the monumental day of the 25^th June 1983, we were indeed disappointed when Team India was bundled out for 183, but still believed the team could come back as wont to our optimism. As the West Indies chased the target during the night, we kept on with the radio commentary in our usual way and celebrated the fall of every wicket between us brothers. When the final moment of victory came, we exchanged wild-spirited high fives giving out suppressed battle cries. And then, we went to bed quietly. There were no celebrations at that period the way we witness nowadays.

 

The Reel Moment!

The task of playing the living legend Kapil Dev who is still the first cricketer of the world having more than 400 wickets while scoring more than 5000 runs in Test cricket and the Wisden Cricketer of the Century (2002) was not at all an easy one for Ranveer Singh. A terrific actor who is known for his roles of Peshwa Bajirao (2015) and Alauddin Khilji (2018) among many others has done a lot of labor to follow Kapil Dev’s batting/bowling style, his mannerisms and even the way he talks, and finally has delivered a memorable performance which is lapped up by the legend himself. All other members of Team India-83 have also done very well, picking up the details about the real cricketers.

 

The Reel Team!

This speaks volumes for the kind of research and training done by the director Kabir Khan, known for his critically-acclaimed blockbuster movie ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ (2015), in making of ‘83’, choosing the characters with some physical resemblance and then building on those. Particularly Jiva who played K Srikanth capturing all the nuances and the humor stands out as a highlight. Not only for Team India, but also the choices for the international cricketers, namely of West Indies, with suitable actors. He also recreated the Lord’s environs with immaculate authenticity and mastery looking for details all the time. No doubt, the budget of such a movie would really shoot up.

 

The Real Team!

‘83’ is indeed an achievement for Kabir Khan in all possible respects. He can be pardoned for his filmy fictional dramas/melodramas, background songs and the ‘nationalism’ spirit we already mentioned, because all such elements are needed to make an authentic bio-pic click as a film too, particularly among the modern generation of today. The movie has also been lauded by all the real cricketers involved including another living legend Sunil Gavaskar and the celebrities from almost all fields of activity. The movie opens with a condolence note to Yashpal Sharma, one of the star performers of the team, who expired last year and is the first one to go from the Team-1983. We miss him too and love the inherent niceties of his character played so ably by Jatin Sarna. And more importantly, it’s not a hero-centric film like the Bollywood customs with every character coming out on its own and thus keeping the team spirit that is so typical of Kapil Dev.  In all, a hearty thumbs up for the entire team of ‘83’. 

Movie Jalsa: Poor Storyline And Half-Baked Characters Make It An Immensely Forgettable Viewing!

Thanks perhaps to the conditional benevolence of the OTT streaming platforms some filmmakers, ostensibly under the pretense of being serious creators, get the rare opportunity to indulge in their experiments or otherwise while always managing to rope in talented actors to create a pre-release hype about their ‘darkly serious dram/thriller’ movies. They always prefer to choose female-centric themes or stories with female protagonists/antagonists, and most of them deliver their favorite ‘emancipation of women’ templates by making the ‘swear-word liberalism’ gender-neutral. They get the much-needed support too from similar or like-minded souls of the mainstream media who praise the movies to the heavens. Fortunately, the Amazon original movie ‘Jalsa’ that released on Prime Video on 18^th March, 2022, is totally free of that ‘liberalism’ while still sticking to the female-centric theme with three major roles of women protagonists/antagonists in the movie given to the immensely talented actors Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah and Rohini Hattangadi.

 

‘Jalsa’ tells the story of a popular TV anchor/journalist, Maya Menon (pivotal role played by Vidya Menon), who is established at the very outset as a fearless and ethical journalist. Although in that episode of her supposedly celebrated interview series she just reclines on the chair gazing smilingly at the restless Judge Gulati (actor-comedian Gurpal Singh totally miscast in that small role) without speaking a word.

 

Anyway, working late hours after the interview a tired Maya bumps off a girl while driving back home. And, a journalist of the fearless brand sits inside the car paralyzed with fear despite knowing clearly that it was not her fault as the girl came in front of her car out of nowhere, and horror of horrors, decide to escape from the scene leaving the bleeding teenaged girl victim on the road. Hit-and-run drivers are considered as scourges of the modern society and we always curse them in all our righteous indignation. However here in the movie, we’re forced to sit through the explorations of the guilty mind of Maya for the simple reason that the role is played by none other than Vidya Balan. Unfortunately, the viewers lose sympathy with her instantly and scoff at her eventual trembling fits, screams and a final confession at the very end.; and that’s why, we preferred to keep the options of ‘protagonist’ or ‘antagonist’ wide open earlier in this piece.

 

More agonizingly, the girl’s boyfriend (one of the deadwood performers of the movie) also decides to get paralyzed with a fear of an entirely unknown variety and leaves her bleed to death on the Mumbai Road. The movie director (Suresh Triveni) does not bother to tell us who finally finds her and admits her in a hospital. The victim is revealed to be the daughter of Maya’s maid Ruksana (played powerfully by Shefali Shah).

 

Maya, of course, decides to tell her secret to her boss or colleague or whatever the next day. As is revealed the boss or colleague or whatever possesses an even dirtier mind and goes on scheming cunningly for her or his own interests, not known so far, after the truth of the victim’s identity comes out. Obviously, the director has little knowledge about the functioning of a TV channel and therefore less about the functionaries involved in management, production, reporting, live feeds and so on. This particular channel office hardly anyone other than Maya, her boss or colleague or whatever and a fat editor are shown.

 

Of course (with the boredom of repeating), Maya acts in full responsibility taking care of Ruksana’s daughter, admitting her in a good hospital and bearing all expenses. Policemen—the about-to-retire More and the younger Pradeep come in now— and the duo, for reasons very unknown, had a drunken party out in the open inviting dead trouble from the local politicians or mafia or whatever along with a possible fatal blow to More’s unblemished career. So, they are hellbent on doing a cover-up job.  A suspense element is thus introduced.

 

And then comes the deadpan trainee-reporter Rohini who, for her very existence’s sake, tries to uncover the story tormenting the guilty-minded Maya more with her scary leads. The suspense element gets confounded when we witness Rohini laughing like a hyena while talking on phone to her outstation mother. In the meanwhile, the ‘covering-up and the uncovering’ process sets the ball of lies/bargains rolling and alive as far as the emotional Ruksana and her other deadwood accomplices are concerned.

 

The deadwood boyfriend has to be beaten up confess the full accident details to Ruksana and then the movie races for a climax that leaves you shattered and without a clue in the end. The web of blackmailing tactics involving Maya’s driver, Maya’s boss or colleague or whatever and the deadpan trainee-reporter also leave you shattered. The director and the writers actually wanted to capture everything black about Mumbai like corruption in police or in police-politician-crime nexus or in journalism or even in poverty, but found themselves with too much loads to do justice to the final delivery.

 

This writer is too foolish even to understand why the title ‘Jalsa’ (normally meaning fun gathering or musical gathering or just celebrations) is taken, and when he watches the title flashing up on the screen during the scene of the local politician’s birthday celebration out on the roads, he is rendered totally helpless. The write also doesn’t know why at all Maya decides to give her confession to the deadpan reporter during the climax.

 

Vidya Balan, the powerful actor for her memorable performances in movies like ‘Kahaani’ (2012), ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2013) and ‘Mission Mangal’ (2019-Orbiter Mission to Mars), is a pity in this role as she is unable to breathe life into it. Shefali Shah, with much more motivation to drive on, delivers a more powerful performance as the maid. It’s also refreshing to watch veteran Rohini Hattangadi as Maya’s mother after a long break. Other highlights include the absence of class or religious or caste divides in the movie.

 

Photo: neweynews.co.uk

The biggest highlight of ‘Jalsa’ belongs to the child actor, Surya Kasibhatla, who in reality is a victim of cerebral palsy and is from Texas of Indian origin, plays the role of Maya’s differently-abled 10-year-old son Ayush with an endearing and enriching naturalness cum freshness. His role is very well-defined to the credit of the director, and brings out the nuances nicely in the boy’s bond with Ruksana and her son Imaad, his daily chemistry with his grandmother and his protesting outbursts against the wrong acts of his mother. For this foolish and rude writer, the movie belongs only to the duo of Ruksana and Ayush.

India Play Holi Amid Frayed Nerves Over Russian-Ukraine War And Concerns For A COVID-19 4th Wave!

The Festival of Colors, Holi, began in India with the symbolic burning of Holika (a demoness of ancient times representing the evil or the Satan) effigy last night. This festival is celebrated every year in the last full moon night of the Hindu calendar year. Today, the colors are submerging the country in a spirit of joy. The Indians righteously feel and justify the celebrations across the country as they have missed this for the last two years, and after all, this signifies the victory of good over evil. For the last one month the country has seen a return to near normalcy with all restrictions except for the mask removed, the schools/colleges reopening; and just when they felt that the Pandemic had finally entered the endemic phase came the WHO (World Health Organization) warning that the pandemic is far from over and it has been spiking globally again with more than 11 million cases new cases and over 43,000 deaths in the last week. Combine this with the Russia-Ukraine war raging now for over three weeks. Therefore, the Globe is in a real soup at the moment with the heady mix of war, pandemic and inflation—the last being fueled by the firsts. Indeed, we need victory over the evil forces desperately now.

 

Most of the international powers, super or otherwise, are really getting ruffled up now by what they call the Russian belligerence. True to its strategic interests Russia has been talking peace with Ukraine (that once Ukraine agrees to Russian conditions there'd be instant ceasefire) while stepping up the attacks, particularly targeting the civil population as alleged by Ukraine. The Ukraine official media has released pictures of airports, hospitals, schools, theatres and so on being hit by Russian missiles. The siege of Kyiv and other major cities continue. As anticipated, Russia had ignored the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to suspend its war immediately. Somewhat inspired by the recent Indian trends perhaps, Putin’s government has decided to label all antiwar Russians as traitors.

 

Photo: cnn.com

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his trademark green t-shirt, has addressed the US Congress recently, urging them to help now or never to avert the invasion. Although he has been renewing his appeals for a no-fly zone it was made clear to him that the no-fly zone declaration or sending MiG fighter jets was not possible as it would escalate the war globally. So, Zelensky asked for other military aid from the US and the European countries in his last address. President Joe Biden responded by granting a $800 million worth military aid in terms of anti-aircraft systems, anti-tank weapons and drones. President Zelensky’s passionately emotional appeal earned him a standing ovation from the US Congress while a sort of comedy was created too as one lawmaker raised the query as to whether Zelensky did not own a suit.

 

Unable to either stop or defeat Russia through endless rounds of economic sanctions President Biden used the strongest words so far calling Putin ‘a war criminal’ while maintaining his stand to not send US ground troops to Ukraine as any direct conflict between Russia and the NATO would result in World War-III. The US Senate also called for an investigation into the alleged war crimes by Putin. The US lawmakers are applying more pressure now on India to take a stand against Russia while India’s Indian Oil Corporation has bought 3 million barrels of crude oil from Russia reportedly at a heavy discount. It was also reported that an Indian judge in the ICJ had voted against Russia in support of the court’s order.

 

With no end in sight for the Ukraine crisis the pandemic resurge has added more problems. The WHO warning said that one of the three sub-variants of Omicron, namely the BA.2 variant, has been found to be the dominant virus in the recent surge in China, South Korea and Hong Kong—China already putting nearly 37 million of its citizens under lockdown after reaching the highest ever daily-infection figures since the pandemic started; South Korea registering a record daily new cases of around 600,000 only yesterday, a supposed peak for the country; and Hong Kong reporting a rising trend of deaths, particularly because a large chunk of its elderly population is yet to be vaccinated.  A few cases of the BA.2 virus, also called the ‘stealth virus’ due to its ability to escape detection through the normal RT-PCR tests, are also being found in Israel. European nations like Germany, France and the UK among others are also showing rising infections in recent days. The WHO warns that the surge may be heading toward countries in eastern Europe too including Belarus and Ukraine, and appealed to the nations to not lax the testing/detection/contact measures further. President Biden is also put under more pressure due to the surge.

 

Some studies have reportedly said that the new surge or the COVID-19 Fourth Wave may reach India by June this year and may last for four months. Amid the relaxations, the elections and the celebrations the Government of India had taken a high-level meeting to study the new threat. In all, we are looking at a very volatile and uncertain future at the moment, confounded by the Ukraine war and an obstinately resurging two-year-old pandemic. The crude oil prices had come down to around $100 a barrel on the hopes of a truce between Russia and Ukraine; but now the uncertainty is bound to come back. All the growth rates as far as the starting-to-revive economies are being concerned are set to be revised downwards at any time. 

Book Review By Himakar Tata: The Cheerless Chauffeur And Other Tales!

In his book “THE CHEERLESS CHAUFFEUR…”, Chinmay Chakravarty captures the different facets of the lives of middle-class Indians through 34 short stories. The humorous title of each story is indicative of the subtle and wry humor characteristic of the writer. Each story is a throwback on issues dominant in the India of the 1980s and 1990s. During that period technology was transforming lives in metropolitan cities. However, the social norms continued to remain mired in the India of 1970s.

 

The stories “THE RAIN DRENCH”, “YOU ARE INVITED (1 & 2)” are reflective of the hesitancy that came in the way of free interaction between men and women in the public. The 1970s was also the period when you had “leaders discussing poverty with glasses of expensive wine in air-conditioned rooms”. Many of the avowed radicals during their student days “left the left” in the 1980s (“A CIVILIZATION”).

 

It was also the era of shortages with “dirty-rich people in dirty-costly apparels waiting for freebies”. “THE MUNCHING WAYS OF A MISER” is also elaborative of this syndrome of scrounging. The woes and insecurities of a middle-class tenant are highlighted in a humorous style in “THE SPIT- FIRE” & “MILORD-O’LANDLORD”

 

The stories echo the transition that the Indian society was going through in 1980s & 1990s. With traditional societal norms having not yet faded away completely, this was also a time when men were still caught in a “Hamlet like indecisiveness” with regard to their adulterous flings (“FRAMED”).

 

The practical wisdom of a housewife is very evident in “PINNED DOWN”. Unlike her husband, she does not get overwhelmed by the hush- hush technological secrecy behind a “PIN” (Personal Identification Number). She has the perspicacity not to lose sight of the utility of a simple pin. “THE BLUFF OF THE HAZARDOUS KIND” unveils the shrewd negotiating skills of a housewife in undoing the damage caused by the emotional outbursts of her husband. “OUT OF THE CLUE” & “THE DUEL” put the lady of the house in a commanding position cornering a man for his off the cuff remark & having the last word.

 

Chinmay is very current in updating us on the flip side of a family cooped together, 24x7, in their home during the lockdown periods of 2020 & 2021. “BANANA BREAKOUT” cautions you on the qualitative limitations of ordering bananas online (despite its logistic ease). It recommends that even a man with the greatest “virus phobia” should step out in the open to buy bananas. It would reward his wife with that much needed valuable 15 minute “personal space & own time”.

 

“THE VIRAL VETO” dwells on the great debate sparked off during the lockdown on eating outside. “AN ELABORATE CONCOCTION” reveals as to how to circumvent shopping queues during the relaxation of curfew hours. “TALES, TELLTALES & TAILSPIN” sends your head in a tizzy over paranoid Indian TV Channels creating storms in tea cups in their rat race for their TRP ratings. “DECIBELS OF DESPERATION” highlights the impact of pandemic restrictions on the deals and power structure within a middle-class housing society.

 

The restlessness and woes of rail travelers owing to late running of trains is depicted well in “THE CONNECTING TRAIN”. Ironically, in “A CURIOUS CASE FOR DELAYS” the author justifies the relaxation in the demanding norms for punctuality. He indulges in a “perfectly timed time killing” at the airport. “BECAUSE I NEEDED TO BUY” also reflects the unpredictable fastidiousness of a commuter in his choice of the trains despite alternative options being available. “LESS ORDER ON THE SUPERFAST EXPRESS” reflects the psychological triumph of a cynical rail traveler, who has developed a thick skin towards all the antics of the railways. He also has the chutzpah to treat a railway coach like his very bedroom with all the informality. “THE DISCERNING COMMUTER” dwells on the scramble for a senior citizen train seat of a commuter fast “approaching the life landmark” of senior citizenship.

 

The street smart tactics of ordinary men and the mind games played by them  are described in details in “WELL DONE SENOR” , “THE LONER”, “TWO STRANGERS AT IT”, “ THE HAUNTED PAJAMA”, “THE BURPY BLUES “ & “ A PUNCH IN THE LURCH”

 

The need for innate horse sense to provide most unlikely solutions is illustrated in “THE PECULIAR MYSTERY OF A PARCEL” & “THE CHEERLESS CHAUFFEUR”

 

“THE BLOATED MUSICIAN” unmasks the hollow pretentiousness in some men. “BROWN SUGAR AND THE OLDEN RAGE” shows how   hypersensitive men can be. “THE ROUGH CUT” convinces you that it is impossible for one to please everyone.

 

My favorite story is the “THE THAMES POND QUADRILOGY”. Its fast-paced conversations are realistically reflective of motor mouthed salespersons trying to intrude into our private finances and burn deeper holes in our pockets. In “CREDIT CONTROL ROOM” the fast-talking credit card salesperson ultimately has her own way by not giving any chance to customers to respond.

 

The sales talk in “THE COST OF CREDIT” brims with sweet assurances by the credit company that it would be a noble and wonderful thing for the card holder to die in order to leave “benefits” for one’s family! “CASH ON THE CARDS” unveils the slow ego massage given to the unsuspecting customer. In “THE VIRTUAL TRAVEL PACKAGE” it is the turn of the customer to outwit the salesman by reeling out the extra hidden social & hidden costs!!

 

All in all, the wry humor, delivered in a laidback manner by Chinmay Chakravarty, makes you shrug off your middle-class blues to look at the lighter side of life!!

 

Himakar Tata, a postgraduate from the Delhi School of Economics, has been the literal globe-trotter traveling extensively throughout his service career and after his voluntary retirement, always following up with his travel stories published across various newspapers, periodicals and his social media accounts. His stories are always enriched with exciting and beautiful photographs. He hails from Vizag and is a member of Ram Mohan Roy’s Brahmo Samaj. We thank him heartily for this review as our valued Guest Writer.

Ind Vs SL 2nd Test: Pant Hits The Fastest Fifty, Indian Batting Extends It To The Third Day!

Source: BCCI

Having all the time in the world India didn’t really need to hurry setting a target and so batted on till the 9^th wicket fell, and luckily extending the pink-ball Test match to the third day. Given their pitch-specific one-day cricket tactics India scored at a very healthy 4+ per over run rate scoring 303/9 in the 69^thover setting a target of 447 runs to win for Sri Lanka. This target is a tall order for the side batting last on any kind of pitch anywhere. The highlights of the Indian innings include the fastest fifty in Test cricket for India by Rishabh Pant (50) who achieved the feat in just 28 balls, bettering that of Kapil Dev in 30 balls; good opening partnership with Rohit (46) tackling the spinners well scoring all around the park including reverse sweeps, unfortunately missing his much deserved half-century; and Shreyas Iyer, the hero of the first innings, lapped up his consecutive second fifty of the match with an exciting 67-run innings. Except for Kohli (13) all batsmen contributed well and the bowlers too scored runs with Shami remaining not out at 16 when the declaration came.

 

It has been the class of Team India in all departments of the game that stood out in sharp contrast in this match than the pitch behavior. The Sri Lankans did poorly in both bowling and fielding—their pacers not at all matching the might of Bumrah-Shami and their spinners, particularly Lasith Embuldeniya, were let down often by the slip catchers. In India second innings Embuldeniya had to be content with 3 wickets and Praveen Jayawickrama with 4—both of them deserved a fifer in at least one innings. With just 7 overs left in the second day to start chasing the mammoth target Sri Lanka lost opener Lahiru Thirimanne for a duck in the very first over by Bumrah. Fortunately, captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Kushal Mendis saw through the day with the team score of 28/1 at stumps. It is to be seen tomorrow whether India would need one or two or three sessions to sweep the series 2-0, now a foregone conclusion.

 

Earlier in the morning session today, India needed just about 6 overs to get the remaining 4 Sri Lanka wickets bundling them out for a paltry 109, taking a huge lead of 143 runs. Jasprit Bumrah, firing all cylinders since the first day, achieved a fifer which is his first on Indian soil while R Ashwin got into the act with 2 wickets. In batting, apart from Iyer, Rishabh Pant sparkled in both innings and in the Series too with his brilliant 96 in the first test. Only it’s still a long wait for Virat Kohli to score a century as he ends this Series without even a single fifty. We already mentioned about Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round glory of 175 not out and a haul of 9 wickets in that test. Test Cricket is over for some time to come now as the IPL-2022 gets underway later this month with 10 franchises ready to fight it out.

Ind Vs SL 2nd Test: The Pink Ball Blues Or The Pitch As 16 Wickets Fall On 1st Day?

Source: BCCI

As many as 16 wickets fell on the very first day of the Second and last Test match, a day-n-night pink ball affair, between India and Sri Lanka at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru today. Pink ball test matches have been a very recent addition to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Test Championship (WTC) schedules and this is perhaps only the third match played in India so far. India demolished Bangladesh in the first ever Pink-ball test in Kolkata and then England in the second pink-ball Ahmedabad match. Normally the pink ball is associated with more swing, particularly in the twilight period when the lights come on, even though this is still not a proven fact. In this particular match more than the pink ball blues the pitch seems to have played a far pivotal role. The pitch has proved to be a turning one from day 1 combined uneven and variable bounce which helped both the seamers and the spinners. The way the wickets fell in heaps on the very first day the match could very well be over in two days in which case the curator may have to face the ICC probe.

 

India won the toss and obviously elected to bat first. The Indian batsmen seemed to have sensed the nature of the pitch and accordingly decided to make hay as long as the pitch shines, attacking the bowlers in the short-format style with opener getting runout in the very second over. Captain Rohit Sharma tried to blast his way out, but was cut short by Embuldeniya for 15 runs. Kohli (23) and Hanuma Vihari (31) then adopted the sheet-anchor roles, but could not save their wickets for long. India were reduced to 86/4 and then to 148/6. Shreyas Iyer, surprisingly coming after Pant, played a terrific innings of 92 runs thus restoring India to a respectable total of 252 all out in just the 60^th over which could very well be a winning one proving the Indian batting tactics right.

 

Given the nature of the pitch the Sri Lanka bowlers failed to take advantage of the conditions, particularly the fast bowlers, Lakmal and Fernando, with only the former managing to take a wicket. The spinning trio of Embuldeniya, Jayawickrama and Dhananjaya de Silva captured 8 wickets between them. As India got all out just before the dinner break the Sri Lanka batsmen had the arduous task ahead of facing the Indian seamers under the lights.

 

And yes, Bumrah and Shami proved lethal for them making the ball swing both ways and took 5 wickets between them, Bumrah taking 3 scalps. Axar Patel, replacing Jayant Yadav after a long rehab break, took the 6^th wicket. Sri Lanka were precariously placed at 86/6 at stumps with only Angelo Mathews (43) providing some resistance. If the Indian spinning trio of Ashwin, Axar and Jadeja along with Bumrah and Shami have their ways on an already deteriorating pitch we might see a very dramatically eventful second day tomorrow.

 

Since this two-match Test Series is part of the WTC schedule India’s probable 2-0 sweep over Sri Lanka would improve their ranking significantly.

Ram Gopal Varma: A Humble Status Enquiry Please!

Why should any film director, let him/her be a seriously famous or crass commercial maker, make a movie like the ’12 O’ Clock’ (2021) while still in the right frame of mind? I’m saying so because the film, placed in the ‘horror’ genre, is ludicrously absurd, inadvertently funny and with superimposed superficial characters. The angst of the viewers is particularly aggravated if that filmmaker happens to be an era-defining and a prolific one for over three decades. I cannot restrain myself from quoting the Hindi teaser that goes like this, ‘Tera barah baj gaya kya?’ (Have you got done with it?) while avoiding the Sardar jokes associated with the ’12 o’ clock’ phenomenon. Mind you, I’m far from trying to be offensive or insulting in any possible manner for I’ve been a devout admirer of the filmmaker since the 90s. As the title suggests I’m just asking as to what may have been happening with him in the recent years. However, it’s a far cry as regards the remotest possibility of this piece ever reaching him.

 

No doubt, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma who has almost been institutionalized and iconized as RGV in the new-age Indian Cinema has been a hypercreative and restless celluloid creator regularly shifting from genre to genre and relentlessly experimenting with avant-garde traditions, parallel cinema tenets, seriously song-less commercial ventures and also docudrama. Hailing from the Telugu film industry Ram Gopal Varma burst into the Hindi film industry or Bollywood with his epochal crime thriller ‘Shiva’ (1990) which was a remake of his Telugu masterpiece ‘Siva’ (1989). Moviegoers including this writer had been fascinated with his fresh new techniques in photography and use of realistic background audio combined with the introduction of the Steadicam for the first time in Indian cinema. Very soon, he was hailed as an Indian filmmaker of the neo-noir genre with his ‘Drohi’ in 1992 which was a bilingual movie in Telugu and Hindi.

 

True to his restless nature, RGV did not stick to his richly acquired genre of noir and shifted to the horror one with ‘Raat’ in which was also a bilingual production in the same year. Perhaps he was inspired by the archaic Ramsay kind of horror movies in India and made a new effort to change the concept permanently with jump scares, moving camera and the amplified use of the audio while avoiding the omnipresent grotesque monsters. Then in 1995 he again shifted to the romantic comedy genre with his unforgettable ‘Rangeela’ starring Aamir Khan and Urmila Matondkar, the latter heroine becoming a permanent feature in most of his later movies. In this super-duper blockbuster music director AR Rahman made his Hindi debut and won awards. In the interlude 1992-1995 Varma went on with his Telugu movies. Then sticking to the comedy genre combined with road adventure he made ‘Daud’ (run) starring Sanjay Dutt and Urmila in 1997 which is a remake of his Telugu cult classic of 1991. ‘Daud’ was an average hit with mixed reviews. This brings us to another characteristic of this filmmaker.

 

Apart from his ‘creative and experimentalist restlessness’ RGV is also like a cricketer who is often in full form and the next day he is out of form. His movies truly reflect this throughout the last three decades.

 

In 1998 he switched to the Gangster genre with his era-defining ‘Satya’ starring Urmila and Chakravarthy, and successfully created his Gangster trilogy with ‘Company’ (2002) and ‘D’ (2005). ‘Satya’ earned him international acclaim crowning him with the creator of Mumbai Noir as the movies of the trilogy brought out the layers of the Mumbai underworld. British filmmaker Danny Boyle cited the influences of ‘Satya’ and ‘Company’ in the making of his Academy Award winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008). RGV was also featured in BBC World Series ‘Bollywood Bosses’ in 2004. Both ‘Satya’ and ‘Company’—the latter starring Ajay Devgan and Manisha Koirala—won him many Filmfare nominations and awards. As the cricketer in and out of form RGV was somewhat out of form in third movie of the trilogy ‘D’, and as per latest reports he is trying to bring out another sequel or prequel ‘D Company’. In the same year of 1998, he combined with Mani Rathnam to produce the memorable ‘Dil Se’.

 

In between, the restless creator shifted to the political thriller genre producing the critically acclaimed ‘Shool’ (Spike) (1999) that earned him a National Award for the Best Script. In the same year he experimented with a psychological thriller ‘Kaun’ filmed in just one house and with only three characters, namely Urmila and Manoj Bajpayee. In 2005 he seriously concentrated on the political thriller genre and created another trilogy, starting with the Godfatheresque ‘Sarkar’ (2005) starring Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek which was a huge commercial success as well as critically acclaimed. Again, he started losing his form somewhat in ‘Sarkar Raj’ (2008) and lost it more in ‘Sarkar-3’ (2017).   

 

Of course, he never forgot his ‘horror’ genre and made a commercially successful ‘Bhoot’ (Ghost) in 2003, following it up in the same year with ‘Darna Mana Hai’ (fear is forbidden) and ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’ (fear is necessary) in 2006. In the year of 2003, he also produced a psychological thriller ‘Ek Hasina Thi’ (there was a girl) starring Urmila and anti-hero Saif Ali Khan. In 2004 he produced a suspense-crime flick ‘Ab Tak Chappan’ (so far 56) on an encounter specialist played brutally by Nana Patekar. He also returned to the horror genre with ‘Phoonk’ (Blow) in 2008 and this was perhaps the last superhit of RGV. Unfortunately, since then the RGV movies have been able to get only mixed to negative reviews except the absorbing political thriller ‘Rann’ in 2010 starring Amitabh Bachchan. The same year his ‘Rakta Charitra’ double-header reminded viewers including this writer prominently mostly of gore and violence portrayed in C-grade Hindi commercial masala movies.

 

His mistakes have contributed to his being consistently out of form since at least 2010: the mistake of trying to do a remake of the classic ‘Sholay’ that landed him in controversy and he went ahead still with a ridiculous title of ‘Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag’ (the fire of RGV); his misconceived notions of remaking the evergreens ‘Shiva’, ‘Satya’ and ‘Bhoot’; and so on. His supposed docudrama ‘The Attacks of 26/11’ (2013) failed to portray the intensity of the frightening Mumbai terror attack. In fact, the recent Amazon web series ‘Mumbai Diaries 26/11’ from a medical point of view is more engrossing as well as realistic.

 

Every filmmaker has his/her ups and downs, hits and flops as we’ve tried to narrate in the case of this iconic filmmaker of India who is apparently like the volatile cricketer. However, nothing of this justifies his making of the ’12 O Clock’ movie. Thanks to some Hollywood horror epics we know very well the phenomena of ‘possession and exorcism’. But in this film, this phenomenon has been turned grotesquely on its head without any explanation.

 

A stalwart theater-cinema actor Makarand Deshpande who has also featured in many of RGV movies has been reduced to a mockery of a character that emotes without conviction. Veteran Bollywood hero Mithun Chakraborty, also roped in as psychiatrist (the character pronounces it as ‘psychiatric’!), does not know what to do most of the times. The supposed exorcist played by Ashish Vidyarthi, before he could offer a solution, gets killed in his own house by the remote-controlling ghost of a psycho serial killer who possessed Makarand’s daughter Gauri. Manav Kaul and Dalip Tahil as cops are entirely wasted. RGV’s final solution to the problem is as horrendously absurd and laughable as the entire movie is inadvertently funny. I had the misfortune of watching this movie because of the RGV tag and that it was available on a streaming platform. 

 

Of course, Ram Gopal Varma retains his techno-savvy touches, movements and an appropriately effective background music, but is lacking mostly in the story development department. We hope this ever-creative director regain his form like Virat Kohli and bring back his magic in the near future.