Pakistan Supreme Court Hits The Imran Khan Foreign-Hand Bouncer For A Six!

The high-voltage political drama in Pakistan has seemingly ended today with the Supreme Court of the country dismissing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decisions to dissolve the National Assembly and holding general elections within 90 days that he announced moments before the no-confidence motion on 3^rd April 2022. The Court held the decision of the Deputy Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly to reject the motion quoting the constitution as illegal. The Court has now fixed the date for the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan on Saturday, the 9^th of April by reconstituting the National Assembly. The no-confidence motion was brought by the opposition alliance on 8^th March and the date for the motion was postponed to Sunday, the 3^{rd of} April. It has been apparent since the beginning that Imran Khan’s government was reduced to a minority with many of the members of his own party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) defecting to the opposition.

 

In an emotional address to the nation on 1^st April Prime Minister Imran Khan hinted at a ‘foreign conspiracy’ to dethrone him from power and appealed to the people of Pakistan to defeat this in national interest. He also said that like in cricket he’d continue till the last ball is bowled. This ‘foreign hand’ theory, apparently implicating the US, has been termed widely by the international media as ‘Imran’s bouncer or googly’ and the full strength of his ‘bouncer’ stunned the world when he announced his crucial decisions moments before the confidence vote. However, the Supreme Court today has hit it out of the boundary.

 

The opposition party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari questioned the decision of the Deputy Speaker as unconstitutional and appealed to the apex court to give its verdict on the constitutional crisis. In the following days the election commission of the country said that it was not possible to hold elections in 90 days and then, more significantly, the Pak Army termed the ‘foreign hand’ conspiracy as not true.

 

Nobody could ever forget Imran Khan, the fiery fast bowler of yore who took the world of cricket by storm and captained and led the Pakistan cricket team to the only victory in the ICC Cricket World Cup in1992. Imran had been the cynosure of cricket lovers thanks to his handsome athletic physique, his bowling action and his never-say-die attitude. He has also been having numerous relationships and several wives, often leading to controversies. After retirement from cricket, he entered politics forming his own political party, the PTI in 1996, got elected into the National Assembly in 2002 and served the opposition till 2007.

 

After many ups and downs in the following years Imran Khan’s PTI won the elections in 2018 and he became the Prime Minister of Pakistan that year. His policies and actions, particularly his relations with India, have not been anything to write home about and he was often criticized by other political parties. His political career is now set to be decided on 9^th April, 2022. As a self-professed fighter till the last ball Imran Khan is definitely not going to say quits after the no-confidence vote which is almost decided against him. His nationalism and personal charisma would possibly continue to attract some followers. After the near-certain defeat of the present government on 9^th April there would be an opposition-led interim government in the country with Imran Khan in the opposition till the general elections are held.

IPL-2022: As Pat Cummins Gives An Incredible Third Win To KKR Top Winners CSK And MI Complete Hat-Tricks Of Losses!

Indian Premiere League-2022 (IPL-2022), with 10 franchises only for the second time and restricted only to fours stadiums in Maharashtra till the play-offs, was expected produce hot rivalries and upset wins or losses in the process. That’s exactly what’s transpired in the first ten days of the T20 cricket extravaganza. More definitively, the results so far are evenly split between successful chases and defenses, thus neutralizing the perception that in the Indian pitches the chasing teams always win the matches. Before going to those details, we must first capture what Pat Cummins, a leading Aussie fast bowler of world cricket in both Tests and ODIs, has done last night in a match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) played at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, Pune.

 

MI put up a rather dicey target of 162 runs to chase for KKR on a pitch where the batsmen have been seen to struggle to score runs. MI had the match in good control capturing the top 5 KKR wickets including the hero of its previous win Andrew Russel at 101 runs in the 14^th over with KKR needing 61 off 41 balls. Pat Cummins comes in at that moment with all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer (50 not out) struggling to retain his place in the team. Cummins does not bother about settling in, and makes it 47 runs off 36 balls to win. In the next over he makes it 35 runs in 30 balls. The match is now in favor of KKR, but the fall of a wicket at this stage is the danger of MI coming back. Anyway, most of the spectators thought the match would go on for at least three more overs. But Cummins had other ideas.

 

He picks up a team-mate Australian debutant fast bowler Daniel Sams for his demolition act. And lo! He settles everything in that single over, collecting 35 runs with 4 sixes and 2 fours and making Sams the fifth most expensive bowler in IPL history. And Pat Cummins becomes the second batsman to notch up 50 runs in just 14 balls thus joining KL Rahul who achieved the feat in 2018 playing for Punjab Kings IX against Delhi Capitals (DC). Pat remains not out with 56 in 15 balls with 6 sixes and 4 fours, hitting the last ball of that memorable over out of the boundary and giving KKR their third win by 5 wickets with four overs to spare. KKR occupies now the top spot with three wins out of four.

 

However, Yuvraj Singh still remains the top batsman to score a fifty in 12 balls in T20 cricket World Cup history in spite of the leaps and bounds the T20 cricket format has taken over the years thanks to the formation many leagues like the IPL. Who can ever forget that memorable innings of Yuvraj Singh in the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup-2007 when he hit six sixes in that over bowled by England fast bowler Stuart Broad in Durban helping India win the match by 18 runs and going on to lift the World Cup beating Pakistan in the final?

 

The most striking feature of IPL-2022 is that, so far, the top championship winners MI (5 times) and CSK (4 times) are yet to open their winning account, both completing hat-tricks of losing three consecutive matches each. CSK and MI occupy the 8^thand the 9^th spots respectively in the points table with negative net run-rates, and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) who had a forgettable performance in the previous IPL version too ornamenting the last spot losing both their matches.

 

The newbies, the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT), are doing quite well with GT winning both their matches and LSG winning 2 out of 3 matches so far. A few of the biggest upsets so far in IPL-2022 are Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) overhauling 205/2 by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at DY Patil stadium, Navi Mumbai on 27^th March; LSG chasing successfully a mammoth target of 210 runs set by CSK at the Brabourne stadium Mumbai on 31^st March and winning the match by 6 wickets; GT suffocating DC in Pune on 2^nd April and winning the match by 14 runs; and the absolute rout of CSK by PBKS at Brabourne stadium on 3^rd April with the latter winning by 54 runs thanks to an incredible all-round performance by its most expensive buy England cricketer Liam Livingstone.     

 

Of course, it’s still early days to focus upon the possible play-off teams as each team would go on playing 14 matches each. Besides, the greats like Rohit Sharma (MI), Kane Williamson (SRH), Virat Kohli (RCB), Rishabh Pant (DC), Shreyas Iyer (KKR), Jasprit Bumrah (MI), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK), Hardik Pandya (GT) and a few others are yet to play to their full potential. The glorious uncertainties always make cricket exciting in any formats it’s played.

Sharmaji Namkeen: More A Rich Tribute To Rishi Kapoor, Less A Great Movie!

The Amazon original movie ‘Sharmaji Namkeen’ (Savory Mr. Sharma) that released on Prime Video on 31^stMarch 2022 is all about one of the greatest actors of Bollywood—the lovable romantic hero since the seventies who started graduating to endearing and at times intense performances in character roles since the 2000s—Rishi Kapoor. The movie actually reminds us how dearly we miss the stalwart who passed away on 30^thApril, 2020. Rishi Kapoor after being cast in the titular role in this movie and shooting started accordingly fell seriously ill. He had to undergo prolonged treatment in the US. Movie director Hitesh Bhatia and the producers waited for him to get well and return to the shoots. It was just impossible to replace him. His tremendous actor-son Ranbir Kapoor said how eager too was his father to complete the film. Rishi Kapoor did get well, returned to India by the end of 2019 and the shooting schedule started anew from December. Sadly, it was short lived. The superstar fell sick again and never returned to the sets.

 

It created a crisis now, because all connected with the movie felt at the innermost parts of their hearts that the movie had to be completed out of pure respect for the great actor who had his swansong as the endearing Sharmaji in this movie. Ranbir also thought about getting into his father’s shoes, but he felt the prosthetics would be far too heavy to do justice to the role. Finally, another great actor of Bollywood, Paresh Rawal, came forward to complete the role, again out of pure love and respect for Rishi Kapoor. And history was made. ‘Sharmaji Namkeen’ became perhaps the first Bollywood film ever to have two stalwarts doing the same role. To the credit of the director and the editor the intercuts between the scenes of Rishi Kapoor and Paresh Rawal have been done expertly and seamlessly, like Rishi Kapoor cooking in the kitchen and Rawal coming out or the former inside a car in one scene and Rawal in the next.

 

The movie starts with a lot of promise as the widower Mr. Sharma is given voluntary retirement by his company and the ever-ebullient and the busy bee Sharmaji wonders and ponders on what to do now. His two sons, the elder working and the younger studying, are not much of a help as they only argue with their father apart from gorging on the delicious dishes cooked by him. So, the premise was very real and palpable in Delhi middle-class environs. However, the thin storyline becomes even thinner with most of the characters including the sons, the elder son’s fiancée, most of the kitty party ladies and others are left rather half-baked. The film, in reality, becomes a series of conversations involving the rotating characters.

 

The most disturbing part of the storytelling has been the background score and songs. It seems the filmmaker-writers have become much too conscious that what they are churning out is an out and out comedy, and so the background music from the very first frame tries to be sounding grotesquely comic while there are hardly any genuine laughs generated in the labored process except for a few rare moments. On the top of that constant disturbance comes the staccato bursts of the background songs that are utterly unnecessary.

 

No doubt the film avoids loud, predictable and cliched drama; but in the climax it succumbs to the usual dramatic twist indulged in by most commercial movies in order to convince the characters steadfastly opposing the protagonist. It is also surprising why at all should the eldest son oppose the exercise of Sharmaji’s exemplary culinary talents, particularly in the present modern society where cooking has become gender neutral with male chefs in gay abundance, and why should Sharmaji himself hide his activities. Most of the dialogues too seem to be manufactured with conscious care rather than allowing them come out naturally from the characters and the situations.  

 

Of course, the movie is immensely watchable for a one-time view, and Rishi Kapoor, Paresh Rawal and Juhi Chawla keep you engaged for most of its two-hour duration. And considering this posthumous release of Rishi Kapoor’s last performance the movie is unmissable. Another highlight of the film is the director’s treatment of the kitty parties, showing the ladies with their genuine painful backgrounders, the monotony and ennui of mundane existences and the spirit of celebration. And the ladies here discuss everything under the sun, including the taboo subjects for ‘family’ entertainers. Juhi Chawla as the ever-smiling Veena Manchanda and Sheeba Chaddha as the intriguing Manju Gulati shine out among the kitty party women. Rishi Kapoor and Paresh Rawal fit in with them as if ecclesiastically. Unfortunately, leading actor-comedian Satish Kaushik is almost wasted.

 

We thank the filmmaker-producers and the crew of ‘Sharmaji Namkeen’ for giving us a chance to behold Rishi Kapoor again in an endearing performance and allowing us to pay our tributes to him one more time. We thank our favorite artiste Paresh Rawal for taking up the huge challenge to get into Rishi Kapoor’s skin so that the movie could be completed. As the beginning with Ranbir Kapoor and the end credits combined with the old evergreen songs show the film is indeed a rich tribute to Rishi Kapoor.