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Archives for 2016

MCD bypolls: AAP wins 5, Cong- 4 and BJP-3

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compulsory voting Gujarat

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party won five and Congress won four wards each while the BJP won from three wards in the MCD bypolls for 13 wards, results of which were declared today.

Independent candidate Rajender Singh Tanwar won from Bhati ward where the maximum votes had been polled in the bypolls held on Sunday last.

AAP candidate Abhishek Bidhuri won from Tekhand ward by a margin of 1555 votes defeating BJP candidate Sunil Verma. Other winners from the party were Ramesh from Matiala ward, Anil Malik from Nanakpura and Ashok Kumar from Vikas Nagar ward, election officials said.

Congress candidate Pankaj won from the Jhilmil ward by a margin of 2419 votes. Pankaj defeated ex MLA and BJP candidate Jitender Singh Shunty. Congress candidate Yogita Rathi won from the women reserved seat of Munirka. The party candidates also won from Khichdipur and Qumraddin Nagar.

BJP candidate Bhupinder Mohan Bhandari won from Shalimar Bagh by a margin of 1451 votes. Party candidate Dr Mahender Nagpal won Wazirpur ward by 3608 votes while Nawada candidate Krishan Gehlot won by 4843 votes.

(Agencies)

Swamy to PM: Rajan ‘mentally not fully Indian’, sack him immediately

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subramanian swamy

New Delhi: In a fresh salvo at RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate sacking of the former IMF Chief Economist while alleging he was “mentally not fully Indian” and has “wilfully” wrecked the economy.

Following up his barb against Rajan at the end of Parliament session last week, Swamy yesterday wrote to Prime Minister seeking termination of Rajan’s services with immediate effect.

“The reason why I recommend this is that I am shocked by the wilful and apparently deliberate attempt by Dr Rajan to wreck the Indian economy,” he wrote adding his concept of raising interest rates to contain inflation was “disastrous.”

Also, bad loans with public sector banks has doubled to Rs 3.5 lakh crore in two years, he said.

Rajan was appointed RBI Governor by the previous UPA government in September 2013 for a three-year term, which can be extended.

“These actions of Dr Rajan lead me to believe that he is acting more as a disrupter of the Indian economy than the person who wants the Indian economy to improve.

“Moreover he is in this country on a Green Card provided by the US government and therefore mentally not fully Indian. Otherwise why would he renew his Green Card as RBI Governor by making the mandatory annual visit to the US to keep the Green Card current?” he wrote.

Swamy had last week stated that Rajan was “not appropriate for the country” as he had in the garb of controlling inflation raised interest rates leading to “collapse of industry and rise of unemployment in the economy.”

“The sooner he is sent back to Chicago, the better it would be,” he had told reporters in Parliament House.

Rajan is the on-leave Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

After assuming charge as RBI governor in September 2013, Rajan gradually raised the short-term lending rate from 7.25 per cent to 8 per cent and had retained the high rates throughout 2014.

He kept the rates high, citing inflationary concerns despite intense pressure from the Finance Ministry and the industry for softening them with a view to boosting growth.

The Governor began the process of lowering the rates in January 2015 and since then it has come down by 1.50 per cent to 6.50 per cent.

Swamy in the letter to Modi said the BJP came to power under his inspiring leadership. “I cannot see why someone appointed by the UPA Government who is apparently working against Indian economic interests should be kept in this post when we have so many nationalist minded experts available in this country for the RBI Governorship.”

He urged Modi “to terminate the appointment of Dr Raghuram Rajan in the national interest.”

Swamy, who was earlier this month nominated to Rajya Sabha by the BJP government, said Rajan’s concept of containing inflation by raising interest rates was “disastrous.”

“When the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) started to decline due to induced recession in the small and medium industry, he shifted the target from WPI to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which has not however declined because of retail prices. On the contrary it has risen.

“Had Dr Raghuram Rajan stuck to WPI interest rates would have been much lower today and given huge relief to small and medium industries. Instead they are squeezed further and consequent increasing unemployment,” he wrote.

Rajan, Swamy said, was “acting more as a disrupter of the Indian economy than the person who wants the Indian economy to improve.”

(Agencies)

“My debut directorial movie is partly an autobiographical film”: Tanuj Bhramar

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Tanuj Bhramar 3

Director Tanuj Bhramar happens to be hailing from Ranchi – Jharkhand. He also happens to ber a new kid on the block to wield the megaphone for his directorial debut with Dear Dad. It is a sweet & simple story of a father & son who discover more about each other when they embark on a road trip. Present herewith is a brief telephonic 1st person interaction with him.

“I was born in Dhanbad and then went to a boarding school in Dehradoon and then I went to Columbia Film School as I always wanted to deal with creatively oriented fine arts and being a painter I had this good visualising power and of course I picked up the ropes of the varied departments of film making in Columbia Film School.”

Tanuj Bhramar 1

“Frankly speaking no! Whatever directional skills I acquired was in Columbia Film School. Then I made many promotional films on Cricket for my Video Club and then I just believed in exploring & evolving. Before taking up the direction of “Dear Dad” I explored further by making a short film titled “Resurrection”.

“My debut directorial movie is partly an autobiographical film because it is based on the bitter sweet memories of me & my dad, by the time I went to the boarding school we had shifted to Delhi from Ranchi – Jharkhand. So whenever my dad was free he used to drop me to Dehradun after my holidays and during those road trips we discovered many things about each other.”

“After I had finished writing the script of “Dear Dad” it was my casting director Anmol Ahuja who suggested Arvind Swamy Sir’s name for the Dad’s role. We were initially sceptical as Arvind Sir had not done a Hindi film for a long time. Anyways we went and met him in Chennai and sounded off the script of “Dear Dad” to him and he said he needed some time to think. The 1st meeting went off well and Arvind Sir also proved to be a good host. He called up after almost 2 months and wanted to meet us. I agreed thinking that even if he refused the film we can at least fill our tummies with good food. But jokes apart Arvind Sir said that he will do the film but only on one condition that the story of “Dear Dad” must be told from a Dad’s perspective too, whereas I had written the script from the son’s perspective. No problem we merged both the Dad & the Son’s perspective and the result was just great and proved very beneficial.”

“I would say that “Dear Dad” is a bitter sweet coming of age story; involving a father – son duo, 14 year old Shivam, and his 45 year old dad Nitin Swaminathan. The father – son duo embarks on an impromptu road trip from their home, in Delhi, to Mussorie (Uttarakhand), where Shivam attends a boarding school. The road trip entails unexpected confessions, weird strangers, accidental meetings, a drunken escapade and singing in the rain, all these add up to a complicated & a sweet tale.”

“I wanted to make a feel good film and I think I have succeeded in doing that. My target audiences are of course all the dads & their sons. Of course all the moms & their daughters are invited too. There have been many films made on moms & their daughters but there are very few & rare films made on the dads & their sons.”

“In the end I would like to add that I would like everyone to come & watch the film “Dear Dad” which is releasing on 13th May, 2016. As a parting shot I would also like to thankfully complement Arvind Sir, my other actors Himanshu Sharma, Ekavali Khanna & Aman Uppal and of course all my technicians for helping me to make such a beautiful film like “Dear Dad”.

Southern Films Round Up

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Asif Ali

Asif Ali Bags A New Heroine Anju Kurian

She is all set to play the lead heroine in a movie. As her leading man, she has none other than Asif Ali opposite her. Anju had hit the big screen with Om Shanti Oosana. She was also part of Premam and had appeared briefly as Nivin’s sister in it. The upcoming Asif Ali starrer is titled Kavi Uddeshichathu. Asif Ali plays Kaavalam Jimmy who tries to woo Anju’s character. Narain & Biju Menon are the other & lead actors in the movie. The shooting of this comic entertainer is on at Kannur.

Chowka Five Men Army Gets Many Additions

The 50th film of Karnataka pride Dwarakish Chitra’s Chowka gets many strong value additions. It has 5 well known faces in the star cast – Lovely star Prem, Vijay Raghavendra, Diganth, Prajwal & Aindrita Ray. In the technical department also director Tarun Sudhir (debut) has brought in big names. Five cameramen – Sathya Hegde, S Krishna, Shekar Chandru, Sudhakar Raj & Santosh Rai Pathaje have stood behind the camera. For music of 5 songs V Harikrishna, Gurukiran, Anoop Seelin, Sridhar Sambram & Arjun Janya, for dialogues of this Chowka, Anil Kumar, Simple Suni, A P Arjun, Chitan & Yoganand Muddan have written. In the art department 5 expertise who have worked at Arun Sagar, Ravi Santhehaklu, Mohan B Kere, Hosmane Murthy & Shivakumar.

Major Cinema Organisation Supports Jayalalitha

During elections of the past it has been in vogue for Rajinikanth to voice his direct or indirect support to one of the parties and every leader would wait with bated breath for that. This time the superstar has kept mum and similarly Illayathalapathy Vijay has also instructed his fan club members to vote for their favourite candidates. At this juncture, it comes as a surprise that FEFSI the umbrella organisation of cinema which comprises of 24 craft unions has extended support to the AIADMK after the President G. Siva and other office bearers meeting with party supremo Jayalalitha.

Anjali To Be Seen In The Role Of Kannagi

Director Karthick Subbaraj in his Iraivi though having on board heavy weights like Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha, S. J Suriya, Radha Ravi & Karunakaran has reportedly given more space to the heroines Anjali, Kamalinee Mukherjee & Pooja Devariya. Incidentally speaking Anjali’s role has been based on the epic characterization of Kannagi and this will turn out to be one of the path breaking roles for the talented actress on the lines of Angadi Theru & Engeyum Eppodhum.

Sri Divya Heaps Praises On Soori

At the recent press interaction for her upcoming film Marudhu pretty Sri Divya heaped praises on her costar Soori stating that he “merselled’ (mesmerized) her by his solid performance as a character artiste. Hero Vishal too was of the same opinion that Soori has excelled both in comedy & sentiments. Marudhu directed by M. Muthaiah and produced by Gopuram films has music by D. Imman & Radha Ravi in a pivotal role.

Maddy’s Sensational Heroine In Thala 57

After the blockbuster Vedalam’ which even survived & conquered the epic Chennai rains, Thala Ajith & Siruthai Siva are ready to begin their next in Jul, 2016. As of now the production company Sathyajyothi Films have confirmed Anirudh as the music director and rumors are rife that Santhanam has agreed to do a pivotal role. There are huge speculations regarding who would be the heroine of Thala 57 and Anushka has been roped in as one of the heroines and talks are on with Rithika Singh, who played the young boxer in love with Madhavan in Irudhi Suttru.

Vikram Opens Up About Prequel To 24

One may say that Vikram Kumar is a proliflic story – writer. Even when he was making 13B, he had written the story lines of 13C & 13D, apparently sequels to the Madhavan starrer. For some reasons, he couldn’t make the films with Maddy. Latest, it has been speculated that he will make a sequel to 24. It has been said that Athreya, the villain, has not been shown to have been dead conclusively enough. It’s also said that Vikram has deliberately left unconcluded the fate of the watch. Putting to rest the speculations, Vikram has said that it’s not a sequel that he has in mind, but a prequel.
This film will go on the floors after Vikram is done with his two bi – linguals, one each with Allu Arjun & Mahesh Babu.

Anushka Reveals A Thing About Bhagmathi

Anushka reveals a thing about her next movie Bhagmathi, which happens to be a historical drama, and one which sees Anushka being cast in the role of the Quli Qutub Shah’s wife. UV Creations is producing the project. The film was recently launched in a puja ceremony. Speaking about the movie, Anushka has said that it will be made like a thriller. Since thrillers are gaining currency of late, one can expect this one to be a hit. For a period drama, it’s an innovation as well. The shooting will begin once Anushka is done with Suriya’s S3. This ambitious film, which tells the legendary story of Bhagmathi, wife of Quli Qutub Shah, will be directed by Ashok G of Pilla Zamindar fame.

Chuttalabbayi’s climax being shot

Chuttalabbayi, starring Aadi and directed by Veerabhadram Chowdary of Aha Naa Pellanta & Poola Rangadu fame, is currently filming its climax in a Shamshabad temple. Dragon Prakash is choreographing the sequences. The producers say, “The songs filmed in Bangkok & Rajahmundry have come out very well.” The director says that John Kokkin is playing the villain. “The climax is turning out very well. Thaman has given extraordinary tunes.” We are planning to release it in June. As per the makers, “It’s an out & out fun film. Brahmanandam, Posani, Prudhvi, Raghu Babu, Shakalaka Shankar will have the audience in splits.” Krishna Bhagawan, Abhimanyu Singh, Jeeva, Surekha Vani, and others are part of the cast.

Kajal Speaks On her Brahmotsavam Role

It is a film which has got many wondering what the story might be, especially given the fact that it has 2 ace actresses romancing Mahesh Babu. The trailer has hardly thrown the hint. Meanwhile, Kajal Aggarwal has opened up about her role in this mega budgeted family entertainer. In this Srikanth Addala directed summer bonanza, the pretty diva plays an independent minded woman who is firm. Does this mean that Kajal (not to forget Samantha) has a meaty role in Brahmotsavam? Apparently, yes. It has to be seen how her strong minded character fits in the scheme of the things. For sure, many feminists are going to warm up to her role. Before all, Kajal is understandably in love of her role because the character admittedly reflects her true self in real life in terms of the strength that she shows.

Bhavana To Enact the role of a committed school teacher

She is all set to play a committed school teacher in an upcoming movie. She plays a character named Aswathy Ananthakrishnan. She is bold and works for the children tirelessly. She is also a counsellor at the juvenile home. The film to be helmed by Vijay Menon has been titled Vilakkumaram. The movie has been scripted by Vijay’s son Nikhil. This is a woman centric movie and has a serious & strong theme & message. However the director assures that the movie will be an entertainer. The film rolled recently and will be shot at Trivandrum & Ladakh.

Kabbaddi Kalpana 2 To Star Upendra In A Kannada Remake

The super hit Tamil film of Raghav Lawerence Kanchana 2 coming up in Kannada with super star Upendra in the lead and with 2 lovely looking heroines Priyamani & Avanthika Shetty. It is almost near the completion of shoot. At a playground in Malleshwaram super star Upendra representing Karnataka team with some protection to his knee took part in the national game Kabbaddi. The opponent party was Bihar team. The game was also mixed with song & dance that was directed in Kalai Kumar dance direction. When Upendra is there, the on lookers are huge. It happened so at the public playground. With this song the shooting also comes to an end says director Anantha Raju. Dr KM Rajendra of Kalla Police fame and Shilpa Srinivas are joint producers of this Kalpana 2 in the direction of Anantha Raju.

Movie Review: ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ is an interesting & realistic movie

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Buddha In A Traffic Jam

Producer: Vivek Agnihotri & Sharad Patel
Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Star Cast: Arunoday Singh, Mahie Gill, Aanchal Dwivedi, Pallavi Joshi & Anupam Kher
Music: Rohit Sharma

Vivek Agnihotri has given many marvellous films in the past and Buddha In A Traffic Jam is one more interesting & realistic film from his camp which is now backed by dynamic & dashing producer namely Sharad Patel & a brigade of dozen other producers.

The plotted scenario of Buddha In A Traffic Jam starts off with Vikram Pandit (Arunoday Singh) who is a happy – go – lucky management student from a business school in India. Little does Vikram Pandit know that he was about to become a part of the plot that would risk his life & also the Nation. He gets entangled between the 2 facets of India namely socialism & capitalism, both of which are deeply rooted in the isolated corners of the country. Somewhere deep within the jungles, flagrant conspirators are gearing up to maim the country. Vikram Pandit’s internet campaigns pulls him into a very deep web of conspiracy. The film revolves around Vikram Pandit’s survival in the sinister designs of the establishment. It resolves the age long conflicts between socialism & capitalism and defines the much needed revolution for the contemporary India.

The autobiographical film Buddha In A Traffic Jam is loosely based on director Vivek Agnihotri’s life himself and gives a lot of insight into the nexus between the so called NGO’s & the Naxalites and how the Universities exploits its students to give the much needed momentum to the Naxalite moment.

The direction of Vivek Agnihotri and the par excellence act of all the actors like Arunoday Singh, Mahie Gill, Aanchal Dwivedi, Pallavi Joshi & Anupam Kher are one of the major highlights of Buddha In A Traffic Jam. Beside the music of Rohit Sharma is apt in keeping up with the tempo of the film.

But there is one minor glitch in the film as it does not sound like a common man’s cup of tea as they may hardly relate to the subject at hand. Besides some of the so called bold scenes of the film in lieu with the blatant, in your face, cuss words may not be acceptable to some of the viewers.

Tail Piece: So all in all Buddha In A Traffic Jam is more of a film for the elite class and festival circuit audiences. But it may also have a good prospects at the Box Office turnstiles with sheer word of mouth publicity.

Movie Review: ‘One Night Stand’ is the kind of movie which may prove good only for one time viewing

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one-night-stand

Director: Jasmine Moses – D’Souza
Star Cast: Tanuj Virwani, Sunny Leone, Nyra Bannerjee, Ninad Kamath & Khalid Siddiqui
Music: Jeet Ganguly, Meet Bros, Tony Kakkar, Vivek Kar

Debutant director Jasmine Moses – D’Souza has really made a fairly decent & engaging
film in her debut directorial offering One Night Stand but sadly enough the loose script makes the proceedings dull and obviously the cine goers may loose Interest half way through.

The plotted scenario of One Night Stand kicks off with a flashback that’s being narrated by Urvil (Tanuj Virwani). It is the flashback and a series of events from his past that has defined his today. The flashback starts off with a fashion show organised by his event management agency. And after completing the event successfully, Urvil and his colleagues go drinking to celebrate. It is here that his friends challenge him to speak to a rank stranger (Sunny Leone) for a few thousand rupees. An attempt to win the bet gets him introduced to the stranger who, in turn, introduces herself as Celina. What follows after that, is unlimited liquor drinking by the 2 of them, which ultimately lands them up in bed together. But, the very next day, when Urvil gets up, he finds out that Celina has already left the room, without leaving any details of her whereabouts. And when Urvil comes back to his home in Pune, he is welcomed by his beautiful & dutiful wife Simran (Nyra Banerjee). Things are absolutely smooth between the couple, until one day Urvil accidentally spots Celina in the same mall wherein he has gone for shopping with his wife Simran. That very sight of Celina freshens up his ‘one night stand’ with her, which, in turn, gets translated into his desperation to meet her again. Thereafter begins his unending quest to hunt down Celina from the length & breadth of the world. Amidst all this, Urvil gets extremely busy with his company’s big – budget event of a product launch. It is here where he gets introduced to his rich client and his family, which takes the daylights out of Urvil.

Jasmine Moses – D’Souza has certainly presented Sunny Leone in a different avatar much away from her stereotyped image. If only she had paid more attention on the screenplay then One Night Stand would have turned out to be more interesting romantic thriller. That apart music proves to be the main USP of the film.

Performance wise it is refreshing to see Sunny Leone in an unusal role. She carries the film entirely on her dainty shoulders. She is charming & effortlessly acts out her role putting behind her sexy siren image. Tanuj Virwani is perfect in his role but struggles in a few scenes to get his expressions correct. Nyra Banerjee is totally natural while facing the camera and is a promising discovery. Other actors like Khalid Siddiqui & Ninad Kamath are good in their respective roles.

Tail Piece: All in all One Night Stand is a kind of film which may prove good only for one time viewing.

Kohli, de Villiers tear apart KKR

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kohli-de

Kolkata: Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers once again delivered the goods with their bats as their Royal Challengers Bangalore romped home with 9 wickets to spare against Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League (IPL) contest at the Eden Gardens here on Monday.

Kohli and de Villiers remained not out on 75 and 59 respectively while Chris Gayle contributed with a 31-ball 49. The Kohli-de Villiers partnership yielded 115 runs for the men in red and black.

With the win, Bangalore stay alive in the competition with 6 wins from 12 games.

Chasing Kolkata’s 183/5, they got off to a flyer as Gayle – who had been in slumber for much of this season – smashed the ball to all parts of the ground.

The burly Jamaican first took on Andre Russell hitting him for 17 in the third over and then clubbed Sunil Narine for two consecutive fours in the fifth.

After six overs, Bangalore were cruising at 63 for no loss but then Gayle was adjudged leg-before-wicket off a Narine delivery.

It was difficult to understand who the home team were as chants of ‘Kohli, Kohli’ went up time and again around the packed stadium as the Bangalore captain came in – and did not disappoint either as he picked the boundaries at regular intervals. However, Kohli was dropped at 32 by his opposite number Gautam Gambhir.

The miss proved costly as Kohli got to yet another half-century, while his partner at the other end – de Villiers – started clobbering them too.

Before long, the visitors were in touching distance of the total and the duo did the needful with 8 balls to spare.

Earlier twin fifties from Gambhir (51) and Manish Pandey (50) aided by Russell’s late blitz of 19-ball 39 helped Kolkata get to a fighting total.

Even though the hosts lost Robin Uthappa (2) early, Gambhir manage to pick the gaps along with Pandey. By the end of the powerplay, the team was 51/1.

The onslaught continued in the next over as legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal was carved for 16.

Bangalore then pulled things back a little thereafter and also grabbed the vital wicket of Gambhir who got run-out shortly after getting to his fifty.

Thereafter, new man Yusuf Pathan and the already set Pandey failed to pierce the gaps. Runs dried down and Pandey was holed out in the deep trying to up the run-rate. Yusuf (6) too was out stumped.

Next to perish was Suryakumar Yadav (5) who was caught at long on by Iqbal Abdulla. The flurry of wickets also put a brake on the scoring rate much to the relief of Bangalore.

But Shakib Al Hasan and Russell enthralled the strong Eden crowd with some powerhitting to propel Kolkata to such a score. The last three overs yielded 38 runs for the home side.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 183/5 (Gautam Gambhir 51, Manish Pandey 50; Sreenath Aravind 2/41) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: 186/1 (Virat Kohli 75, AB de Villiers 59)

(IANS)

Turkey and US bomb ISIL positions inside Syria

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At least 27 killed and ISIL defence posts destroyed in area controlled by armed group, according to Syrian state media.

Air raids destroyed a fifth-century Church in Daret Azza village, said activists [Reuters/FILE]

Air raids destroyed a fifth-century Church in Daret Azza village, said activists [Reuters/FILE]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish and US-led coalition forces have struck Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing at least 27 fighters, according to state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reports.

Turkish artillery and rocket launchers fired into Syria while warplanes from the US-led coalition carried out three separate air campaigns, Anadolu said on Monday citing military sources.

Five fortified defence posts and two gun posts were also destroyed in the attack less than 10km from Turkey’s Syria border.

Turkish and coalition forces have carried out a series of such strikes recently to prevent further attacks on the Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from ISIL-controlled territory in Syria, and has been regularly struck by rockets in recent weeks.

The US and Turkey have for months been discussing a military plan to drive ISIL from the border.

Elsewhere in Aleppo, fighting continued as government-backed armed groups said they took back two villages north of the battered Syrian city from ISIL.

Government’s deadly airborne raids also destroyed a fifth-century church, the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in the village of Daret Azza, according to Syrian activists.

The fighting was focused around a strategic area that leads in and out of the rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo.

Claims and counterclaims

On Saturday, ISIL launched offensive in the east of the country in Deir Az Zor, but Syrian government troops fought back, and claimed to have retaken a hospital and a dormitory from the armed group which has seized territory in Syria and Iraq.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, said: “It’s been a battle back and forth in a small pocket of Deir Az Zor city under the control of the government.

“However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group is saying that the 95 percent of the city is under ISIL control which is in an oil-rich area.”

Meanwhile, John Kerry met King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia and its Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign minister, as part of diplomatic push aimed at ending the five-year-old war in Syria.

Kerry will head to Vienna to push for more international cooperation on ending the conflict that has left more than 240,000 people. He will also go to Brussels for meetings with NATO leaders.

A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since February brokered by Russia and the US, but Syria has continued to bomb rebel-controlled areas in Aleppo.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in the recent upsurge of violence.

Once Syria’s commercial heartland, Aleppo is now divided between the government-held west and the rebel-controlled east.

Movie Review: ‘Azhar’ is a highly engaging piece of cinema that grips you completely

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azhar

Producer: Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa Kapoor & Sony Pictures Networks
Director: Tony D’Souza
Star Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri, Lara Dutta, Gautam Gulati, Manjot Singh, Rajesh Chaudhary, Varun Badola, Kulbhushan Kharbanda & Kunal Roy Kapur
Music: Pritam & Amal Mallik

After making damp squib films like Blue & Boss director Tony D’Souza is in full form in Azhar. He has made a very heart warming film by laying bare most of the controversial facets of the legendary cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin.

The plotted scenario of Azhar throws light on the life & times of Azhar (Emraan Hashmi) and his marriage with Naureen (Prachi Desai), his 1st wife and of course on his personal relationship with Bollywood actress Sangeeta Bijlani (Nargis Fakhri) who later on become his 2nd wife. But the film is more of an effort to clear his name from the 3 match fixing scandals in which he was dragged in for no fault of his own. But then Azhar being Azhar he fights for justice in court in a long drawn out court proceedings with his long time friend Reddy (Kunal Roy Kapur) as the defense lawyer and his die – hard fan from London namely Meera (Lara Dutta)
as the public prosecutor. Needless to say that Azhar wins the long drawn out court battle of 12 years till he succeeds in clearing his defamed name and regains his honour & respect in the eyes of his millions of fans.

Director Tony D’souza’s Azhar brilliantly captures the angst, the simplicity, the colossal success, the dual romance, the tryst with infamy and an arduous innings of never ending struggle – to – clear – the – name of Indian cricket’s heroic, yet arguably the most controversial captain Mohammad Azharuddin. A special well – deserved mention should also be made of Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa Kapoor & Sony Pictures Networks for backing this project. Besides hats of to all the behind the scenes man for their over all competence like writer Rajat Arora, music composers Pritam & Amal Mallik, cinematographer Rakesh Singh, editor Tushar Shivam et al.

Performance wise it is an Emraan Hashmi film from “The Start” till “The End”. Emraan has really sunk his teeth into the skin of Mohammed Azharuddin’s character to the extent of getting Azhar’s typical mannerisms & body language right. This is Emraan’s career best performance. He literally captures the spirit & the soul of Mohammed Azharuddin. Prachi Desai is delightful as the simple Naureen and acts with a lot of heart. Nargis Fakhri is a visual delight as a glam doll. Kunal Roy Kapoor as the bumbling lawyer friend is a major highlight of the film. He ensures genuine comical moments in spite of retaining the seriousness of certain key moments in the film. Lara Dutta is in top form as the no – nonsense prosecution lawyer. Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Azhar’s grandfather shines in a cameo. But the film makes blatant mockery of the other Indian Cricketers by presenting their characters very shabbily and the poor victims were actors like Gautam Gulati & Varun Badola portraying the roles of Ravi Shashtri
& Kapil Dev respectively.

Tail Piece: Azhar is a not to be missed heart touching movie

IPL: Krunal, bowlers guide Mumbai to thumping victory over Delhi

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Mumbai-Indians

Visakhapatnam: Riding on promising all-rounder Krunal Pandya’s quick-fire 86, followed by an impressive bowling performance, Mumbai Indians outclassed Delhi Daredevils by 80 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Sunday.

Batting first, Krunal smashed his maiden IPL half-century to guide the defending champions to massive 206/4 in 20 overs.

In reply, Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals as they were bundled out for 126 in 19.1 overs. Jasprit Bumrah (3-13) and Krunal (2-15) were the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai while Harbhajan Singh and R. Vinay Kumar claimed one wicket each.

The win ensures Mumbai keep their play-off hopes alive as they climbed to the third spot in the points table.

Chasing an imposing target of 207, Delhi got off to a poor start losing opener Mayank Agarwal (8) in the second over itself.

His opening partner Quinton de Kock (40) played positively from there on but lost partners at the other end as Karun Nair (8), Sanju Samson (6) fell cheaply to have the visitors in trouble at 60/3 in eighth over.

As the required run-rate climbed high with every ball bowled, de Kock trying to up the scoring rate also fell to left-arm spinner Krunal in the 10th over. The South African promising opener in his 28-ball innings struck four boundaries and two sixes.

Incoming young batsmen Rishabh Pant (23) played a short innings but failed to convert the start into a big one as his dismissal came after seamer Bumrah had Jean-Paul Duminy (9) caught by wicket-keeper Jos Buttler in the 13th over.

There was more trouble for the visitors as wickets kept on tumbling and the required rate climbed high to put more pressure on the incoming lower-order batsmen.

Chris Morris played a 16-ball 20 in the end but was not enough as his side surrendered to a dominant Mumbai side.

Earlier put into bat, openers Rohit Sharma (31) and Martin Guptill (48) helped the defending champions get off to a decent start scoring 45 runs without losing any wickets after the completion of powerplay.

But the seventh over of the innings saw a twist in the tale – leg-spinner Amit Mishra brought the first breakthrough dismissing Mumbai skipper Rohit when Mumbai were 46/1 in 6.3 overs.

Hard-hitting left-hander Krunal who was promoted up the order at No.3 to keep the run flow going, did not disappoint his team. He played his natural game, striking a couple of boundaries and sixes to help the team keep a healthy run-rate.

He was well supported on the other end by experienced Kiwi batsman Guptill as the duo played sensibly to help team cross the 80-run mark after 10 overs.

The duo smashed 23 runs in the 13th over bowled by leg-spinner Imran Tahir to take team over 100-run mark in style.

Krunal then – with a couple of big blows – brought up his maiden IPL half-century in just 22 balls.

The impressive 96-run partnership for the second wicket came to an end in the 15th over when Guptill looking to strike one over long on was caught by Karun Nair off the bowling off Zaheer Khan. The hosts were 144/2 then.

Despite wickets at the other end, Krunal smashed it to all parts of the ground, but eventually in the 18th over, Chris Morris finally got rid of the 25-year-old to put a check on the run flow.

During his maiden IPL half-century, the left-handed batsman struck seven boundaries and six sixes.

In the dying overs the innings, Buttler (18 not out) and Ambati Rayudu (13 not out) played useful cameos to take the team past 200-run mark.

Morris (2-34) was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi as the spinning trio of Shahbaz Nadeem (2-42), Amit Mishra (1-42) and Tahir (0-59) proved expensive. Zaheer Khan was economical, having conceded 23 runs in four overs.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians: 206/4 in 20 overs (Krunal Pandya 86; Chris Morris 2/34) vs Delhi Daredevils 126 in 19.1 overs (Quinton de Kock 40; Jasprit Bumrah 3-13, Krunal Pandya 2-15)

(IANS)

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