|
|
Encounters
Fact
& Fiction
With the focus on
Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi, a former terrorist ‘rehabilitated’ by the
Punjab police, the ghost of terrorism — because of the methods
adopted to counter it — has once again come to haunt Punjab. Prabhjot
Singh reports
| Terrorism,
according to an adage, never dies. There could not be a better
example than Punjab where the smouldering of its remnants
frequently become apparent in debates, both in and outside the
state assembly, over the root causes as well as methodology
adopted in combating the turbulence that took more than 20,000
lives in a little over two decades of the last millennium.
Wassan Singh Zaffarwal with cops after his “surrender” |
 |
Daya
Nayak: Hero is Villain
Vibha Sharma
THE
media has been following the downfall of Daya Nayak from the hunter to
the hunted. TV channels that once showed him brandishing a mean Smith
Wesson revolver with a swagger now air images of a not-so-confident
man. With tears in eyes, he explains how he has been a victim of the
vendetta of his former friends, bosses and colleagues.
Sea
levels rising twice as fast
Much of the rise in sea
levels over the past century has been due to the thermal expansion of
the oceans caused by rising temperatures, writes Steve
Connor
SEA
levels are rising twice as fast as they were 150 years ago and
man-made greenhouse emissions are the prime cause, according to a US
study. Tide lines around the world are climbing by about two
millimetres a year on average, compared to one millimetre a year in
1850, said Kenneth Miller, professor of geology at Rutgers University
in New Jersey.
Dance is language of
worship
Navtej
Johar revives an ancient concept in dance which he terms ‘free-flow,’
that is dancing from the depths of pure-consciousness, from a unity of
body, mind and consciousness. Johar is an eccentric combination, a
Sikh from Punjab who wandered to Kalakshetra in Madras and became a
master exponent of Bharatnatyam.
The
triumph of real cinema
With low-budget,
independent-spirited films like Crash and Brokeback Mountain
dominating the Oscar awards, big-buck entertainers took a back seat,
writes Saibal Chatterjee
THE
78th annual Academy Awards night at the Kodak Theatre in
Los Angeles had one unifying theme. The glittering, wit-laden ceremony
celebrated the power and spirit of American independent cinema, cinema
that, in actor Samuel L. Jackson’s words, "was confrontational,
passionate and more than entertainment".
Cash comes
alive
Walk the Line
is a rounded portrayal of the American musician, Johnny Cash,
writes Ervell
E. Menezes
Johnny
Cash, one of the big names in American music for decades, comes
vividly, near throbbingly, to life in James Mangold’s Walk the
Line. That he blazed a trail in rock, country, punk, folk and rap
music is now history but we also see the trials and tribulations he,
like most musicians, experiences, to provide a candid picture of the
man and his chequered career.
Sights
and sounds from THE continent
European
cinema has always had a fair following among Indian cineastes. But for
the general moviegoer in this part of the world, international films
begin and end with Hollywood blockbusters. In recent years, however,
films like German director Tom Tykwer’s experimental Run Lola Run
and French filmmaker Francois Ozon’s intriguing Swimming Pool
have made it to urban multiplexes around the country.
Bollywood
goes Swiss
Bollywood
not only means big business to the Indian economy, but it seems like
it also means a lot to European countries such as Scotland, which is
worried that it’s losing the battle to attract the lucrative Hindi
film industry to countries such as Switzerland.
|
