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 Rajnikanth
The Boss
This actor is loved by
the masses for just about everything he is and does: His humble
background, perseverance, super cool attitude, flamboyance,
spirituality, trademarked flicking of cigarettes and down-to-earth ways
towards one and all. His cult status has reached extraordinary heights
with his latest Tamil film Sivaji: The Boss creating a history of
sorts across the globe. Arup Chanda on
Rajnikanth the man and the highest-paid actor with a fan following
unprecedented in the Indian cinema
The
south-west monsoon barely touches Chennai. But the day Sivaji: The
Boss was released to packed theatres in Chennai, it started to pour
from early morning cooling the entire atmosphere.
Pages from the
heart
There is no dearth of books
for children to gift them on their birthdays. Instead of buying one,
Frau Huber sat day after day, putting the album together, writes B.N.
Goswamy
"Question:
What goes down into the sea but does not get wet? Answer:
The Sun. Question: Which ring is not round? Answer:
Herring. Question: In which month do sheep eat
the least? Answer: February, for it has only 28 days."
Singing whales
bag more mates
Male
humpback whales who sing during their migration to their summer
feeding grounds end up attracting more mates compared to males who don’t
sing, a new study by Australian researchers from the University of
Sydney has revealed. When
melody set the mood
While the qualities intrinsic
to a song are clearly absent among new singers, it is hard to believe
that just half a century back, there were so many gifted artistes who
left behind a treasure trove of music, writes M.
L. Dhawan
With
the advent of first talkie
Alam Ara in 1931, the films started providing songs for every
conceivable situation. Wazir Mohammad Khan who acted as a faqir
in the film sang the first song of Hindi cinema De de khuda ke nam
taqat hai gar dene ki composed by Ferozeshah and B. Irani. The
drama of war
The ambience in The Wind
that Shakes the Barley is terrific, reminding one of the cobbled
streets of Belfast. The film treads a chequered course to climax on a
spine-chilling note, writes Ervell E. Menezes
Anti-war
films come in various hues, from the sublime to the near-ridiculous
depending, of course, on the treatment meted out to them. But the
Irish problem, however, has come out with some real winners like for
example Terry George’s Some Mother’s Son and to a lesser
extent Michael Collins. FASHION
Fancy
footwork
Dolly Sagar
The
introduction of jutis was a fashion revolution brought into
India during the Mughal era. During the earlier epochs there were of
course cloth jutis , but they had not nothing to do with fashion.
Those were the days when leather was supposed to be unclean and as
such one had to wear cloth shoes. With the advent of leather jutis
from Persia, we began the era of jutis as a luxury.
Puducherry
It has a
heady French flavour
The French connection is hard
to miss in the sights and sounds of Puducherry, for long known as
Pondicherry. Mukesh Khosla says
the best way to discover this town is on a cycle: pedal past chic
boutiques and beautiful flowering trees. Or, meditate in the Aurobindo
Ashram and soak in the air of this coastal town
The
French dreams of an Indian Empire began and ended here. But there still
remains an amazing amount of French influence simply because Puducherry
has the largest number of French citizens outside France.
Fitness works for
her
The Czech beauty who stormed the
modelling and fashion industry seven years ago is an obsessive workout
buff. She is now coming out with a book on fitness, says Nutan
Sehgal
In
the usually fickle world of modelling, she has remained one of the
hottest properties and parlayed her fabulous looks to endorse big
ticket products ranging from soft drinks and watches to denim and
perfumes.
Single
but not alone
The Ekal Nari Shakti
Sangathan ensures a woman’s right to work outside her home, keep her
children and not be coerced into marrying her deceased husband’s
kin, writes Neeta Lal on the plight of
widows in India
Kamla
(26) makes a pretty picture—red sari, nail polish and a bindi-embellished
forehead. She hardly seems the archetypal Indian widow. But scratch
the surface and she recounts how life in her native Bikaner
(Rajasthan) became tempestuous after her husband’s death in a road
mishap. "Two kids, ailing parents and no money had left me
completely rudderless," she recalls.
Sit
in the sun and keep cancer at bay
AT
last some positive health effects of sitting in the sun! Physicians
have found that recreational sun exposure is apparently associated
with reduced risk for cancers of the lymph system, or malignant
lymphomas, German researchers report in the International Journal of
Cancer.
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