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As real as
reel
It was a plot straight
out of one of Chiranjeevi’s hit movies when his younger daughter
Srija eloped with Shirish Bhardwaj. Ramesh Kandula in Hyderabad looks
at the life of the Telugu superstar who wields tremendous clout and is
seen by his community as leading a ‘third
political force’ in Andhra Pradesh
ON his way to stardom,
Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi had donned lover-boy roles in several
blockbusters that celebrated the triumph of teenage love over the
tyranny of elders. Never was he prepared for a role reversal in real
life. The ageing matinee idol
found himself on the other side of the fence when his young daughter
Srija eloped with her boyfriend and married him in a secret Arya Samaj
ceremony.
Happy
end, not yet
FOR
the defiant couple, the elopement and secret marriage followed the
pattern of a potboiler script, but the homecoming did not. When Srija
and Sirish Bharadwaj returned to Hyderabad on November 11, after a
three-week long stay in Delhi under police protection, there were no
scenes of emotional re-union with the family.
Tallest
in Tollywood
Before
Bollywood industry had grown in size, especially during the last one
decade, Tollywood, as Telugu film industry is known, used to produce
the biggest blockbusters in the country. In early 90s, The Week
magazine carried a cover story on Chiranjeevi titled "Bigger than
Bachchan", indicating the financial muscle of his films.
A colourful world Down
Under
Tanushree Podder
takes you to a wonderland called Jenolan caves, formed 340 million
years ago, near Sydney
THE Blue Mountains, just
two and a half hours’ drive away from Sydney, is a World Heritage
Area. Clad in vast forests of eucalypts (commonly called gum trees),
the Blue Mountains actually appear blue in colour. The explanation is
quite simple. The entire area of one million hectare is covered with
eucalypt vegetation.
Donkey
business
Lokendra Singh
Donkeys
in Rajasthan now have a hospital exclusively for themselves, thanks to
"The Donkey Sanctuary", a U.K.-based organisation. The
hospital has an ambulance that reaches anywhere in the region to treat
the wounded donkeys. The treatment offered is free of cost.
Mobile
magic
The mobile theatre of Assam
that presents contemporary themes and adopts even Hollywood stories is
extremely popular both in urban and rural areas of the state. Saswati
Kaushik reports
IN
Assam’s entertainment arena, it’s time for the carnival on wheels
to roll out its magic. The vastly popular mobile theatre companies
(known as Bhraymaman theatre locally) have launched their
annual shows with stunts and emotional quotients packed together to
make a winning combination of drama on stage.
Queens
of hearts
M.L.
Dhawan looks at the divas who left a mark and changed the face
of Indian cinema in their own way
Since
the release of Alam Ara in 1931, women have held an important
position in Hindi cinema. Some of the epoch-making performances helped
build public opinion against the exploitation of women. There were
many who triumphed merely due to their beauty while several others
made it big because of rare class.
A
class apart
Ervell
E. Menezes catches up with director Adoor Gopalakrishnan on his
latest film
Adoor
Gopalakrishnan is here with his new film Naalu Pennungal (Four
Women) and has doubled Alberto Moravia’s quota but he insists on
that number because they represent the different strata of society.
From down up, it is the prostitute, the virgin (field worker), the
housewife (lower middle-class) and finally the spinster
(middle-class).
Man
on a noble mission
Grameen Bank, the brainchild
of Mohammad Yunus, has achieved remarkable success in lending money to
the poor of Bangladesh.
The founder-chairman has pledged to rid the country of poverty by
the year 2030, writes Shiv Kumar
Grameen
Bank, the Nobel
Prize-winning initiative that lends money to the poor of Bangladesh,
came about quite by accident. "At a village just outside my
university campus, I saw some poor women who were completely indebted
to a money-lender. I made a list of all the loans taken by the women
from him.
Church,
Marxists and a comrade’s corpse
Saj Mathews
THE
aggravating war of nerves between the CPM, heading the ruling
coalition in Kerala, and the Christian church, which accounts for at
least one-fifth of the state’s vote bank, has even gone to the
extent of making a late Marxist MLA born as a Christian turn in his
grave.
A
‘brief’ on style
Phiroze Kharegat
THE
price quoted for what you call a men’s underwear (and more politely
as inner wear) in the famous Hilfigers luxury wear shop of Bombay at
Rs 900 really surprised me. One should be normally able to get 20 of
the standard Indian brands for that money.
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