Friday, November 15, 2024
Home Blog Page 6853

Ok Jaanu is a romantic story which you will love to watch

Dhaval Patel
-
0
Ok Jaanu is a romantic story which you will love to watch

After a disastrous and forgettable Kadal, Mani Ratnam, like an ageing boxer delivered Ok Kanmani, which seemed to be his knockout punch. The movie, albeit not a classic, was a fresh one which made millennial love look like an easy breeze of romance. Ok Jaanu, is the official remake of the Tamil version and Shaad Ali’s directorial delivers a heartwarming winsome romance which will surely leave the viewers with a smile on their face

The movie is a bracing take on modern day romance and relationship between two well-educated, independent and ambitious individuals Tara (Shraddha Kapoor) and Aditya (Aditya Roy Kapur). Aditya is a happy go lucky video game developer who wants to live the American dream and Tara is an architect who has her eyes set on Paris. They are both non-committal and have ambitions to succeed. It’s when that the two meet, plans go haywire and they decide to date each other as long as they are in Mumbai. They decide to move in and they convince an elderly couple Gopi (Naseeruddin Shah) and Charulata (Leela Samson) to rent out their abode to them and let their modern day conceptual love of no strings attached blossom. Gopi is a strict but an affectionate landlord who treats Aditya and Tara as his own children while tasking care of his Alzheimer ridden wife Charulata.

The film then starts exploring, in a light-hearted way, the stance of modern India about commitment issues and the all-compromising life-event called marriage. Add to it the spirit of Mumbai, which permeates the film throughout. Aditya and Tara agree that the concept of marriage and babies are not for them and would not want to explore such horizons. But as time would have it, they grow fond of each other and are in love and then confused. The movie does not make the couple go through trying situations and that is where we realize that all love stories do not need the bed rock of tragedy. It’s easy and simple and thus it strikes a chord.

Aditya and Shraddha’s chemistry as the lead couple is peppy and vibrant and the locations are picturesque. We have adored their chemistry in Ashiqui and Ok Jaanu makes us feel no different. Shraddha has progressed as an actor and Aditya’s easy going real life nature eases into the tailor made reel role. Naseeruddin is a veteran and his presence provides that gravity to keep the movie grounded and preventing it from becoming all perky and frolicked. Somewhere the performances would make you want to fall in love again.

The movie, in a subtle way juxtaposed 2 couples: one, young, who are ambitious and have escaped their conservative prism while another, an elderly couple, who are happy to have preserved their conservative values and are yet in love in the backdrop of a cultural melting pot like Mumbai. Ok Jaanu has the theme of new ideas trying to transform the old and vice versa. The story seems to suggest that the institution of marriage is not all that flawed, but the basic premise of freedom, ambitions and privacy should be respected. It is all acceptable as long as compromises are left at bay.

If you have watched Ok Kanmani, Ok Jaanu might seem to be a dash of old wine. There seems to be a scene by scene translation from its Tamil counterpart, but nothing has been lost in translation. The charisma and the zest seems to be intact and will surely give a warm heart on your way out of the theatre.

From the business perspective, Ok Jaanu being a millennial story will appeal niche audiences across metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata etc. The movie faces box office competition from XXX Return of the Xander Cage on its opening weekend. Ok Jaanu has recorded 25% openings in its morning shows as on 13-Jan. In the south, where its predecessor Ok Kanmani did pretty well, Ok Jaanu faces some heat from the Chiranjeevi starrer Khaidi no 150.

– by Dhaval Patel & Aditya Soumava

Not Rohith Vemula – no tears for ABVP student who committed suicide in Karnataka

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Not Rohith Vemula – no tears for ABVP student who committed suicide in Karnataka

Two groups of students clash, the administration is accused of being biased, one group is awarded punishment, one student commits suicide – this is repeat of the Rohith Vemula incident.

But the crucial difference is – the student who died this time is from a group that doesn’t find favour with the mainstream media or bleeding heart liberals.

Which is why his death is not making national headlines and activists are not changing their display pictures on the social networks. This is the story of 21 years old Abhishek, who committed suicide on Tuesday night in Sringeri, Karnataka.

Abhishek
Abhishek, the ABVP member who committed suicide after police filed an FIR against him.

A member of the RSS affiliated student organisation ABVP, Abhishek ended his life as he feared that an FIR filed against him could ruin his career and prospects of getting a job and leading a normal life.

The FIR was filed after members of ABVP and NSUI (Congress affiliated student organisation) allegedly clashed with each other over an invite to a speaker for a campus event called Yodha Namana (salute to soldiers) on Saturday. The speaker was termed “communal” by the NSUI students, who protested against the invitation.

Following the protests by NSUI, the college – JCBM College – administration cancelled the invite. This is eerily similar to what happened a couple of days back at JNU where leftist students forced the university to cancel invite to a speaker.

This cancellation led to an alleged fight between ABVP and NSUI members on Monday. The NSUI president complained to the police, after which an FIR was filed on Tuesday against five students, including Abhishek who was a final year B.Com student.

“This left Abhishek totally shaken and upset. In the death note, he has asked forgiveness from his father and said that he was being blamed for no fault of his. If he was actually involved in the assault, he would not have resorted to the extreme step. Since his name was included in the FIR, he felt that his future was at stake,” an official is quoted saying by the Bangalore Mirror.

There is Congress government in Karnataka and an FIR filed against students following complaint by a Congress affiliated organisation is being seen as a case of partiality and high handedness. According to this report in The Hindu, none of the accused students were summoned or enquired related to the complaint. Yet an FIR was filed, which can prove to be terrorising enough for a young student.

And that’s what happened to Abhishek, who feared that the police case will ruin his career and he will be branded a criminal for rest of his life. On Tuesday– the same day when FIR was fired – he ended his life around 11 pm.

Abhishek’s father is distraught and is holding the college principal and management responsible for his son’s death. To get justice, he has filed a complaint against NSUI president and others, accusing them of filing a false complaint against Abhishek.

ABVP too is protesting to get justice, but this news has barely made big headlines even in Karnataka. There are no debates on prime time news and neither are there any op-eds. This is in sharp contrast to the anger and outrage that the nation witnessed when Rohit Vemula had committed suicide.

A young Abhishek’s life doesn’t matter? Or those who follow a particular ideology deserve to die in the eyes of those who call themselves “liberal”? No need for #JusticeForAbhishek?

West Bengal kicks out ‘Ram’ from ‘Ramdhenu’, Twitter helps them with more ‘secularism’

OpIndia Staff
-
0
West Bengal kicks out ‘Ram’ from ‘Ramdhenu’, Twitter helps them with more ‘secularism’

There is ‘Ram’ in Ramzan and ‘Ali’ in Diwali – this popular sentence has been being used to suggest that we Indians believe in composite culture and mutual respect. However, when it comes to real politics, the concept of composite culture and mutual respect is a one-way street.

Reaffirming this one-way street or one-eyed secularism, the West Bengal Council for Higher Education found out that the term Ramdhenu – which has been traditionally used to mean rainbow – was ‘communal’ as it literally meant bow of Lord Rama.

So they secularised the word and replaced Ramdhenu with Rongdhenu, a new word created to celebrate the Indian secularism (which is claimed to be based on the ideas of composite culture and mutual respect). Essentially, they said – anything related with Ram can’t be secular in India.

While the so-called “liberals” kept quite over this absurd decision that not only maims “mutual respect” but mutilates the language too, some others were outraged:



However, as it happens on Twitter, people can find a funny side to everything. And Mamata government’s decision to replace “Ram” with “Rong” reminded them of the old Twitter where #ReplaceMovieNames kind of hashtags used to trend:


Since the move was inspired from politics, some wondered what will happen to Didi’s political opponents:


Some wondered what happens to the famous Ram Krishna Missions:


Will movies be remade or renamed too to suit secularism?


Didi must not have watched Sholay because:


Next time SRK brings his son for an IPL match, will he have to rename him?


And this renaming of a revolutionary’s name will just be so uber-secular:


What about Ram Guha? Didi trusts him?


And poor Hanumanji:


Not just politics, it affects IT too:


And biology too:


Good that Gurugram, which was recently changed from ‘Gurgaon’, is not in West Bengal:


But things are going to hurt in West Bengal:


The governance in West Bengal:


Despite this stupid decision, the “liberals” are not outraged, because:


And Gandhiji’s reaction to the whole affair:

Student issued admit card with topless photo of actress, not the first goof up

Hemant Bijapurkar
-
0
Student issued admit card with topless photo of actress, not the first goof up

Admit Cards are usually a sign of difficult times to come. Whenever doled out to students, they are usually a sign that exams are nearer than ever and if one doesn’t buckle up now, they are in deep trouble. Though for some unfortunate students the Admit cards itself became bad news.

Earlier today it was reported that a student in Bihar, appearing for an inter level combined competitive examination, was issued an admit card with a nude photo of some Bigg Boss contestant and Bhojpuri actress Monalisa. The admit card issued by Bihar’s staff selection commission is for an examination on 26th February.

Apparently this goof up happened because of the fact that the applicant’s name resembled with that of the actress.

Topless photo in admit card
Admit card issued in Bihar

However, this is not the first time that an admit card has been reduced to a joke. In the polytechnic entrance examinations by the Jammu & Kashmir, a Cow, yes you read it right, a cow was issued an admit card to sit in the examinations. The bovine named Kachir Gaw (blond cow) was set to appear for the exam on 10th May 2015 at the Government degree college in Srinagar.

Apart from containing the cow’s personal details, the admit card also contained the front facing photo of the cow and closeups of its tail and foot. Apparently on the pretext of playing a prank, someone had filled the online form in the cow’s name for Rs 500. Though it was a provisional admit card, perhaps some scrutiny and pre-screening could have helped:

Cow's admit card
Cow gets an admit card

On another occasion, even the Prime Minister wasn’t spared from the admit card mischief when in July last year, it was revealed that the PM had been issued an admit card for appearing in CRPF’s entrance examination. Before people started wondering if the PM was mulling a career switch, it was revealed that someone from near Amritsar had filled the admission form to create mischief:

fake admit card of PM Modi
Lack of pre-screening or algorithm to catch such mischief allows people to indulge in such antics

And finally in the land of Mamata Banerjee, a student appearing for the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) examination found that his photo was substituted with that of a dog in the admit card. Since Didi’s government sees conspiracy everywhere, the minister in charge of technical education ordered to file complaint against the student – son of a daily wage labourer – accusing him of maligning the government:

Dog to take exam
Dog’s photo in admit card in West Bengal

Twitter to delete Trump’s account? Some in Indian media thought so

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Twitter to delete Trump’s account? Some in Indian media thought so

Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United State of America has used Twitter to air his views that are often politically incorrect and ‘controversial’. Critics have also accused him of sharing wrong information or claims on Twitter just like Arvind Kejriwal does in India.

Taking advantage of this fact, a fake news website trying to pretend that it was CNN – which incidentally was called ‘fake news’ by Donald Trump yesterday – reported that Twitter has decided to delete Trump’s account.

The fake CNN website claimed that Twitter will delete Donald Trump’s account sometime within the next 48 hours because of “Trump’s racist and divisive rhetoric.”

There were enough hints on the fake CNN website that it was fake. Firstly, the layout and style of the website were not even remotely similar to those of the original CNN. Secondly, the fake CNN stood for Carla’s Nice Nunnery, while the original CNN stands for Cable News Network. And thirdly, the domain address was cnn.com.de which is a German domain extension while CNN is an American media company.

Not only that, the report quoted someone named Paul Horner and identified him as spokesperson of Twitter. That was another hint left by the website because Paul Horner is name of a person who runs popular fake news websites and was in the news after Trump’s victory.

Despite such helpful hints that suggested that the website was intended to be fake or at best satirical, some in the Indian media thought it was a legitimate CNN website and the news about Twitter deleting Trump’s account was authentic.

Among those fooled was leading Hindi news channel ABP News – which ironically runs a program called ‘Viral Sach’ that claims to expose fake news circulated on the social media. ABP published the news and tweeted about the same. However, the media company soon realized that it was a fake news when alert users pointed it out:



As a result, ABP News deleted their tweet and also removed the article from their website. Funnily, rather tragically, the report on the ABP’s website linked back to the fake CNN website and thus alert readers could spot that ABP had goofed up big time.

fake news on ABP News
The now deleted article that was published by ABP News

Another media outfit that got fooled by this fake CNN website was Cobrapost – which calls itself a “non profit investigative news portal”. It’s the same website that aired Snoopgate tapes making allegations against BJP leaders Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.

It went a step ahead and declared that Twitter has already deleted Donald Trump’s account:

Cobrapost spreading fake news
Fake news report on Cobrapost – link

The report on Cobrapost’s website was not removed till the time this report was published on OpIndia.

So one media organisation that ascertains truth about rumours being spread on social media and another that claims to indulge in high quality investigative journalism – neither of them could investigate and find the truth about a website that gave enough hints that it was fake or satirical.

After BSF jawan’s video, more stories about police personnel’s problems come out

Hemant Bijapurkar
-
0
After BSF jawan’s video, more stories about police personnel’s problems come out

Just a few days after the BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav shared his plight on Facebook, other claims have started to come out about the lack of proper facilities and possible discrimination meted out to Central Armed Police Forces personnel.

Earlier this week, video clips complaining about poor food quality had been put up on Tej Bahadur Yadav’s Facebook profile. In the videos, Tej Bahadur said that the government was sending all the necessary supplies but senior officials were siphoning off the funds.

The videos went viral on the social media, after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh ordered an inquiry into the incident. However, BSF claimed that Tej Bahadur was alcoholic and was court marshaled back in 2010 for pointing a gun at an officer. This causes further social media outrage as people felt that this was a cover-up by senior officials at the BSF.

Latest reports suggest that BSF has taken notice of the complaint and has come out with new guidelines regarding food being issued to jawans. Not only that, the Prime Minister’s Office too has sought a report on the whole incident from the Home Ministry.

This whole saga has now put focus on facilities being given to Central Armed Police Forces personnel. A video uploaded on 6th November showing a CRPF constable lamenting about lack of facilities provided to them has now gone viral:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzYw1doJUXM]

In the video,  the constable is seen and heard talking about lack of welfare and leaves even after doing all kinds of duties from providing security to individuals, institutions, postings in insurgency areas, election securities among others. The constable laments that they don’t enjoy all the facilities available to the Defence Forces and appeals to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to treat them at par.

It should be noted that Central Armed Police Forces i.e. Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) are police forces and come under the Home Ministry as against the Armed Forces that come under the Defence Ministry.

According to this report, the CRPF jawans too are in the same boat as the BSF when it comes to food provided. The CRPF jawans while battling left wing terrorism in Maoist infested areas sometimes have to be content with just daal-chaawal and aaloo for days altogether. The chief cause for this is regular attacks on their vehicles carrying food supplies and risks in airlifting food to them. In many cases they have to be dependent on local suppliers and villagers and as an added life risk, Maoist sympathizers have been known to poison water sources. Peace postings too are reportedly far and few.

Apart from all this, there have been reports about the hazardous work conditions being faced by Indian Policewomen, such as lack of toilets especially for those who toil outdoors under the sun. The report claims that there have been instances of woman officials choosing not to drink water in order to avoid the ordeal of hunting for a toilet.

Hopefully with these videos going viral, all these issues are looked into by the Home Ministry and respective state governments, because well-being of the police forces is central to our internal security.

Leftist students force JNU to cancel invite to a speaker due to ‘BJP connection’

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Leftist students force JNU to cancel invite to a speaker due to ‘BJP connection’

Leftists are known to be the most intolerant of dissent. While various communist groups and regimes in the world have been responsible for millions of deaths, leftist activists have been responsible for creating an atmosphere of intolerance and fear at educational institutions, especially in India.

This ugly face of the left was seen at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi again when students belonging to various left outfits forced the university administration to drop the name of a participant because he had ‘a BJP connection’.

Arvind Gupta, who led Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and BJP’s digital campaign in 2014, was invited as a speaker for the second phase of “Digital Financial Literacy Campaign” that the university has undertaken. He was slated to speak on Wednesday morning.

Mr. Gupta was invited in capacity of founder-member of “Digital India Foundation”, which is a non-profit trust and think-tank ‘aiming to foster digital inclusion and adoption, and the use of the Internet and related technologies for the developmental process’. He has mentored many start-ups and has been a guest speaker earlier at various business schools and CXO events.

However, for the leftist students of JNU, only his association with the BJP mattered.

They started protesting against this invitation. To hide their intolerance, the leftists students claimed that Arvind Gupta had orchestrated online attacks on political opponents as part of BJP’s digital campaign.

This claim is based on a discredited book authored by a person, who acts as an abusive troll on Twitter. Apart from abusing, the author of the book has also been accused of lying and inventing facts, including an entirely made up interview of former Defence Minister George Fernandes.

This is an old age tactics of the left where they crush dissent using alibis. They malign the image of someone whom they are afraid to debate with, and then try to shut out all debates and discussions. Further, due to the violent ways that leftist student groups are known to indulge in, their demands are often met by authorities. JNU too buckled under this gundaism, and the invitation to Arvind Gupta was cancelled.

“No official reason was given to me. They (JNU administration) said that they have to cancel it due to unforeseen circumstances,” Arvind Gupta told OpIndia when we got in touch with him.

He further said that he was disappointed as the issue of digital payments and digital inclusion was close to his heart and he had planned to speak on the same.

“By no stretch of imagination I would have thought about any politics in this matter. For me, it was an opportunity to talk on an issue that I am passionate about. I was not going as a BJP person to the event,” Mr. Gupta said.

It is interesting to note that this “unforeseen circumstances” explanation given to Arvind Gupta is similar to what event organisers had given to Tarek Fateh, when his ‘anti-Pakistan’ event was cancelled at Kolkata, allegedly under pressure from Islamists.

This is not the first time left-wing JNU students have shown intolerance and banned people from the campus. In December 2015, they tried to ban Baba Ramdev’s entry on the campus. Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri too had to face protests when he tried to showcase his movie Buddha In A Traffic Jam at JNU.

So much for free speech, tolerance, and education.

Congress leader alleges that Church opposed his candidature, quits politics

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Congress leader alleges that Church opposed his candidature, quits politics

In yet another incident that shows how much influence religious bodies wield over ‘secular’ parties in India, a Congress leader from Goa has been forced to retire from active politics after the Church allegedly refused to back his candidature.

Aleixo Sequeira, who has been a power minister earlier in the state government, revealed that senior leaders of the Congress party told him that the Church in Goa was opposed to his candidature. He said this in a press conference, as per a report published by The Times of India.

Calling the Church’s decision shocking and surprising, the veteran Congress leader announced that he would be quitting active politics as party leadership had denied him a ticket. He promised to extend support to the candidate chosen by the party.

This incident comes after the Supreme Court had banned canvassing for votes in the name of religion, caste or language.

Going by this incident, the Congress party appears to be selecting candidates based on what the Church says. Is this not a violation of the Supreme Court order?

Or is there a loophole because there is no overt appeal by either the party or the candidate or even the Church to vote on the basis of religion? This appears more like an appeal to “not vote” by a religious body. Church basically asked for a veto, not a vote.

OpIndia spoke to Supreme Court lawyer Ishkaran Bhandari to find out if parties or religious bodies could get away with such veto appeals instead of vote appeals. He agreed that this could be used as a loophole.

“The SC order (banning votes on caste and religion) was already difficult to implement as our constitution itself mentions caste and religion at various places, but this is a loophole that can be exploited by political parties and religious bodies to work around the order,” he said.

“Suppose there is a direct fight between two candidates X and Y in a constituency, though multiple candidates are in fray as is the normal case in India. A religious body wants their followers to vote for X. But they can’t issue a direct appeal to vote for X as that can put X in trouble due to the SC order. Therefore, they will issue an appeal to not vote for Y. Now it is going to be very difficult to prove that a negative appeal against Y helps only X, because technically there are other candidates in the fray too,” he explained.

So looks like ‘secular’ parties can continue to practice communal politics even after the SC order.

Supreme Court throws out application accusing Narendra Modi of taking bribes

Hemant Bijapurkar
-
0
Supreme Court throws out application accusing Narendra Modi of taking bribes

The interim application, which alleged that Narendra Modi, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, had taken bribes from Sahara and Birla, was dismissed by the Supreme Court yesterday. The application was filed by an NGO called Common Cause.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court stated that the documents of evidence, which were provided by NGO’s counsel Prashant Bhushan, were inadmissible as they were not credible or reliable. The court noticed in its order that:

There has to be some cogent material which is prima facie reliable …in case we do not insist for the same and order investigation, process of law can be misused and no democracy can function if investigation is set in motion against high Constitutional functionaries without cogent material

This is in line with the earlier comments of the court when it had said that the ‘proofs’ provided by Prashant Bhushan were sub-par and the entire world can be roped in if such evidences were considered credible or reliable. Court had then given more time to petitioners to bring in credible evidences.

This whole controversy was started by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who last year on November 16th, alleged that during his tenure as Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi had received bribes from the Aditya Birla Group to the tune of 25 crore rupees. He was speaking in the assembly and thus had the privilege of not being sued for the claim.

As part of a ‘solid’ proof for the same, Arvind Kejriwal and his party circulated an alleged ledger entry found by the IT department during their raid at a former Aditya Birla Group employee in 2013.

Proof against PM Modi circulated by AAP
Supreme Court declared that such proofs were unreliable

This was followed up with the mainstream media running the story as ‘allegation by Kejriwal’. The Caravan magazine took it a step further by putting up a story that Modi had also taken kickbacks from Sahara to the tune of 55 crores. However, in the same story, they also mentioned that this could be a conspiracy by a disgruntled employee to blackmail top management of the company.

These documents were then made part of an interim application by the NGO Common Cause, which approached the Supreme Court asking for investigations in November itself. However, the court asked them to come back with more credible documents.

In December, the Supreme Court gave yet another chance to the NGO and Prashant Bhushan to come up with more reliable documents while repeating that such documents – presented by Kejriwal and printed by Caravan magazine – were not credible.

In the meantime, Rahul Gandhi repeated the same claims and called it an ‘earthquake moment’, but the real earthquake was brought by the apex court when it finally dismissed the application.

Rahul Gandhi saw symbol of Congress in pictures of gods, Twitter saw a meme

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Rahul Gandhi saw symbol of Congress in pictures of gods, Twitter saw a meme

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is back from his foreign holiday, and he gave two speeches today – both at a Congress event called ‘Jan Vedana Sammelan’. In both the speeches, he criticised Narendra Modi government for various things and claimed that Congress will ‘save the soul of the country’.

But what caught attention of the Twitterati was his comment where he claimed to see the symbol of Congress (hand or palm) in the images of gods. He further said that Congress symbol, as well as hands of the gods, symbolised ‘Daro Mat’ (don’t be scared):


//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This extra ordinary observation was appreciated by Twitter users, who all these decades though that the raised hands of gods in those pictures symbolised aashirvaad (blessings) for the devotees.

Armed with this new way of looking at things, Twitter users found much more examples of “Daro Mat”. Here are a few:

If only the characters in the movie knew that it meant ‘don’t be scared’:


Some international flavour, after all Rahul Gandhi discovered it after returning from abroad:


More international flavour:


Rahul Gandhi talked about religions, but left the biggest religion of India – Cricket:


Oops:


More oops:


That’s reassuring:


Something for Rahul Gandhi:


A message for the party workers:


Another message for Congress:


Thank you Rahul Gandhi, yet again.

1...6,8526,8536,854...6,960Page 6,853 of 6,960

Contact: [email protected]

About us

News and opinion website that brings you reports and narrative from a perspective often ignored or suppressed by the mainstream media of India.

Follow us

© OpIndia.com