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Saturday, May 2, 2020

India’s fatality rate almost as low as S Korea’s

India's fatality rate of 3.3% of total confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths of 0.09 people per one lakh population compares well with some other countries, including South Korea, which is seen as a top performer in containing the disease and China that resorted to measures like mass quarantine to limit the pandemic.

from Times of India https://ift.tt/3deamGn

IRCTC Special Trains in Lockdown: कौन जा सकता है ‘श्रमिक ट्रेनों’ से घर? रूट्स के साथ जानें आवेदन का तरीका और नियम

IRCTC Shramik Special Train List, Ticket Booking Online, Registration: हालांकि, रेलवे ने लॉकडाउन तीसरी बार बढ़ने के ऐलान के बाद शुक्रवार शाम को ही साफ कर दिया कि इन श्रमिक ट्रेनों को छोड़कर सभी यात्री सेवाएं 17 मई 2020 तक रद्द रहेंगी।

from Jansattaराष्ट्रीय – Jansatta https://ift.tt/3fcjiht

पनपने वाला है बड़ा श्रमिक संकट? बेबस मजदूरों के पलायन से घबराईं सरकारें, गुजारिश कर बोलीं- चालू हो रहे काम, न लौटें घर

शनिवार को हरियाणा के मुख्यमंत्री मनोहर लाल खट्टर ने अपील करते हुए कहा- उद्योग शुरू हो गए हैं, जो नहीं खुले हैं वो भी कल से शुरू हो जाएंगे, इसलिए मैं प्रवासी श्रमिकों से अनुरोध करता हूं कि आप अभी अपने घर न जाएं, आपको यहां कोई परेशानी नहीं आएगी।

from Jansattaराष्ट्रीय – Jansatta https://ift.tt/2xr1jCP

कर्नाटक: तब्लीगी जमात पर ट्वीट कर नोटिस पाने वाले IAS अफसर बोले- नहीं कर सकता हर किसी को खुश, दूंगा जवाब

Corona Virus Tablighi Jamaat: 27 अप्रैल को मोहसिन ने कोरोना से स्वस्थ हुए तबलीगी जमात के लोगों की ओर से अन्य मरीजों के इलाज के लिए प्लाज्मा दान करने को लेकर ट्वीट किया था। उन्होंने लिखा था “केवल दिल्ली में 300 से अधिक ‘तबलीगी हीरो’ देश की सेवा के लिए प्लाज्मा दान कर रहे हैं। लेकिन ‘गोदी मीडिया’ इन हीरो के मानवता कार्य को नहीं दिखाएगा।”

from Jansattaराष्ट्रीय – Jansatta https://ift.tt/3dbFCps

Friday, May 1, 2020

Rishi Kapoor (1952-2020): Saluting the actor, beloved star — and costume designer’s dream

'Curious Fashion' is a monthly column by feminist researcher, writer and activist Manjima Bhattacharjya. Read more from the series here.

***

Others grow up on fairy tales, but NRIs — I can say from experience — grow up teething on Bollywood. In fact, I may have gotten my taste for blingy outfits from Monty Oberoi. Monty was the popstar played by a luminous 25-year-old Rishi Kapoor in Subhash Ghai’s Hindi film musical Karz (1980). Karz was apparently not a hit at the box-office at the time, inelegantly drowned by Qurbani, sending the star into depression as he shared later in his biography.

But for a little girl in the ‘80s living in the Middle East, tethered to a JVC VCR player, Karz was my portal into a fantasy homeland. Where people sang and danced, fell in love, single-handedly beat up villains, and things ended mostly happily-ever-after. For my teenaged neighbours and I, Monty was our man. We spent hours pausing and rewinding the precious video cassette to follow the cycle-dance step closely in the song ‘Om Shanti Om’, delighting in its practice. (I suspect Shah Rukh Khan did too — I’ve always wondered if the genesis of his patented hand move lies in the choreography of the song.) But more than the moves was the draw of the silver belted jumpsuit-style costume that Monty wore casually, stylishly, as if it were pyjamas and not a popstar’s fabulous disco-ball of an outfit.

That, I suppose, was the brilliance of Rishi Kapoor. From the oversized goggles in Bobby to the infamous sweaters in Chandni — films eponymous with their female heroine rather than the hero — Rishi Kapoor carried his screen costumes with a rare kind of dazzle. He radiated a pure beauty in his early years, a luminosity and freshness that did not stale for a long time.

The antithesis to the angry young man, his romantic roles were brimming with sincerity and an alternative kind of masculinity that dressed brightly, immaculately, and joyously. No open-shirt, greasy, smouldering ruffian look for him. Instead, his was a cinematic wardrobe collected over the decades, of memorable costumes and looks, that no doubt costume designers had delighted in creating for his characters.

Wear surma and kajal? Okay. Cross-dress? Okay. A parrot-green qawwali costume? Okay. Wear appallingly patterned sweaters? Sure. Rishi Kapoor did not seem to have problems with coming across as ‘extra’ or over-the-top. An entertainer till the end, he must have been a costume designer’s dream. There are many memorable fashion moments in his 50-year filmography that come to mind.

Top of the list, of course, the coveted silver jumpsuit of Karz. Bobby (1973) comes a close second. In his debut film as hero, Kapoor carried off with elan prep-boy style suits, psychedelic shirt prints, turtlenecks, a Dr Seuss muffler and the aforementioned goggles. Bobby, a film about the beauty of young love, lit up a whole generation with its iconic fashion sensibilities.

From the oversized goggles in Bobby to the silver jumpsuit of Karz and the infamous sweaters in Chandni — Rishi Kapoor carried his screen costumes with a rare kind of dazzle

In another VCR favourite, Prem Rog (1982) he played Dev, a young schoolteacher in love with a young widow. A famous song has Dev riding a bicycle through a rainbow field bursting with flowers, with the young widow balancing in front of him, ironically in her absolute widow’s white sari. You might have missed the subtlety of it as I did initially, but Dev wears white in the film as much as she did. Amidst all the social inequality the film captures, it is their clothes that set a kind of equality between the two of them.

Through the terrible multi star dramas of the noughties, we endured fashion apocalypse with the all-white costumes, the white shoes and Rishi Kapoor’s colourful mufflers and sweaters, which perhaps hid beer bellies and made dancing with heroines in Swiss locales more comfortable (for the hero). I never did take to this new persona but I cannot deny its influence: many knitting enthusiasts waited to copy the designs of the sweaters, and it was a subject of great interest for Rishi Kapoor’s Twitter followers.

When he returned to the screen in a solid way in the 2000s, his style mojo was intact. In Luck By Chance (2009), Kapoor played a Bollywood producer of yore Romy Rolly with chutzpah, dressed convincingly in sweaty shirts with a handkerchief wedged in shirt pocket, a giant gold watch, lockets and multiple rings for good luck. Then came Do Dooni Chaar (2010) as the Hindi film industry turned a corner towards more realistic films, in which Kapoor downgraded to half-sweaters and a cosy monkey-cap to personify middle-class school teacher Santosh Duggal. As the wicked pimp Rauf Lala in Agneepath (2012), his menacingly kohled eyes stayed with you for a while.

Costume designers have a big contribution in the creation of stars and superstars, and the legacy of artistes. But they also need an actor who is a worthy canvas for their genius, a Rishi Kapoor to take it and run with it.

From a breathtakingly beautiful boy to the curmudgeonly elder on Twitter, with Rishi Kapoor, what you saw was what you got. The charm, the bluster, the straight-speak, the scolding that he often gave to paparazzi… it was all out there. But with his costumes, he seemed to transform completely into character. Kapoor played everything convincingly — from the many instruments he played in his roles (the dafli, the guitar, the piano, the violin!) to the many characters he brought to life before an adoring audience. He seemed to really believe in the characters he played, and we all believed in them with him.

Rishi Kapoor remains alive in our memories not just as many interestingly dressed characters we sang and danced, and laughed and cried with, but also as the essence of the incredible joyride that is called the movies.

Manjima is the author of Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry (Zubaan, 2018)

from Firstpost Bollywood Latest News https://ift.tt/2y9EiVC

Irrfan Khan passes away: Rare gems of the celebrated actor that should not be missed, from Qissa to Tokyo Trial

It wasn’t easy being Irrfan Khan. Nor is it easy for me to write this piece without recalling the genuine, easy going acting legend that set a benchmark so high, no one in Hindi cinema tried to get there.

I recall Irrfan Khan’s reaction to a simple question that I had posed to him at the premiere of The Namesake in Mumbai. Is Hollywood important to him? He simply shook his head and said, “Let this just work out..it has been so long…” And left the statement incomplete. His signature style was that; to leave a sentence half complete as he gets lost in his thoughts. He expects you to understand. He had to wait for a very long time before mainstream cinema woke up to his talent. Once it did wake up though, his body of work went beyond films in India, and he successfully carved an identity of his own overseas, without hype and hoopla.

Irrfan Khan was the most secure actor I had come across. Which is why he never put on airs and always spoke from the heart, both on and off record. While his commercial cinema is familiar to most, several performances of this stellar, versatile actor crossed international and cultural borders and isn’t quite known to many. Here’s a list of some of his underrated gems:

The Warrior (2003)

Asif Kapadia’s film is how it all began for Irrfan. After a cameo in Salaam Bombay, he had to wait to find work worthy of his talent. In this British film that swept awards at festivals and won Best British film, Khan features as a warrior that gives up being an enforcer and has to escape a bloody hunt. Khan got noticed by filmmakers and casting agents for his innate ability to act without melodrama, an uncommon trait amongst Indian actors. This is also the year that Ashvin Kumar’s road trip adventure drama, Road To Ladakh released at international festivals; featuring Khan in a pivotal role. With virgin locations and a feel of a road trip rarely taken, this film showed just how Irrfan could say so much by speaking so little.

In Treatment (2008-2010)

In line with quality tv programming from HBO (now called prestige TV) In Treatment features Irrfan Khan as a Bengali widower that is seeking psychoanalysis in New York. An extension of nuances that he perfected as Ashok Ganguly in The Namesake, Khan brings to life the hesitation, inherent shyness and discomfort that an Indian man who has just lost his wife would feel in discussing his innermost thoughts with a stranger. In the West, he was hailed as the most compelling performance and the most interesting patient in a show that is about a psychoanalyst and his everyday challenges.

Qissa (2013)

Anup Singh’s poignant film won several international awards including the Netpac Award at TIFF but it didn’t get much time to play out in Indian theaters. Based on a folk tale, the film’s compelling emotions play out like a fairy tale on canvas. Irrfan Khan plays a headstrong father who has lost everything in the Partition. He plays a Sikh man without obvious exaggerations that one associates with a ‘sardar’. Qissa is an acquired taste but it offers a clear idea on the range that Irrfan Khan had as an actor. Singh has also directed Irrfan in a poetic love story featuring Iranina actor Golshifteh Farahani. Well received, this film won Khan praise from critics at Locarno Film Festival where it premiered. It also prompted him to look for dramas and love stories beyond trappings of mainstream romances.

Tokyo Trial (2016)

Irrfan Khan is incredibly subtle in this memorable limited series available on Netflix. Khan plays a Bengali judge that is part of the prestigious panel of judges that has the history-defining task of passing verdict on war criminals from Japan’s government after the Second World War. As developed by Japan’s state TV NHK, this series examines the complex concept of a victor’s justice, and judge Pal, as played by Irrfan Khan, weighs in with a balanced judgment. A masterpiece in interpreting historical drama, this series shows just how far and wide the impact of Khan’s versatility had reached.

Khan has also acted in the unreleased film, Dubai Return by Aditya Bhattacharya. Word in the industry was that his performance in this entertaining crime caper was brilliant. For those who like to know, remember his performance as a typical Gujarati businessman in New York, I Love You, starring alongside Natalie Portman. Khan will also be remembered for his presence in Doordarshan’s top TV shows like Chanakya, Bharat Ek Khoj and Zee’s cult soap Banegi Apni Baat.

Most importantly, this actor — that saw the definite curve of content beating stardom coming years before others — will be remembered for making Indian actors relevant to international film and TV.

from Firstpost Bollywood Latest News https://ift.tt/3bYDrpd