Monday, December 4, 2023

Trisha Krishnan DELETES post calling Ranbir Kapoor's Animal a 'cult' movie after facing criticism | Hindi Movie News

Ranbir Kapoor has been winning praise for his performance in ‘Animal’, which is minting big at the box office. Social media is also packed with love for the actor. However, recently when Trisha Krishnan hailed ‘Animal’, she faced a lot of criticism.
Reviewing the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial, Trisha wrote, “One word-cult! Pppppppaaaaaahhhhhhh” along with peeking eye, face exhaling and clapping hands emojis.However, she soon deleted the post, after facing backlash from users on social media.
One post on X read, “Never expect a negative review from an actor/actress for any movies. They won’t/can’t express the real opinion as they need to sustain in the industry.” Another user wrote “She was lecturing about woman’s dignity a week ago only no?”
https://twitter.com/ka_fries2366/status/1731291368734249226
Another user wrote, “Next Vanga heroine locked for Prabhas film.”
‘Animal’ is a crime drama film, focussing on a troubled relationship between Ranbir Kapoor and his father Anil Kapoor. This movie also stars Bobby Deol, Rashmika MandannaTriptii Dimri, Shakti Kapoor, Suresh Oberoi and Prem Chopra. ‘Animal’ opened with Rs 63.8 crore on Friday and witnessed a huge upward trend over the weekend. The film earned Rs 72 crore on Sunday and has crossed Rs 200 crore at the end of its first weekend at the box office. ‘Animal’ released alongside Vicky Kaushal starrer ‘Sam Bahadur’, which has earned around Rs 25 crore till now.

‘Animal’ Movie Review: Ranbir Kapoor-starrer a hit or miss?


Son Ye-jin enjoys golf on a snowy day, fans credit Hyun Bin for clicking her pictures

Over the weekend, Son Ye-jin dropped some charming pictures from a golf outing on social media. The ‘Crash Landing on Youactress has been enjoying the sport for a while now and her latest post announced her last session of the year.
“I played my last golf of the year on a snowy day😄 It was so nice when it snowed,” penned the actress. Dressed in a comfortable black jumpsuit, Son Ye-jin called her attire warm and pretty.WelcomingDecembershe added, “Now it’s really a month away from 2023😳slow down time.” Interestingly, fans wondered where her husband Hyun Bin was, since last time he got behind the camera to click pictures of wife Son Ye-jin after a golf outing. “Beautiful picture taken by husband of course,” read one comment, while another user wrote, “I guess your photographer again this time is your handsome husband.That’s good for both of you!God bless your lovely family!” A fan of the couple wrote, “Wow its leisure time again with Binnie as beloved husband and best photographer 😍❤️ #keepsafealways.”

After years for a couple of years, Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin tied the knot in 2022. They had a private wedding and had shared pictures from the same with fans on social media. Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin embraced parenthood with the birth of their son in November 2022. Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin shared the frame in 2018 action thriller film ‘The Negotiation’, however fans fell in love with their chemistry in ‘Crash Landing On You’. This Korean drama was a huge hit with fans across the globe.


1, 2, 3... BJP to the fore | India News

1. Modi is the message
Taunted as panauti (jinx) by Rahul Gandhi midway through the campaign, PM Narendra Modi again showed how good he is at winning elections. Not only has Rahul’s taunt boomeranged, Modi’s status as BJP’s talismanic campaigner, charismatic leader, and principal votegetter is further cemented. His popular appeal was the single most important factor in BJP’s win in three states and its improved performance in Telangana.For voters, he’s a leader with credibility: They took his pre-election ‘guarantees’ seriously. That is all the more remarkable because he has completed 9 years in office, and that too in an age of exploding voter expectations. He was the frontrunner for 2024 even before Sunday. Now, it’s hard to see who will beat him.
2. A winning formula
BJP has now fashioned a way to win elections across states and nationally. Effective governance, big development spends, targeted welfare measures, Hindutva, and a muscular nationalist image, of which selling India’s growing global heft to a domestic audience is a key part. The list of successful programmes over the last nine years is long and testifies to a new BJP culture – target sections of voters, craft a delivery mechanism, and make sure benefits are not lost midway in the delivery channel. This new BJP works 24×7, under Modi and Shah, and as general elections approach, be sure the Modi sarkar will come up with more smart schemes.
3. Everyone’s into welfare schemes
Their contrasting worldviews notwithstanding, focus on welfare ran as a common strand through the promises of all parties. Health insurance, cooking fuel, free/ affordable education were the new promises on offer. BJP did resist the temptation of clambering onto the bandwagon of loan waivers, free electricity and return to the exorbitantly expensive OPS, but was not tone-deaf to the aspirations on the ground, especially of poor and women. LS elections may see its restrained response translating into responsible welfarism. What opposition parties do will be interesting to watch.
4. Hindutva works
It proved to be the force multiplier for BJP in three states. The beheading of Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Udaipur, for alleged blasphemy and the brutal mob killing of Bhuneshwar Sahu may not have provoked outrage outside Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and the attack on a religious procession at Khargone in MP may have been dwarfed by the criticism of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s ‘bulldozer’ response, but they were perceived differently by voters. BJP ensured these incidents were all seen through the prism of ‘appeasement’ of Muslim hardliners. The attacks on Sanatan Dharma by members of INDIA added a new theme in the Hindutva discourse. And this may find greater resonance after the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
5. No takers for Congress‘ social justice plank
Rahul Gandhi’s sudden switch to caste survey, and his championing the ‘jitni abadi utna haq’ slogan, had marked its emergence as a new factor. Congress’s promises of ‘caste counts’ in states in the aftermath of the survey in Bihar invested it with a salience and an urgency. The party’s failure in the three states, each with big concentrations of OBCs, has shown the limits of caste survey as an electoral strategy. Part of the reason may be that voters saw through Congress’s late conversion to Mandalism as an opportunistic ploy. However, while Brand Modi may have helped BJP transcend the caste divide, the party is unlikely to ignore the issue. The campaign saw BJP endorsing the concept of a caste count. The victory gives it the headroom to engage with it from a position of strength and on its own terms.
6. More fights in opposition bloc
Despite a highvoltage start, the effort to build an anti-Modi bloc never really got off the ground because INDIA partners kicked the can of seat-sharing down the road. Sunday’s results will mean more complications for the bloc. Congress may be mourning its heartland losses, but the grief is not shared by many of its INDIA allies. They were resentful of what they saw as Congress’s overbearing ways post-Karnataka. Rahul Gandhi’s underwhelming performance will help them when they question Congress’s claim to be BJP’s natural challenger. Congress, never one to cede ground, will resist these demands for parity by citing victories in Karnataka and Telangana, and by saying it’s the first choice for Muslims and ‘secular’ voters. Expect more fights in the opposition ranks.


Man refuses to leave behind bedridden mom, both die in fire | India News

MUMBAI: Dhiren Nalinkant Shaha chemist with a shop in Gaiwadi, couldn’t abandon his 80-year-old bedridden motherNalini, despite a raging blaze which broke out around 9pm on Saturday in Jethabhai Govindji building, Girgaon. Dhiren remained at their thirdfloor home. The fire brigade suspects a short circuit in the electric box on the ground floor as the possible trigger for the blaze, with the old wooden stairs intensifying its spread.
While the rest of Dhiren’s family left the century-old structure as the fire spread, the 60-year-old chose to stay with his recently discharged, bedridden mother.The Shah’s, a joint family, lived adjacent to a building undergoing redevelopment. “A plank was used to connect the building on fire to the adjacent high-rise for rescue,” said a fire officer. “But Dhiren hesitated as leaving his mother alone was not an option. By the time our teams controlled the flames, the blaze had already reached their home.”
Neighbors were shocked to see Dhiren suc cumb to the blaze while others were brought out through the connecting plank. The three-story wooden structure with Mangalore tile roofing suffered extensive damage as the flames rapidly spread. Located near Chowpatty, the old building lacked a fire-fighting system.
Salome Shah, a resident, said people had to break grilles of homes to exit as the building’s entry was engulfed in flames. “The only exit was from the windows,” Shah said. The fire was extinguished around 3.35am on Sunday.
Later in the morning, residents were compelled to evacuate their homes as the building became uninhabitable due to absence of electricity and widespread fire-related debris.


Maoists kill former arms supplier in Maharashtra | India News

NAGPUR: Maoists killed one of their former arms suppliers on Sunday, the second day of the annual “Peoples’ Liberation of Guerrilla Army” week and barely a week ahead of home minister Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to Gadchiroli district to inaugurate an iron ore plant.
Maoists picked up Chamra Madavi around 14km from Korchi PS in north Gadchiroli, and strangled him to death on the outskirts of the village in the early hours of Sunday.
Security forces have stepped up vigilance and area domination exercises to flush out Maoists from key strongholds, sources said. Madavi was a sympathiser of the banned outfit and was arrested in Balaghat, in neighbouring MP, last year for trying to supply ammunition to Naxalites, SP Neelotpal said. Madavi’s younger sister and brother-in-law hold key positions in the rebel outfit in the Dandakaranya region.
Sources said that Maoists branded Madavi as a “covert police agent” who actively helped the security forces between 2013 and 2019. A two-page note handwritten in Hindi and left behind by the Maoists’ Gadchiroli division committee accused Madavi of becoming an “enemy” of his sister, who is actively involved with the rebels.


Cats Rescued: 3 cats rescued 15 hours after blaze erupted in Mumbai's Girgaon | India News

MUMBAI: Geeta Rawal, a ground-floor resident of the fire-ravaged building in Girgaonawaited her three cats on Sunday morning, as fire personnel were still in the process of bringing them out from her home, reports Richa Pinto.
About 15 hours after the blaze, Cleo, Zeiss, and Golu were safely brought out in their cages. Soon, they were sitting proudly beside their owner.“I was confident they would survive; they’ve always been fighters in the 13 years they’ve lived with me,” added Rawal.


ED Vs Tamil Nadu Govt Clash Intensifies: War hots up as ED asks Tamil Nadu DGP to book state vigilance officials | India News

NEW DELHI: A high-pitch confrontation has begun between central agencies and the Government of Tamil Nadu with the Enforcement Directorate asking the state DGP on Saturday to register an FIR against officials of the state’s vigilance and anti-corruption department for illegally entering ED office and taking away sensitive documents related to several ongoing investigation.
Simultaneously, ED has registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR), ED’s equivalent to an FIR, in the matter of the arrest of an agency’s officer on Friday by the state’s vigilance department. The initiation of ECIR in the case involves summoning state’s vigilance officials and their questioning.
ED has claimed that 35 persons barged into its office in Madurai without valid search orders and revealing their identity. The raids continued from noon of December 1 till 7am the next morning. ED has accused that the raiding party “were constantly saying that they are having pressure from seniors to do these acts. When Panchanama was drawn, we were shocked that there were only four persons authorised for the search along with two witnesses.”
ED is currently investigating more than half-a-dozen ministers in the DMK government in connection with various corruption cases. A senior DMK minister Senthil Balaji, arrested by ED in June this year, has failed to get any relief even from the Supreme Court.
“There was no mention of the 35 persons who were present. Their identity is unknown. Whether they are police or private parties, even that is not known. Whether anyone has vested interest is not ascertainable. We’re in the process of ascertaining the same. How many documents were copied is not known,” ED said in its letter to the DGP.
The agency further alleged that “there are many cases which require protection of witnesses since ED is investi gating many powerful persons in the state.. We have a video recording which shows the presence of such 35 people.”
A day after one of its officers was arrested in Madurai, the ED claimed that first two persons came to ED’s Madurai office claiming to be officers from the Intelligence Bureau. When they were asked to reveal their identity cards, the two slipped away. Later, 35 people raided the premises without any search order and took away sensitive documents, ED has told the DGP seeking immediate registration of an FIR against trespassing.
“They have accessed the sensitive case records, information and internal documents of ED related to other cases which have no link with the alleged search case; the room of Ankit Tiwari, EO, ED, Madurai was locked intermittently during this search; therefore, the search team were having access to records of ED in private; ransacked the entire office of ED,” it said in its complaint.


IMA demands religion-neutral insignia for NMC amidst logo row | India News

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Sunday objected to the National Medical Commission logo depicting the Hindu deity Dhanwantari and urged it to adopt a religion-neutral emblem.
National Medical Commission has come under crticisim for adopting a logo of Hindu God ‘Dhanwantari’ and with the word ‘India’ being replaced by ‘Bharat’. It has, however, pointed out that the altered logo has been in use for a year.
The IMA said on Sunday, “NMC has adopted a new logo with religious depiction contained therein.The newNMC logo is in contradiction with our fundamental values as doctors. It is not in conformity with the oath and duty of doctors, which is not towards any particular religion. Such a logo is also inconsistent with the dignity and decorum of an institution such as the NMC.”
“The logo of any national institution ought to capture the aspirations of all our citizens in an equal manner and by remaining neutral in all respects, thereby eliminating any possibility of any part/section of the society feeling aggrieved in any man,” it added.
The IMA called upon the NMC to take corrective steps to adopt a logo which does not contradict the oath and duty of doctors. “The restoration of the logo hitherto and/or an adoption of any religion neutral logo, is the need of the hour requiring appropriate decision to be taken by the concerned authorities expeditiously,” the doctor’s body said.
Dr Yogender Malik, member of Ethics & Medical Registration Board and head of NMC’s media division, in an earlier response to the criticism, had said, “We never had the ‘India’ emblem as our logo. We didn’t have a logo before. It was around a year back when the NMC, after taking suggestions, came up with the logo.”


Win shows people's faith in 'Modi guarantee': Yogi | India News

LUCKNOW: Congratulating BJP for its landslide win in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and ChhattisgarhUP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that the “historic victory” was a symbol of the unwavering faith of people in PM Narendra Modi‘s leadership, vision, policies, determination for overall development, and in “Modi’s guarantee”.


Gehlot's big welfare push can't stop Rajasthan door from revolving

As his bete noire Sachin Pilot would testify, you write off Ashok Gehlot at your peril. Not when you are talking about a three-time CM of India’s largest state, a doughty survivor who’s been Union minister under three PMs – Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao – and staved off a rebellion in his ranks that would have brought down most governments.
But the ravages of Rajasthan’s latest electoral fight may have left this battle-hardened Congress general’s political career scarred for good, never mind the state’s history of voting out the incumbent every five years.
Gehlot left no sop unadvertised and no freebie unexplored in the run-up to the election. He rolled out welfare schemes and made audacious guarantees, none of which helped Congress buck Rajasthan’s anti-incumbency trend.
So, does Congress’s third consecutive failure to retain the reins of government under Gehlot’s leadership lay the base for the change of guard that Pilot has been fighting for?
Although it isn’t quite the bulwark he would have wanted, the saving grace for Gehlot has been the number of seats (69) Congress has won in the face of a saffron surge. In its previous defeats when he was CM, the party had won significantly fewer seats – 56 in 2003 and 21 in 2013.
For Pilot, waiting patiently in the wings since being removed as deputy CM in 2020 and labelled by Gehlot as “nakara, nikamma and gaddar (worthless and traitor)”, none of this would probably matter. Not just Gehlot, the former PCC chief is also likely to up the ante against the outgoing CM’s loyalist Govind Singh Dotasra, who took over the state party leadership after he was forced to step down.
Insiders say that despite trying to project a semblance of reconciliation in the run-up to the polls, Gehlot’s relationship with Pilot was never on the mend. And now that Congress has been ousted, all of this could come back to haunt him.
Gehlot’s withdrawal from the AICC presidential election in 2022 and the CLP boycott by his loyalists might also go against him, as could his selection of candidates that some say didn’t go down well with the Gandhi family.
But while the 72-year-old finds his worth under scrutiny, trust him not to be cowed down easily. “I think the schemes of the Rajasthan government were all good ones; otherwise, these wouldn’t have been discussed across the country. The poll results have not gone our way in Chhattisgarh and MP too,” he said on Sunday.


For Sachin Pilot, an 'I told you so' moment | India News

When the dust settles and Congress reassembles for a post-poll assessment of its loss, former deputy CM Sachin Pilot will likely have an I-told-you-so moment. From graft to paper leaks and discontent among the youth, Pilot had drawn attention, repeatedly, to the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government’s failure to address the issues that BJP eventually attacked the party with.
The Congress leader even staged a sit-in to reiterate his concerns just months before Rajasthan went to polls, a move that many saw as a couched rebellion against the Gehlot government for his unceremonious ouster from the government earlier.So, when the Rajasthan results poured in on Sunday afternoon and delivered Congress a drubbing, it likely served as a bitter-sweet moment for the “rebel”.

Should introspect what they have done for country: Sachin Pilot reacts to PM Modi’s appeasement remark

From Pilot, the leadership tussle between him and Gehlot will also have reached the point of no return. It is now widely accepted that infighting within Congress, skewed ticket distribution, and sidelining of many Pilot allies likely contributed to the upset.
With the Gujjar population sensing that a Congress win was unlikely, and the possibility of Pilot being appointed CM even less so, a section of youth and the community preferred to support BJP. PM Modi’s barb that Congress decision to “ignore” a Gujjar leader was an insult to the community could also rankle. Though Pilot won his own constituency, his margin of victory stood reduced from 2018 – down by over 25,000 votes. Congress, too, was unable to repeat a sweep of eastern Rajasthan, where it had won big in 2018 in the Gujjar-dominant belt.


With loyalists in and two main rivals out, is Vasundhara Raje back in race? | India News

Vasundhara Raje‘s return to prominence in Rajasthan politics at 70 isn’t just another sidelight in a famous BJP victory. It marks her out as an outlier in a pantheon of BJP veterans who have survived – and prospered – in no small part due to the blessings of the central leadership.
On Sunday, Raje retained the Jhalrapatan seat by a margin of 53,000-odd votes, while two of her primary opponents within the party – leader of the opposition Rajendra Rathore and deputy leader Satish Poonia- were defeated.
That at least 35 of her loyalists also won gives her the leverage she now needs as the race for the CM’s post begins.
Until this election came along, many within BJP and outside might have considered Raje a has-been, evidenced by her maintaining a low profile. The manner in which she has since clambered back into contention for the chief ministership marks another milestone in a chequered career.
BJP’s Narendra Modi era in 2014 had coincided with Raje’s reduced influence and the loss of her bargaining chips. Before that, for almost a decade and a half starting 2002, she had managed to outmanoeuvre her adversaries – from former state BJP president Om Mathur and senior leader Gulab Chand Kataria to Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress’s return to government in 2018 was when Raje’s standing seemed to nosedive. And this was despite her electoral successes since 1985, including two terms as CM, placing her second only to the late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat among BJP leaders.
Seen as a next-generation leader by some and a representative of the English-speaking elite by others, Raje joined BJP in 1984 when she was 33 and made her presence felt straightaway. Raje won the Dholpur seat in 1985 and was appointed BJP VP on Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s recommendation. Senior party leaders such as Bhanwar Lal Sharma, Gulab Chand Kataria, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Ramdas Agarwal saw her as a wild-card entry, helped by her mother and Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Vijaya Raje Scindia.
After Bhairon Singh Shekhawat became the Vice-President of India in 2002, Raje was catapulted to the helm of the party in Rajasthan. She silenced the naysayers by leading BJP to a 120-seat victory in 2003, and didn’t look back until the electoral setback in 2008.


Parties take their welfare thali beyond 'revadis' | India News

In India, elections have always been about “welfare schemes”, which have ranged from loan waivers to subsidised food or foodgrains, free power, TV sets, and many more. The just-concluded polls in five states were no different as parties desperately vied to woo voters, especially the poor.
While there was no dearth of sops and promises, the themes across manifestos focused on health insurance, women voters and the humble farmer, grappling with stagnant yields and income levels and refusing to move beyond wheat and paddy, being offered top-up over the procurement price.
If Ayushman Indiaone of the flagship schemes of the Modi government, was the starting point, offering a Rs 5-lakh health cover to the poor, political parties are now offering top ups of as much as Rs 50 lakh as they seek to address one of the key governance gaps – lack of reliable and affordable healthcare. Ahead of next year’s general elections, the Modi government has also unveiled the ‘Ayushman Bhav’ campaign to reach out to those who are yet to register for Ayushman Bharat.
While health activists and experts frown at health insurance being the preferred tool of politicians and see it as a short-cut to offering quality healthcare to everyone, something that states in the South such as Tamil Nadu have seen delivered more effectively than their counterparts in the North. From a voter point of view and that of the government, the poor will at least get some insurance, even in private healthcare facilities, instead of being left completely unattended at overflowing civil hospitals.
The focus on cooking gas goes beyond a basic necessity like health benefit to seeking to improve the quality of life, especially for women seeking convenience and smoke-free kitchen. While the push for LPG started with PM Ujjwala, a scheme offering free cooking gas connections, it has now moved to each party seeking to outdo each other on how much subsidy they are going to offer. If Congress was assuring cylinders for Rs 500 each, BJP sought promised it at Rs 450.
The mega push for cooking gas – which has seen the Centre reduce prices by Rs 200 and offer an additional subsidy of Rs 100 – has resulted in higher demand, with the petroleum ministry expecting a further increase once the benefits from the states also kicks in.
The focus is clearly on women voters who are at the centre of recent welfare initiatives including doles – be it Laadli Behna in Madhya Pradesh or the Rs 2,500 promised by Congress in Telangana. In several states, women voters now outnumber men and are the new target group that all politicians are courting, just as farmers.
Given the dependence on agriculture and income levels remaining largely stagnant as farmers remain focused on government procurement, BJP and Congress also tried to match each other in offering higher price for the produce, be it in Chattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh.