#WATCH | मेंस्ट्रूअल हाइजीन डे के मौके पर लखनऊ के डॉक्टर राम मनोहर लोहिया पीजीआई में जागरूकता कार्यक्रम आयोजित किया गया। महिलाओं को री-यूजेबल सेनेटरी पैड्स के फायदे और उनके इस्तेमाल की जानकारी दी गई। विशेषज्ञों ने बताया कि डिस्पोजेबल पैड्स पर्यावरण और स्वास्थ्य दोनों के लिए नुकसानदायक हो सकते हैं।
#MenstrualHygieneDay #Lucknow #WomenHealth #livetimesnews
@RajeevOjha13
"Dhurandhar: The Revenge" Review (no spoilers)
By PVR Narasimha Rao
Well before shell-shocked status quo Bollywood swung into action with a shrill & silly "it's propaganda" propaganda against record-shattering & epoch-making Dhurandhar 2, south Indian Super Star Rajinikanth gave the perfect verdict: "A must watch film for every Indian"! What a movie!! 👏
It is rarely that a movie comes along that sails against much conventional film industry wisdom and changes the semantics and syntax of filmmaking.
Its well-crafted script, inspiredly cast characters, superlative acting performances (from stars to the supporting cast), uncompromising technical excellence & crispness - all played a role in its ongoing historic success. But my assessment is that the biggest factor making so many throng the theaters, multiple times in many cases, is subtle & intangible - this movie is quite cathartic to an Indian populace traumatized by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for decades & watching frequent news clips in recent years from Pakistan about the death of various architects & operatives of the terror infrastructure at the hands of "unknown men". While the first part set things up, the second part is the culmination and it feels so fulfilling.
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I am now a huge fan of young writer-director Aditya Dhar. He is not only a master of his craft(s!), but has an unbelievable amount of guts & conviction! He released a sequel just 3 months after the original; he released it with just a trailer and no promotional events of any kind; it is nearly 4-hour long; gore & violence are splattered all over it; and, a highly emotional sequence of several minutes comes after the movie is basically over! Yet, EVERYONE in the theater (all 3 times I watched it!) remained glued to their seats! After a minute or so of titles at the end, there was footage from the secret agent training and people remained in their seats even then and watched with awe! In this age of instant gratification and short attention spans, commanding people's attention for 4 hours is just magical.
Whether it's the emotional sequences or action sequences with much violence or just high octane political drama, nothing feels forced or artificial in this movie and that's the key to its success - things just feel genuine and authentic. You feel like you understand each character - who they are, what they feel and want - and every character and situation is so believable and relatable. It's so engaging and fulfilling mainly because storytelling and character sketching are at their very finest.
Dhar tweeted: "The goal is clear, to see Indian cinema stand as the finest in the world, not by imitation, but by owning who we are and telling our stories with truth and ambition."
That's indeed what it does. It shatters the false equivalency, carried on religiously in Bollywood for years, between India and a neighbor that embraced harboring cross-border terrorism as the unofficial state policy a few decades ago. It ambitiously tells the Indian perspective with gusto, panache & skill. And it tells it in such a way that even those who are not emotionally vested in India are engrossed in a fascinating story told masterfully.
Apart from superb writing and excellent acting, crisp cinematography by Vikash Nowlakha, engaging music by Shashwat Sachdev and brilliant & crisp editing by Shivkumar V. Panicker truly elevate the proceedings and enhance the impact.
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While the first part saw one of Akshaye Khanna's career best performances, the second part sees Ranveer Singh's career best performance, as Jaskirat Singh Rangi and Hamza Ali Mazari.
Whether it's the scene where the young army trainee finds, after a violent rampage, his sister held in captivity by her rapists, with a myriad emotions being painted on the canvas of his face in quick succession, or the scene where an Indian secret agent has to confront his innocent Pakistani wife who finds out his reality, or the scenes of assured & thoughtful scheming, or the scenes of heart-wrenching dilemmas, or the scenes of flamboyant heroism, or the scene where he visits his mother and sister and is caught between dharma towards them & dharma towards nation, he is just outstanding.
Most spy movies and secret agent characters, not only from India but from Hollywood too, are very bland and flat with no depth in the character sketch. Here's a believable character enacting a believable drama, with varied human emotions.
Ranveer Singh can be proud of his portrayal of this complex character. The variation he brought during different phases is impressive.
Sara Arjun delivers an impactful performance in her limited screen presence. The scene of her confrontation with her Indian secret agent husband as a patriotic Pakistani, is written and acted superbly. The way Yalina reflects and processes the conversation, comes across so brilliantly. Also her acting in the scene in which Hamza hangs up the phone and she feels happy, sad and restless at the same time is masterful - too good for a newcomer.
Rakesh Bedi as Jameel Jamali, the cunning Pakistani politician, is an absolute class act. After a 49-year long career in films, theater and TV, it's great to see this natural actor get his due! Whether he's reveling in getting the better of someone, or being cautious to not let someone get the better of him, or making a U-turn at the drop of a hat, or simply weighing the next opportunistic movie, the survivor politician he depicts is just too relatable in the sub-continent.
R Madhavan is absolutely brilliant as Ajay Sanyal (based on Ajit Doval, current NSA of India). Madhavan so resembles Ajit Doval, not just in looks but in behavior and speech too. He gets the most clap-worthy lines in this part and delivers them with such calm confidence & finesse. His character personifies a traumatized nation's indignation that turns into firm resolve for revenge and finally into an executed action plan that delivers revenge & self-confidence.
Arjun Rampal get more screen space in part 2 and does full justice with his magnetic screen presence. The powerful, confident, vile and scheming ISI major he plays with such fervor, is a treat to watch.
Gaurav Gera as Alam touches hearts in just a few scenes he has, with a heartfelt performance. Danish Pandor as Uzair Baloch is impactful with a range of emotions - raw anger that erupts like lava, unhindered cockiness of a reckless victor, naivete of an emotional fool, and confused resignation of a tragic hero.
Raj Zutshi as the DG of ISI shines in an important cameo. Sanjay Dutt as SP Chaudhary Aslam delivers a massy and rockstar performance.
Udaybir Sandhu as Gurbaaz "Pinda" Singh (based on Harvinder Singh Sandhu "Rinda") delivers a heartfelt performance, whether as Jaskirat's loving & caring childhood buddy sharing the workload of his drug dealer father or later as the criminal anti-national drug lord dealing with Pakistan. He delivers the interval bang with a cool poise.
Though it's a pretty intense movie, there are some laughs here and there, not only from the story and lines, but also from cleverly placed background songs in some scenes. In general, the placement of background songs in various scenes is done very thoughtfully, to enhance the emotions.
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Mukesh Chhabra deserves special mention for the work he did as the casting director. There is a great resemblance between the actors and who the characters played by them are based on! While it's uncanny in general, special mention goes to Salim Siddiqui as Atif Ahmed (based on Atiq Ahmed), Mashhoor Amrohi as Nawab Shafiq (based on Nawaz Sharif). Also, Danish Iqbal recreated Dawood Ibrahim quite well. Many people may assume that the picture on the wall in some scenes is of Dawood Ibrahim himself, though they recreated the iconic picture with the actor!
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Thinking of Doval ji, "unknown men" etc always reminds me of a crazy premonition of @mmpandit!
In 2012/13, he interviewed Doval ji for "Ishrat Jehan Conspiracy" film (https://t.co/a21XRvskMD). Doval ji had long retired as IB Director & was running "Vivekananda International Foundation".
He told me after meeting Doval ji, "Narasimha, I had a strong feeling when I met him that he will come back to active public life soon and will play a very major role in shaping India's rise. He's not done yet & has a lot to give to the nation."
It was astonishing when Modi ji tapped Doval ji as the National Security Advisor in 2014! In later years, it became abundantly clear that he's very active in shaping India's visible and invisible (!) foreign policy. 🙏
Manish sometimes has these crazy premonitions that seem so unlikely at the time, but are proven so correct later on! 🙏
* * *
Lastly, there is a heavy propaganda that this is a "propaganda movie". In fact, the word "propaganda" is currently mentioned 24 times on its wikipedia page!
This is unfortunate and nonsensical.
The makers showed a slide at the beginning that it is a "fictional movie based on real events". They took many verifiable real events that happened in India and Pakistan in 2000s and 2010s and created a coherent and plausible narrative tying them all together (without claiming it's a true story).
Obviously, some real people appear in those real events and the tying narrative portrays them either positively or negatively. But they didn't go out of their way to portray anyone too positively or negatively - the events themselves organically did!
If they really wanted propaganda, they could've dragged the Atiq Ahmed arrest and killing scenes and brought in some Indian politicians who rallied for a proven ally in Dawood Ibrahm's anti-national and terrorist activities. They could've also portrayed how those leaders instigated Muslims by painting Ahmed's arrest and killing as "Muslim persecution". Instead, they left those out and focused on just Dawood Ibrahim and Atiq Ahmed.
They were also careful to not portray all Muslims, either Indian or Pakistani, negatively. The hero even explicitly mentioned that his (India's) fight is not against Pakistan or Pakistani people, but against the terrorists killing innocent people. He even highlighted that those terrorists (and their supporters within Pakistan government & ISI!) harm innocent Pakistanis too!
Thus, this is really an anti-terrorist movie and not an anti-Pakistan or anti-Muslim movie as some insinuated.
Yes, they don't shy away from showing how those terrorist masterminds exploit that particular religion, but that is just reality and not propaganda.
As for highlighting Modi's accomplishments, they essentially stuck to facts. It is a fact that Modi demonetized some higher denominations of Indian currency in 2016, all of a sudden. If they showed that that was done because a Pakistani money launderer and fake currency mogul covertly got hold of Indian currency plates and was pumping big amounts of fake currency into India to support terrorism, that is a plausible narrative (and many Indians believe it's the correct narrative). After all, there are some corroborating factors like that fake currency mogul dying by jumping from his own building one month after demonetization, like cross-border terrorism reducing in later years, and like Pakistani economy becoming weaker in later years. This is hardly propaganda - this is just building a plausible narrative that explains known real events.
If they showed Indian secret agents killing many terrorism masterminds & operatives in Pakistan in 2010s, that too is not propaganda, but a plausible narrative explaining real events. Each single person they showed in the movie was indeed killed in Pakistan by "unknown men". Those "unknown men" could very well be Indian secret agents (in fact, that is what the Pakistan government claimed several times).
In fact, those killings are still continuing and happened just a few days back. This is reality and not propaganda. If someone is upset that this makes Modi and Doval look good, too bad for them. They perhaps look good because they ARE good - after all, Doval ji came up with the Doval doctrine and Modi ji enabled him!
Amma arrived in Ayodhya after a two-day train journey from Amritapuri. She was welcomed by Shri Champat Ray, General secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Kshetra Trust, and Shri Dinesh ji, International patron of Vishwahindu Parishad.
Shri Champat Rai showed Amma the statue of Jatayu. “Whatever little may be our power, we must fight against adharma. Then even failure will be considered success,” Amma commented. #AmmaVisitAyodhya
May the life and remembrance of Śrī Rāma always sanctify human hearts. In these times, when values are gradually eroding, the Rāmāyaṇam and the life of Śrī Rāma awaken in us a sense of dharma, inner strength and selflessness in our actions.”
#AmmaVisitAtodhya#SriRamaYantra
“Bhārat is the land that has conveyed the message of all-embracing unity to the world. Śrī Rāma is the ever-radiant symbol of that immortal culture. May the life and remembrance of Śrī Rāma always sanctify human hearts.
“There is a difference between physical health and mental health. The body becomes healthier by movement, but the mind becomes healthier by stillness. Meditation and japa are practices that help still the mind.” - #Amma#YogaDay
If the water in the lake is muddy, we won’t be able to see its bottom. Even the Sun will not be reflected properly on its surface. Likewise, a mind clouded by material desires and selfish thoughts cannot think clearly or recognise its own flaws. Just as a dusty mirror does not reflect our image properly, an impure mind cannot properly reflect the light of the Self. ~ #Amma
किसी केन्द्र-बिंदु के बिना हम वर्तुल नहीं खींच सकते। इसी प्रकार, प्रेम के केंद्र-बिंदु के बिना हमारे जीवन में पूर्णता नहीं आ सकती। पेड़ की जड़ें ही तो इसे धरती में मज़बूती से गाड़े रखती हैं। इसी प्रकार, मन में प्रेम की मज़बूत जड़ों द्वारा ही लोगों के वैयक्तिक और सामाजिक जीवन हर हाल में बिना हिले-डुले या उखड़े मज़बूती से खड़े रहते हैं। ~ #अम्मा
Terrorism has become one of humanity’s foremost problems, robbing society of its peace. Today our waking reality is worse than our most terrifying nightmare. ~ #Amma (from the New Year message 2025)
प्रयागराज महाकुंभ में कई संस्थाएं श्रद्धालुओं को कई तरह की सुविधा दे कर उनकी सेवा में जुटी हुईं हैं....इस बीच माता अमृतानंदमयी मठ की तरफ़ से कुंभ मेले में अमृता हॉस्पिटल का कैंप लगा हुआ है...जहां डॉक्टर्स और पैरामेडिक स्टाफ की लंबी चौड़ी टीम OPD से���ाओं के साथ ही IPD सेवाएं भी दे रही है...मठ के शिविर में एंबुलेंस के साथ ही स्टेट ऑफ द आर्ट मोबाइल वाहन मौजूद हैं...जिसमें ECG से लेकर लैब और xray जैसी फैसिलिटी उपलब्ध है...
Watch : https://t.co/roba8LSmx0
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