29.01.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The growing proximity between the Bachchans and Shah Rukh Khan just got thicker. On Thursday, Shah Rukh called up the Bachchans and requested for a print of Rann to kick-start his newly-constructed home theatre at his residence.
Says a source, “Shah Rukh specifically wanted to inaugurate his home theatre with a Bachchan starrer. Luckily, Rann was on release this week. So he asked Karan Johar to quickly dial Mr. Bachchan who put him through the producers of Rann. The producers gladly arranged for a print of Rann to be delivered to SRK’s place on Thursday evening.”
After watching the film till very late on Thursday night, Shah Rukh Khan sent an appreciative sms to the film’s producer which read, “Very kind of you to send the film across. Very intense very topical…good performances all round. The viewpoint is very current.”
Apparently, Shah Rukh wanted to invite Mr Bachchan to view Rann in his home theatre. Alas! Mr Bachchan was in Delhi on Thursday night attending the premiere of Rann.
You would think with his sworn lack of empathy with politics, Big B would run as far away from politicians as possible. Surprisingly, politicians rather than stars dominated the Delhi premiere of Rann on Thursday night.
Those VIPs (very important politicians) who attended the premiere on Thursday night included Yashwant Sinha, L. K. Advani, Sheila Dixit, Sachin Pilot and the current Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi – Tajendra Khanna. Plus, of course, Amar Singh. This was Mr. Bachchan’s first politician-dominated premiere in years.
The entire Bachchan parivar was in full attendance, though Jaya arrived separately from the rest of the family. An ever-enthusiastic Vivek Oberoi also saw the film though in a different screening from the Bachchans.
A perception that Rann indulges in serious bashing of the electronic media had the film’s leading man Amitabh Bachchan stationed in the Capital for most of Thursday inviting the city’s most influential journalists for the premiere.
Most of the who’s who of Delhi’s press corps melted under the great Bachchan charm. The man himself was baffled by the widespread belief that the film was against the electronic media.
Said Mr. Bachchan on Thursday afternoon, “I’m in Delhi meeting various members of the press trying to understand why Rann is being perceived as being against them. Or why I’m being seen to have issues with the press. Not at all! I’ve always respected the press.”
Tell him the perception of Mr. Bachchan being anti-press goes back to those years in the 1980s when he had banned the press.
Says Mr. Bachchan, “I banned them because they had banned me. But now that’s in the past. Writing my blog has made me understand the duties and exigencies of the media much better than before.”
29.01.10 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
A senior Hamas military commander has been assassinated by Israel in Dubai, the Palestinian Islamist group claims.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50, a founder of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, “died a martyr on 20 January in suspicious circumstances”, a statement said.
Hamas gave no further details, but vowed to “retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate moment”.
An Israeli government spokesman would not comment, in line with Israel’s usual policy on similar allegations.
The authorities in the UAE have also not yet commented.
‘Close to leader’
A Hamas political bureau member in Damascus, Izzat al-Rishq, told the BBC that Mr Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, had been very close to its exiled political leader, Khaled Meshaal.
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Our brother had been a target for the occupier ever since his participation in the kidnapping operation against the two Zionist soldiers
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“Mabhouh died a martyr in Dubai on 20 January 2010 in suspicious circumstances that require an inquiry in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates authorities,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom,” it added.
Hamas said Mr Mabhouh had been responsible for the abduction in 1989 of two Israeli soldiers, who were both later killed.
He also masterminded a number of other attacks, for which the Israeli authorities demolished his home in Gaza, it added.
Mr Mabhouh spent several periods in Israeli custody. After his last release, “he spent his life being hounded by the Zionist occupier until he succeeded in leaving the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said.
“Our brother had been a target for the occupier ever since his participation in the kidnapping operation against the two Zionist soldiers, and for his role and support for the resistance.”
Mr Mabhouh’s body was flown to Syria on Thursday and his funeral is due to be held in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus, later on Friday.
Rockets
The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades have carried out hundreds of attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israeli troops and civilians.
The Brigades have launched rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns close to the border.
The rocket fire at civilian areas was the reason the Israeli military gave for launching a 22-day attack on Gaza beginning in December 2008.
Hamas’s charter effectively calls for the destruction of Israel, although its leaders have more recently said they would consider a long-term ceasefire in exchange for a state on the land Israel occupied in 1967..
Israel has a long history of assassination operations targeting militants. Most famously, in 1987 in Tunisia, agents killed Abu Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s military leader.
But in 1997, one mission went wrong, when two agents were arrested in Jordan after attempting to poison Mr Meshaal and Israel was forced to hand over an antidote by the US government.
More recently, Israel denied that it was behind the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the military commander of the Lebanese Shia militant group, Hezbollah, in Damascus in 2008.
29.01.10 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Britain’s attitude towards the risk posed by Saddam Hussein “changed dramatically” after 11 September 2001, Tony Blair has told the Iraq inquiry.
The former PM said that the policy up to that point was one of “containment”.
Mr Blair is facing questions in public for the first time about taking the UK to war against Iraq.
Sir John Chilcot began the six hour question session by saying Mr Blair could be recalled to give further evidence if necessary.
Sir John stressed that Mr Blair was not “on trial”. He will be quizzed by the inquiry on the build-up to the 2003 invasion and is expected to give a spirited defence of his actions.
‘Risk assessment’
Mr Blair said British policy towards Saddam was transformed by the terror attacks on America in September 2001.
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THE STORY SO FAR…
In April 2002, with 9/11 still dominating the agenda, Tony Blair warns of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction
Despite the biggest anti-war protest in British history, in March 2003 British forces join the US invasion of Iraq after efforts to get UN backing fail
With no weapons of mass destruction found attention switches to the way intelligence was used to justify war
The Hutton inquiry finds the government did not “sex up” dossier on Saddam’s weapons
But the Butler inquiry finds “serious flaws” in pre-war intelligence
And with public feelings still running high, Gordon Brown announces Chilcot inquiry to “learn the lessons” of the Iraq conflict.
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He said: “I would fairly describe our policy up to September 11 as doing our best, hoping for the best but with a different calculus of risk assessment.”
He added: “The point about those acts in New York is that, had they been able to kill more people than the 3,000, they would have.
“My view was you can’t take risks with this issue.”
He told the inquiry Iraq had shown “10 years of defiance” and had to be brought “back into compliance”.
But he said the New York atrocities were key to the change in the “assessment” of the security risk.
Families of some of the 179 British soldiers killed in Iraq are watching the evidence with others said to be joining the 200 or so anti-war protestors outside.
Rose Gentle’s son, Gordon, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in 2004, while serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers.
Regime change
She said the families of the dead wanted closure and for Mr Blair to explain “in depth” to the families and and the public “why he went in” as she said he had never done that before.
The Chilcot inquiry is likely to ask Mr Blair at what stage he promised US President George W Bush Britain would support military action against Iraq.
Some witnesses have said assurances were given in 2002 – although the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has told the inquiry he had warned Mr Blair that using force for regime change would be illegal.
Lord Goldsmith, whose legal opinion cabinet ministers and the British military depended upon before agreeing to involvement in the war, said he originally believed the United Nations had to approve the use of force and only changed his mind a month before the invasion.
Mr Blair has also set up another line of questioning by saying in a recent BBC interview that he would have backed the invasion even if he had known beforehand that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
‘Overtly political’
A former head of the civil service, Lord Turnbull, told the inquiry they should question Mr Blair about this because throughout the period leading up to war, Mr Blair had been “unambiguous” that disarming Saddam of weapons of mass destruction was his primary objective.
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IRAQ INQUIRY TWEETS
Twitter: @BBCLauraK
Power struggle between 1st questioner Roderick Lyne and TB now over – but former PM dominated – onto Baroness Prashar now
3 minutes ago
TB appears to admit he made a mistake in recent BBC interview – says he did not mean he would have removed Saddam without WMD threat
9 minutes ago
Interesting – TB says potential probs of war that cabinet discussed mainly about impact on Arab world – hasn’t mentioned probs with legality
17 minutes ago
TB says ‘removing Saddam’ was always an option – note he says ‘removing’ not disarming – will panel pick that up?
19 minutes ago
Panel makes a dig at govt’s reluctance to make public some of the documents they want to be there for all to see #iraqinquiry
32 minutes ago
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In his appearance, Mr Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell sought to address some of the questions around the key September 2002 dossier on the alleged threat posed by Saddam published in the run up to the war.
The dossier included a foreword by Mr Blair in which he wrote that he believed the intelligence, which the inquiry has been told had many caveats attached, had established “beyond doubt” that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons.
Mr Campbell, who drafted the first version of the foreword – ultimately approved by Mr Blair – said no-one in intelligence challenged this statement which, he added, never suggested Saddam Hussein “was able to do something terrible to the British mainland”.
This will be the third time Mr Blair has given evidence during an inquiry into the Iraq war.
He previously gave evidence to the Hutton inquiry, the Butler review and the Intelligence and Security Committee investigation – although the latter two into the pre-war intelligence took place behind closed doors.
Questions at the Hutton inquiry were restricted to events surrounding the death of government weapons scientist Dr David Kelly, rather than the political decisions behind the war.
29.01.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
One look at the promos of ROAD TO SANGAM and you realize that this isn’t one of those films you watch every week. ROAD TO SANGAM, in fact, pricks your conscience and mirrors a reality.
Wars have been fought and are still being fought in the name of religion. ROAD TO SANGAM tries to seek answers to the burning issue and in the process, also talks of partition and the Muslims in present-day India.
Made with honest intentions, this one’s targeted at connoisseurs of cinema.
ROAD TO SANGAM tells the story of a God-fearing, devout Muslim mechanic named Hashmat Ullah [Paresh Rawal], who has been entrusted the job of repairing an old Ford engine, not knowing its historic significance.
He is caught in a complex situation after a powerful bomb explosion rocks his town, leading to the arrest of innocent Muslim youths of his locality. A strike to work is called by the prominent leaders [played by Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra] of his community to protest against the unjust treatment meted out to those arrested youths by the police.
Will he support the protest and abandon the repair of the engine or go against the wishes of his community?
A simple, thought-provoking story, ROAD TO SANGAM has some brilliant moments and also some sequences that you carry home. But what could’ve been told in a concise format seems stretched after a point. Also, besides moving at a snail’s pace, there’s also sermonising at times, which wasn’t really required.
Writer-director Amit Rai explains his point of view, but the screenplay could’ve been firm for a stronger impact. Otherwise, the director has succeeded in extracting wonderful performances from the principal cast.
Paresh Rawal excels in this film. This is amongst his finest works. Om Puri is equally competent, although the length of his role is limited. Pawan Malhotra is efficient, as always. Javed Sheikh is good. The remaining actors enact their parts very well.
On the whole, ROAD TO SANGAM is mainly for connoisseurs of cinema and also for the festival circuit.
Rating:- [critique] * * *.
