Mamata’s 6-yr rule riddled with scams
CBI probe into Saradha and Rose Valley scams has embarrassed the Trinamool Congress, along with arrest of its senior leaders
KOLKATA: The handing over of investigation into the Narada sting operation scandal to the CBI is the third big blow to chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the past three years.
In May 2014, the Supreme Court directed CBI to investigate Saradha chit fund scam that duped millions of depositors spread across states spanning from Odisha and Jharkhand to Assam and Tripura.
Saradha sank in April 2013 and its chairman Sudipta Sen and executive editor Debjani Mukherjee were arrested from Kashmir. Agitations and a spate of suicides gripped the streets of Kolkata and suburbs and villages of Bengal as dozens of agents and depositors who lost their money ended their lives.
The ruling party of Bengal was not hit any less hard. Though it did not show in the election results — 2013 rural polls, 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 assembly elections — the CBI investigation resulted in the arrest of a few prominent party leaders and interrogation of several others.
The most important face to suffer the Saradha blow was Madan Mitra, sports and transport minister and a confidante of Mamata who was arrested on December 12, 2014. He eventually got bail on September 10, 2016, after spending 21 months behind bars.
Other party functionaries to be jailed were Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose and vice-president Rajat Majumdar. High profile leaders who were subjected to grilling included party number two Mukul Roy. After the grilling on January 31, 2015, Roy’s relations with Mamata suffered.
The second wave of CBI probe into the chit fund scam involving Rose Valley Group has also cost Mamata’s party dear. The party’s leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested on January 4 this year and fellow MP Tapas Paul was held on December 30 last year. Both are behind bars. It is speculated that a few more leaders may be summoned for interrogation in the Rose Valley scam. Worse, the list is by no means over.
Just a couple of days ago, CBI arrested Basudeb Bagchi and Avik Bagchi, father-son duo of Prayag Group who are behind a scam involving film city on 12,500 acre in West Midnapore district. It is rumoured that ruling party leaders may be under the scanner even in this case.
LHet’s just get it out there: Hollywood has milked the stuck-in-a-time-loop premise for all it’s worth. Whether through existential comedy (Groundhog Day), sci-fi actioner (Edge of Tomorrow) or mindbending thriller (Repeaters), it has been done, most likely as many times as was wise, and then some.
So don’t be surprised if you experience déjà vu while watching this adaptation of a femalecentric young adult novel.
Incidentally, the author (Lauren Oliver), scriptwriter (Maria Maggenti) and director (Ry Russo-Young) are also women.
The story revolves around a privileged student (Zoey Deutch), a self-absorbed teenager who is part of a mean-girls quartet that terrorises the lesspopular girls, particularly a misfit loner (Elena Kampouris) who emerges as a catalyst for the ensuing events. The bratty girlfriends then meet with a car accident. Inexplicably, our heroine reawakens the same morning only to relive that fateful day. The repeat scenario allows her time for introspection and a chance to amend her hateful ways.
Bill Condon Emma Watson, Dan Stevens
It’s sumptuously designed, has some catchy tunes and an A-list cast voicing anthropomorphic household appliances.
Still, Disney’s live-action remake of its 1991 animated feature is, by and large, underwhelming. Essentially a filigreed fantasy for millennials, Beauty and the Beast leaches the magic from the timeless fairytale.
In her latest incarnation, Beauty (Emma Watson) lives with her widowed father (oldtimer Kevin Kline; dour) in a poor, provincial village. A voracious reader (of Shakespeare, no less), she’s determined to ensure that uneducated children learn to read as well. Fate, however, intervenes and Beauty is held captive in the cavernous castle of a cursed prince-turned-Beast (Dan Stevens). Even the uninitiated will be able to guess the rest of the plot.
Most of the scenes set in the village are extremely tedious, including the relentless wooing of Beauty by a narcissistic bully (Luke Evans). It’s only when the action relocates to the castle that the viewer’s attention is held.
Director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) choreographs the musical numbers, including the showstopping ‘Be our guest’, with considerable gusto. The real spectacle is provided by the production design, courtesy Sarah Greenwood. There’s enchantment to spare in the presentation of the singing, dancing candelabra (Ewan McGregor), clock (Ian McKellen) and teapot (Emma Thompson, effervescent as ever). Unfortunately, the climactic storming of the castle is as unexciting as could be. And Watson is hopelessly miscast as the feisty heroine.
There’s little that’s truly original in this Beauty and the Beast.