PASSPORTS TO BE IN HINDI TOO; FEE WAIVER FOR KIDS, ELDERLY

more screen space and better handling, but Salman’s superstardom comes in the way. He plays Tubelight with the swagger his fans love.

The supporting cast tries but fails to deliver ‘cute-innocent’ dialogues, with Om Puri as the saving grace as the wise old Banney Miyan. Terrific actors like Zeeshan Ayyub and Yashpal Sharma accommodate Salman’s on-screen charisma. Unfortunately, they don’t get better playtime.

Tubelight is s no Hacksaw Ridge, but it delivers its message with force. The director emerges from the shadows of a superstar, in fact, two. Shah Rukh Khan also makes an appearance, and looks sure about his brand of cinema.

Passports would now be in both Hindi and English, instead of just English, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Friday.

In changes aimed at easing the process of getting a passport, the minister also announced 10% reduction in passport fee for applicants who are under eight and over 60 years of age and said ration cards could be submitted while applying for tatkal passports.

Giving the option of submitting submit a ration card would greatly help people in rural areas who do not have a PAN card. Personal details in passports are now printed only in English and Swaraj said she had received several complaints about it.

“Passports should at least be bilingual. All Arab countries have their passport in Arabic, Germany makes it in German and Russia makes it in Russian. Why can’t we make it Hindi? Now, we have given an order to Nashik Printing Press that passports should be (printed) in Hindi as well. So you will receive passports in Hindi and English,” Swaraj said at an event to mark 50 years of the Passport Act, 1967.

The postal department released a commemorative stamp on the occasion. The event was attended by Communications Minister Manoj Sinha and Ministers of State in the External Affairs Ministry V K Singh and M J Akbar. Swaraj said there was a rise in the demand for passports for the elderly.

“There will be a 10 per cent reduction in passport fee for applicants who are under eight and over 60. And this will be applicable from tomorrow,” she announced.

During the Vedic era, she said, eight years was when children were admitted to a gurukul and vanasprartha (a retired life where time is dedicated to social service) falls in the 60-year age group. PTI