Dreadful sense of deja vu
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 acci- dent. 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. Foundering under the weight of its faux-profundity, Before I Fall is extremely forgettable. RASHID IRANI
Govinda is back, as a hero, in a film titled Aa Gaya Hero — and it’s so bad, it’s almost good. Inspector Ravindra Verma (Govinda, still stuck in the ’90s) is after a terrorist who cross-dresses and calls himself ‘a nature’. His weird, wolf-like laugh is the only clue available, and Verma hopes to hear that again. In the course of his pursuit, he will also jump off cliffs, dance his heart out, and deliver lines like: “Naam poonchne se pehle diaper toh pehan le. Saaf kya tera baap karega?”
The baddies get such ‘dialogues’ too. One, named Vikash Bhairav, brother to Bhujang Bhairav, says to a college student: “Maine tujhe pyaar kiya aur tune mujhe dhokha diya. Ab toh tera rape karna padega.”
Literally nothing connects. It’s like everyone — from Govinda to baddies Ashutosh Rana, Makarand Deshpande and Surendra Pal — is on their own personalised tangent.
Fatigue is visible on Govinda’s face, still he dances on. One of the songs goes, ‘Sadde naal ban jaata hai loser bhi achiever, sadda toh hai lohe da liver.’ The visual effects are so tacky, they remind you of the days of Shaktimaan. It’s really hard to understand why Govinda would want to do this film. It’s sad to have not even half a star to offer to his comeback. But there it is, folks. First day, first show, and even the ushers were yawning.
But despite her belligerent tone, the probe might also alter equations in Parliament where the Trinamool is likely to be more supportive of the government’s legislative agenda.
The Narada sting operation was aired just a fortnight before the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections and featured a dozen Trinamool leaders purportedly accepting cash from the representative of a fictitious company. Seven Lok Sabha MPs of the party, three top state ministers and the mayor of Kolkata were seen as taking money on behalf of the party.
The timing of the ‘expose’ triggered a torrent of allegations from Mamata Banerjee who described it as a conspiracy. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory has ruled that the videos were genuine.
But despite the criticism, Mamata won a sweeping victory in the assembly elections that followed. The Trinamool Congress is the fourth-largest party in the Lok Sabha and has a sizeable presence in the Rajya Sabha.
The Trinamool is already facing embarrassment over the imprisonment of two Lok Sabha MPs, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul in connection with the Rose Valley scam that involves about Rs 15,000 crore -six times larger than the Saradha scandal of 2013.
The Narada scam may see the CBI taking a few more MPs in custody, thereby depleting the Trinamool’s strength in Lok Sabha. The development also comes amid renewed Opposition efforts to stitch a pact against the BJP. Although Banerjee is personally not involved in any of the scam allegations, her image may also be affected as her close lieutenants have come under the CBI scanner.
The Mamata Banerjee government struck back at the CEO of naradanews.com, Mathew Samuel. Kolkata Police slapped criminal charges against him and summoned him for interrogation. But the court ruled that the police could not take steps against him as the matter was being heard.
The extent of the Narada sting allegations is far lower than Rose Valley or Saradha scandals, running into just a few lakhs in bribe offered. Banerjee also scoffed at this on Friday, saying “Such meagre amounts as Rs 1 lakh or 2 lakh do not matter at all. Look at UP and find out how much was spent there,” she said.
But unlike previous allegations, the sting purportedly captured top leaders and ministers accepting bribe on video, charges that might prove more difficult for the Trinamool Congress to fight off.
The state’s new chief minister is likely to be announced on Saturday.
Top contender Keshav Prasad Maurya is recuperating at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi following a bout of high fever and his blood pressure shot up.
The 56-year-old Rawat, known to be close to BJP chief Amit Shah, emerged as the frontrunner in Uttarakhand from a pool of at least six names.
He was elected leader of the BJP legislative party on Friday, which cleared the way for him to become the ninth chief minister of the young state.
The swearing-in will be in Dehradun on Saturday afternoon in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Shah.
“I have a single point agenda, which is development … I will ensure 100% to offer better services to the people,” he said in an interview to Hindustan Times.
Rawat’s appointment is viewed as a sign of the RSS’s clout in the Centre and BJPruled state governments. He and two others before him — Prime Minister Modi held the position of Gujarat CM for four terms and Manoharlal Khattar took over the Haryana top job in 2014 — were full-time workers of the RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor.
Rawat’s immediate task will be to select his council from more than four dozen claimants for ministerial berths. Besides him, the Uttarakhand cabinet can have no more than 11 ministers.
“All 57 candidates who won the assembly elections belong to the BJP. Ours is a cadre-based party and no decision is taken alone. Distribution of portfolios too will be done with due consent of the legislators and national party leaders,” he said.
Rawat, a Thakur, was one of Shah’s three deputies in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP swept the 2014 parliamentary elections. He is also credited with the BJP’s win in Jharkhand.
Born into a soldier’s family in Khaira-sain, a mountain village 60km from Pauri, he took an unconventional step to join politics after his graduation. “My father wanted me to take up a career in the army but I chose politics,” he said.
Sources said when the clerics went to Lahore airport to take a flight to Karachi on March 15, Nazim Ali Nizami was detained while Asif Nizami was allowed to board the aircraft. Though Asif Nizami reached Karachi, his rel- atives were unable to trace him at the airport, the sources added.
The clerics also shared photos with their relatives on WhatsApp that apparently showed them at the Data Darbar shrine.
In a series of tweets, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the matter had been taken up with the Pakistan government, which had been asked to give an update on the whereabouts of the clerics.
However, Swaraj said both clerics went missing after arriving in Karachi.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria told the media that an Indian request for assistance for recovering the clerics had been received. He said this request had been forwarded to the interior ministry, which is “actively pursuing the matter”.
Asif Nizami’s family said the clerics left for Pakistan on March 6 and had their return flight scheduled on Thursday, which they failed to make. Amir, the son of Asif Nizami, said his father was visiting Pakistan after 35 years and had last spoken to the family at 4 pm on Wednesday.
They had planned to travel to Karachi to meet Asif Nizami’s sister.
“A home ministry official visited us today (Friday) and told us the government is following the matter and taking it up seriously,” Amir said.
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER SUSHMA SWARAJ SAID THE MATTER HAD BEEN TAKEN UP WITH THE PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAD BEEN ASKED TO GIVE AN UPDATE ON THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE CLERICS