Classifieds

It is a landmark 100th film for Balakrishna, by number and quality too. ‘ Yuddhalu enduku jarugutayi ?’ a young prince Satakarni asks his mother Gautami Balasiri as he awaits his father’s return at the Satavahana palace. ‘ Adhikaram kosam ’, she says and Satakarni replies ‘ Desam ekamaite yuddhalundavu kada ’'. Only a capable ruler can do that, she asserts and from thereon Satakarni transforms into a man who thinks about his nation, where there’s peace and unity.

A procedural with solid writing, first-rate filmmaking It’s night. It’s raining. A mystery man steps out of a car. He’s outside a house. Inside, we see a man, a woman. They’re in an embrace. The man enters the house. A lifetime of movie-watching tells us that he is a psycho killer, that he’s going to leave behind a couple of corpses, and that the rest of the film –  Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru  – will detail the hunt for this man and the twisted reason for his crimes. But writer-director Karthick Naren (who’s 22!) has other ideas. The first line of dialogue we hear is “Life can be unpredictable.” So can this film. When a cop tells a father his son is dead, we brace ourselves for the inevitable reaction shot.  Shock! Rage! Grief!  What we get, instead, is a shot of the poor, numbed man shuffling out of the police station – in other words, we go forward in time. But the soundtrack echoes his words that were uttered earlier, when he felt shock, rage, grief – in o...

Bairavaa , written and directed by Bharathan, has a few things – just a few things – that work (at least in the sense of interesting concepts that deserved far better execution). A fight scene where Bairavaa (Vijay) is pelted with packets of petrol. A scene where a disgustingly misogynistic teacher is taught a lesson. A courtroom episode where Bairavaa launches into a monologue about the System. (It’s the only time Vijay looks invested in the proceedings.)

For over a decade now, the Central police forces deployed in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism have been demanding a special allowance, considering the high-risk duties they perform in these areas. The demand is yet to be fulfilled despite announcements made by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The government, however, convened a meeting on the various allowances for the jawans, after two videos on the conditions of para-military personnel went viral on social media in short succession. On Thursday, a video shot by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan went viral. In it, he complains about the abysmal facilities provided to the force as compared to the Army.The first video, which went viral on Tuesday and was posted by a BSF constable, alleged that troops were served bad food, and some times they had to go on an “empty stomach.” Since the NDA came to power, Mr. Singh has on multiple occasions announced that a “risk allowance” would be granted to Central Armed ...