"Relooted": South African Game Reclaims Stolen Artefacts From Western Museums
"Relooted": South African Game Reclaims Stolen Artefacts From Western Museums | Firstpost Africa
A new South African video game titled Relooted is turning heads by letting players reclaim stolen African artefacts from Western museums. Created by studio Nyamakop, the game is a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer set in a futuristic world where African heroes pull off digital heists to recover real-world treasures like the Benin Bronzes and Kenya's sacred Ngadji drum. Unveiled at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, the game has struck a chord with Africans and the diaspora. Developers say it's not about promoting theft, but about reclaiming history, sparking conversations, and giving Africa the power to tell its own story.
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NDTV
5 hours ago
- NDTV
War 2 Review: Hrithik Roshan And Jr NTR Fight For India On World Tour In Sholay Lite
Watching War 2 just a day ahead of Sholay 's 50th release anniversary felt very timely. Below all its layers of the "curry" Western genre, story of settling scores, and justice, Sholay was also a story of friendship between Jai and Veeru, played by the biggest stars of the late 1970s, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. Their dosti was to die for, literally. In War 2, we have Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR, the today's A-listers representing the North and the South cinemas, play frenemies Kabir and Vikram. A unique but perfect picture of national integration, on paper. Hrithik's Major Kabir Dhaliwal, who is RAW's perfect warrior, returns in a fitter, more ferocious avatar in this sequel, with Jr NTR ably lending him a hand in all the heavy lifting as fellow intelligence officer Vikram Chelapathy AKA Raghu, who is almost like Kabir and yet nothing like him. Turns out that they are childhood friends from a Mumbai slum. In the film, they get a very Slumdog Millionaire -ish flasback, especially with the trains. Streetsmart Raghu has always been a survivor who wants to be numero uno in all walks of life, while Kabir is a gentry wala who after befalling bad times finds a mentor in Raghu who teaches him how to live on the streets and, most importantly, fight to survive. Years after Kabir "deserts" Raghu for a better shot at life under Colonel Luthra's guidance, they fight each other in a giant ice cave in Davos, the seat of the World Economic Forum, while an attempt is made on the life of the Prime Minister of India. An almost fatally wounded Raghu professes his love for Kabir, " Tere baad main kisi ka nahin ho saka Tu Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) ka aur desh ka ho gaya". War 2 sees Hrithik and Jr NTR aim for a Sholay -like bromance if it were set in the Yash Raj Films's Spy Universe and if Jai and Veeru were frenemies, but end up starring in a slog of a film at a close 3-hour runtime. This sequel to War, directed by Ayan Mukerji, takes the viewers on globetrotting journey to at least 10 countries, stuffing episodes from the six of them in the post credits scene. The director serves a way too long follow-up to 2019's War to do justice to the stardom of Hrithik and Jr NTR. The story, by YRF head Aditya Chopra, actually begins when Colonel Luthra asks Kabir to cross over to the dark side and find who all are behind the Kali cartel, an organisation that rewrites the bhagya of countries and governments across the world and disses democracy. Kabir goes rogue and is now a freelancer who only has loyalties tied to money. Come in a bare-chested Vikram, a formidable foe with a six-pack abs to Kabir, who drops from a plane to lead an attack on a Somalian pirate gang. He is the "best", they say. Jr NTR gets to showcase some shades of grey, no matter how unnecessary. Raghu's "I-me-myself" attitude goes out of the window when he realises that his childhood friend never really left his corner. He now chooses to fling himself back to "the right side of the wall" in this war. Then there is Kiara Advani playing the role of Wing Commander Kavya Luthra of Sky Force India (what is that?) and the daughter of Colonel Luthra. She receives a Vayuveer medal for her service and knows its always 'India First for dad'. Kiara gets a few moments in the sun, and they are not just by the swimming pool in the lime green bikini, whose sequence is just as long as what one saw in the music video of Aavan Jaavan. 'Besides their stardom and a lot of green screen, Ayan bets on the beautiful eyes of his three leads. Oh, those three pairs of eyes do a lot of breathe some life into War 2. And, the way Hrithik looks at that CGI wolf... Only he can make you believe that the CGI wolf is real and that now he is its master. We get that much-awaited dance-off between Hrithik and Jr NTR with Janaabe Ali, which pales in comparison with the RRR star's Naatu Naatu with Ram Charan. Just before Janaabe Ali plays, Kabir and Vikram meet for a drink in Spain. The entire scene is a very obvious hat-tip to the banner's Dhoom 2, the sequence with Hrithik's Aryan and Abhishek Bachchan's Jai meeting up as chor and police. There are references to Zanjeer and The Dark Knight and those are just there too. It would also be interesting to know why the makers decided to place a key ambush scene with Hrithik and Kiara in the basement parking lot of Noida's The Great India Place, notwithstanding the product placement. Any war is about choice. Decisions are made, sides are chosen. Films are also about choice. Wish War 2 makers had thought long and hard about what they want to say and why. Maybe choose to kill a prominent character. At least then, we'd go home with some sympathies for the dead character, just like Jai from Sholay.
Hindustan Times
6 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Gaza's young musicians sing and play in the ruins of war
* Gaza's young musicians sing and play in the ruins of war Photo essay: By Dawoud Abu Alkas GAZA CITY, - A boy's lilting song filled the tent in Gaza City, above an instrumental melody and backing singers' quiet harmonies, soft music that floated into streets these days more attuned to the deadly beat of bombs and bullets. The young students were taking part in a lesson given on August 4 by teachers from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, who have continued classes from displacement camps and shattered buildings even after Israel's bombardments forced them to abandon the school's main building in the city. "When I play I feel like I'm flying away," said Rifan al-Qassas, 15, who started learning the oud, an Arab lute, when she was nine. She hopes to one day play abroad. "Music gives me hope and eases my fear," she said. Al-Qassas hopes to one day play abroad, she said during a weekend class at the heavily shelled Gaza College, a school in Gaza City. Israel's military again pounded parts of the city on August 12, with more than 120 people killed over the past few days, Gazan health authorities say. The conservatory was founded in the West Bank and had been a cultural lifeline for Gaza ever since it opened a branch there 13 years ago, teaching classical music along with popular genres, until Israel launched its war on the Mediterranean enclave in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. Before the fighting, Israel sometimes granted the best students exit permits to travel outside Gaza to play in the Palestine Youth Orchestra, the conservatory's touring ensemble. Others performed inside Gaza, giving concerts in both Arabic and Western traditions. After 22 months of bombardment, some of the students are now dead, said Suhail Khoury, the conservatory's president, including 14-year-old violinist Lubna Alyaan, killed along with her family early in the war. The school's old home lies in ruins, according to a video released in January by a teacher. Walls had collapsed and rooms were littered with debris. A grand piano had disappeared. Reuters asked the Israeli military about the damage. The military declined to comment without more details, which Reuters could not establish. During last week's session, over a dozen students gathered under the tent's rustling plastic sheets to practice on instruments carefully preserved through the war and to join together in song and music. "No fig leaf will wither inside us," the boy sang, a line from a popular lament about Palestinian loss through generations of displacement since the 1948 creation of Israel. Three female students practised the song Greensleeves on guitar outside the tent, while another group of boys were tapping out rhythms on Middle Eastern hand drums. Few instruments have survived the fighting, said Fouad Khader, who coordinates the revived classes for the conservatory. Teachers have bought some from other displaced people for the students to use. But some of these have been smashed during bombardment, he said. Instructors have experimented with making their own percussion instruments from empty cans and containers to train children, Khader said. A BROAD SMILE Early last year, Ahmed Abu Amsha, a guitar and violin teacher with a big beard and a broad smile, was among the first of the conservatory's scattered teachers and students who began offering classes again, playing guitar in the evenings among the tents of displaced people in the south of Gaza, where much of the 2.1 million population had been forced to move by Israeli evacuation orders and bombing. Then, after a ceasefire began in January, Abu Amsha, 43, was among the tens of thousands of people who moved back north to Gaza City, much of which has been flattened by Israeli bombing. For the past six months, he has been living and working in the city's central district, along with colleagues teaching oud, guitar, hand drums and the ney, a reed flute, to students able to reach them in the tents or shell-pocked buildings of Gaza College. They also go into kindergartens for sessions with small children. Teachers are also offering music lessons in southern and central Gaza with 12 musicians and three singing tutors instructing nearly 600 students across the enclave in June, the conservatory said. Abu Amsha said teachers and parents of students were currently "deeply concerned" about being uprooted again after the Israeli cabinet's August 8 decision to take control of Gaza City. Israel has not said when it will launch the new offensive. HUNGER AND FATIGUE Outside the music teachers' tent, Gaza City lay in a mass of crumbling concrete, nearly all residents crammed into shelters or camps with hardly any food, clean water or medical aid. The students and teachers say they have to overcome their weakness from food shortages to attend the classes. Britain, Canada, Australia and several of their European allies said on August 12 that "famine was unfolding before our eyes" in Gaza. Israel disputes malnutrition figures for the Hamas-run enclave. Sarah al-Suwairki, 20, said sometimes hunger and tiredness mean she cannot manage the short walk to her two music classes each week, but she loves learning the guitar. "I love discovering new genres, but more specifically rock. I am very into rock," she said. Palestinian health authorities say Israel's military campaign has killed more than 61,000 people, including more than 1,400 going to aid points to get food. Israel says Hamas is responsible for the suffering after it started the war, the latest in decades of conflict, with the October 2023 attack from Gaza when its gunmen killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. MUSIC THERY In a surviving upstairs room at Gaza College, the walls pocked with shrapnel scars, the windows blown out, three girls and a boy sit for a guitar class. Their teacher Mohammed Abu Mahadi, 32, said he thought music could help heal Gazans psychologically from the pain of bombardments, loss and shortages. "What I do here is make children happy from music because it is one of the best ways for expressing feelings," he said. Elizabeth Coombes, who directs a music therapy programme at Britain's University of South Wales and has done research with Palestinians in the West Bank, also said the project could help young people deal with trauma and stress and strengthen their sense of belonging. "For children who have been very badly traumatised or living in conflict zones, the properties of music itself can really help and support people," she said. Ismail Daoud, 45, who teaches the oud, said the war had stripped people of their creativity and imagination, their lives reduced to securing basics like food and water. Returning to art was an escape and a reminder of a larger humanity. "The instrument represents the soul of the player, it represents his companion, his entity and his friend," he said. "Music is a glimmer of hope that all our children and people hold onto in darkness," he said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
9 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Independence Day 2025: Here's how Indian fashion has evolved through the decades
Think of Indian fashion as a living, breathing storybook. Every decade adds a new chapter, blending ancient weaves with modern cuts, and timeless elegance with fearless twists. From the handspun khadi that became the fabric of our freedom struggle, to the dazzling Bollywood chiffon sarees that defined decades, to today's bold Indo-Western fusion that's just as comfortable at a Diwali party as it is on a coffee run, our country's style story has been a fascinating catwalk through time. Independence Day 2025: Here's how Indian fashion has evolved through the decades(AI Generated) As we mark Independence Day 2025, it's worth celebrating not just the freedom we won, but the freedom we now have to mix, match, and reimagine our wardrobes. The evolution of Indian fashion through the decades: The 1940s–50s: Khadi, sarees and Swadeshi pride Post-independence India wore its patriotism on its sleeve. Khadi was a full-fledged movement. Sarees in muted tones, crisp cotton kurtas, and handloom textiles became symbols of self-reliance and unity. Fashion was functional, dignified, and steeped in cultural pride. The 1960s–70s: Retro glam and Bollywood magic Think chiffon sarees à la Mumtaz, bouffant hairstyles, and winged eyeliner. This was the era where Bollywood began dictating trends, and women experimented with bold prints, sleeveless blouses, and colourful salwar suits. Men's style saw flared trousers, wide collars, and the occasional filmy scarf. It was fashion with a cinematic vibe. The 1980s: Power dressing meets Desi drama Shoulder pads, oversized sunglasses, and glitzy fabrics made their way into Indian wardrobes. Thanks to Doordarshan serials and disco hits, sequins and metallics entered the mainstream. The saree still reigned supreme for formal occasions, but now it came in shiny synthetics with bold borders. The 1990s: Cable TV and global influences Satellite television opened the floodgates to Western fashion. Denim jackets, crop tops, and high-waist jeans began sharing space with salwar-kameez sets. Bollywood stars like Madhuri Dixit and Shah Rukh Khan popularised everything from embroidered lehengas to leather jackets. The 2000s: Bling, bling, and more bling Karan Johar movies, item songs, and reality TV brought shimmer and sparkle into everyday life. Low-rise jeans, bedazzled tees, and halter-neck blouses were everywhere. Bridal wear went all-out with heavy embroidery, sequins, and Swarovski crystals. 'More is more' was the fashion mantra. The 2010s: The rise of the influencer era Social media changed everything. Minimalism made a comeback with pastel lehengas, handloom sarees, and bohemian chic kurtas. High-street brands blended with homegrown designers, and sustainable fashion began gaining traction. Celebrities and influencers set trends in real time and the fashion cycle sped up. The 2020s: Comfort, sustainability and cultural revival Today's Indian fashion celebrates versatility. From oversized kurtas paired with sneakers to gender-neutral bandhgalas, the lines between traditional and contemporary have blurred. Sustainability is now the norm. There's also a renewed pride in regional crafts such as Banarasi brocades, Phulkari embroidery, and Ajrakh prints making it to global runways. Similar stories for you: Hemant Sagar from Genes Lecoanet Hemant on couture, confidence and clothing 7 Must-have wardrobe staples for plus-size women in 2025: Styling tips and more 7 Handbag trends to follow in 2025: The arm candy upgrade your wardrobe deserves Disclaimer: At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has an affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. We shall not be liable for any claim under applicable laws, including but not limited to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, with respect to the products. The products listed in this article are in no particular order of priority.
