Latest news with #Girija
The Hindu
25-05-2025
- Climate
- The Hindu
Heavy rain continues to pound Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts
A woman suffered burns in a lightning strike in Byndoor taluk of Udupi district, and four persons were injured after a tree branch fell on a car they were travelling in, in Dakshina Kannada district, as heavy rains continue to pound the two districts on Sunday. In the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. on Sunday, the Dakshina Kannada district recorded an average of 74.8 mm of rainfall, while the Udupi district recorded 76.1 mm. As the southwest monsoon is advancing to cover more parts of Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra, a red alert has been issued in light of the forecast of heavy to very heavy rains with sustained winds until May 29 in a few places of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada districts. In light of the forecast, In-charge Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K. Anandh has requisitioned the services of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF). In a virtual meeting to assess damage due to heavy rains on Sunday, Dr. Anandh said one team of NDRF will be posted in Puttur. A centre will be placed in Mangaluru and Kukke Subrahmanya to teach SDRF. Dr. Anandh directed all incident commanders appointed to different places to be on alert and ensure no loss of lives during the period. Mangaloreans faced the brunt of heavy rains on Sunday, with vehicle movement affected across the busy Pumpwell Circle following waterlogging. Despite the Mangaluru Corporation taking corrective steps, water overflowed from storm-water drains and flooded the circle, which is below the Pumpwell flyover. Waterlogged service roads of the Pumpwell flyover. The driver of a car, two women and a child were injured after a huge portion of a roadside tree fell on the car near Ichalampady on the Dharmastala-Subrahmanya State Highway. A woman was injured following the collapse of a portion of the compound wall near the Mahalingeshwara Temple arch in Puttur. Several houses in Sajipa Munnoru in Bantwal taluk in Dakshina Kannada are waterlogged. A portion of the compound wall of St. Ann's School and an under-construction house in Kallaje of Kadeshwalya village, both in Mangaluru, collapsed. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) personnel laid heavy concrete slabs to stabilise the slope of an embankment in Tenkamijar, near Mangaluru. A huge portion of a tree fell in a vacant area in Jeppu Majila in Mangaluru. In Udupi district, one Girija suffered burns following lightning when she was in her house in Shiroor in Byndoor taluk on Sunday. An official release from the Udupi district administration said a total of 20 houses suffered partial damage in Kundapura, Byndoor, Karkala, Kapu, and Udupi taluks.
United News of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- United News of India
New India Assurance reports record Rs 43,618 cr GWP in FY25
Mumbai, May 19 (UNI) The New India Assurance Company Ltd (NIACL), India's largest general insurer by market share, on Monday announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, registering an all-time high Gross Written Premium (GWP) alongside notable operational improvements. The company's GWP rose by 3.86 percent to Rs 43,618 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 41,996 crore in the previous fiscal year. NIACL maintained its leadership position with a market share of 12.6 percent in the general insurance sector. Operational efficiencies contributed to a reduction in the combined ratio from 120 percent in FY24 to 117 percent in FY25. The solvency ratio strengthened to 1.91 times as of March 31, 2025, up from 1.81 times a year earlier, reflecting enhanced financial stability. Girija Subramanian, Chairman and Managing Director, said, "It gives me great pleasure to report NIACL's record Gross Written Premium of Rs 43,618 crore in FY25 despite challenging market conditions. Our focus on profitable growth has yielded results, with underwriting losses reduced by 11 percent due to a lower claim ratio and significant cost optimisation. The combined ratio improved from 119.88 percent to 116.78 percent year-on-year." She added, "While the Motor Third Party segment's elevated loss ratio restrained further improvement due to delayed premium revisions, NIACL's continued market leadership and improved solvency underscore our robust position. The balance sheet remains strong with assets under management exceeding Rs 98,000 crore. Provisions amounting to Rs 802 crore for legacy reinsurance balances impacted net profit and ROE, but adjusted results show excellent year-on-year performance." The company reported a net profit of Rs 988 crore in FY25, down by 12.86 percent from Rs 1,129 crore in FY24, primarily due to the legacy provisions. Girija concluded, "In FY26, we will focus on enhancing profitability and launching innovative products targeting retail and MSME segments to sustain growth and value creation for stakeholders." UNI BDN SS
Indian Express
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Maaman movie review: It's 2025, but family dramas continue to slap women back into ‘place'
Maaman movie review: Men are such 'cute' creatures, aren't they? They're at their cutest when apologising; you know, after having ignored the women in their lives for the longest time, disregarding their feelings, prioritising everyone and everything else, manipulating and gaslighting them whenever they raise questions, and even embarrassing or harassing them in public. What truly elevates the 'cuteness' is the tagline that often accompanies their apology, '(Regardless of being a complete douche), I have nothing but love for you.' Arey wah! Who wouldn't want the chance to forgive such 'cuties' — the very ones who've long served as the safety net for Indian filmmakers specialising in family dramas? And now, there's a new 'cutie' in town, Inba (Soori), the 'hero' of Maaman, director Prasanth Pandiyaraj's spin on the age-old misogynistic template that once helped many celebrated makers churn out massive blockbusters. What's even more 'funny' is that just as the condition of women in these movies remains unchanged, so too does the way the stories are envisioned and written. For Inba, his family, particularly his sister Girija (Swasika), means everything. Though he would fetch her the moon if she asked for it, life has been anything but happy for Girija as she and her husband Ravi (Baba Bhaskar) have been unable to conceive a child despite many years of marriage. Finally, to everyone's elation, Girija becomes pregnant, and no one is happier than Inba, who had been waiting his whole life to embrace the role of maaman (uncle). Meanwhile, during hospital visits with his sister, Inba falls in love with Dr Rekha (Aishwarya Lekshmi), and she reciprocates his feelings. With the arrival of Nilan (Prageeth Sivan), Inba is over the moon, and the bond he shares with the child grows with each passing day, and they can't even sleep without each other. Five years down the line, Inba and Rekha tie the knot. However, his bond with Nilan that everyone, including Rekha, found adorable earlier soon becomes a problem as the boy remains inseparable from Inba even after the latter's wedding and unintentionally denies the newlyweds their much-needed time together. To Inba, the child is his entire world, and he's willing to sacrifice anything for him. This attitude sparks minor arguments between the couple, gradually escalating into serious rifts and eventually, full-blown family feuds, especially between Girija and Rekha. With no other option, Inba is forced to move to Madurai with Rekha. But how can Inba and Nilan ever truly stay apart? Although the initial scenes, showing Girija being emotionally tortured by others for not embracing motherhood and Inba serving as her emotional anchor, makes one feel that the film might be compassionate towards women, Maaman quickly reveals its true stance; it too believes that a woman's worth is defined by the roles she plays in life; as a daughter, wife, sister, mother et al. Both Girija and her mother (Geetha Kailasam) are the best examples to understand the movie's flawed depiction of women as they seldom rise above being Inba's sister or mother, or Nilan's mother or grandmother, respectively. Their lives revolve entirely around Inba and Nilan, their bond and its future, leaving the women with no room to express personal joys or sorrows. It's as if they have no existence outside these two male figures. Simultaneously, from very early on, Maaman makes it clear that it's not just riding an outdated, misogynistic narrative, but that it's also presented in a stylistically obsolete manner, as if Prasanth is either unaware or dismissive of the evolution in visual storytelling and cinematic grammar. From the very first sequence, the writer-director wastes no time in establishing that the film is a full-blown melodrama, with a heavy-handed emotional tone and dialogues infused into every moment. In fact, Prasanth seems intent on overloading even already emotional scenes with extra layers of sentimentality, almost as if to ensure that viewers are overwhelmed by emotion and don't notice the blandness in the script, based on a story by Soori himself, and the many age-old tropes at play. While Indian family dramas have long vilified women who demand emotional availability from their husbands — as seen in films like director Rajasenan's Njangal Santhushtaranu (1999) and Priyadarshan's Mithunam (1993) — as they mostly prioritise their families even after marriage, taking their wives for granted, Maaman cleverly sidesteps that direct portrayal. Although Rekha isn't shown as pure evil, she endures the harshest treatment in the film, both emotionally and physically. A particularly jarring moment shows a pregnant Rekha being slapped by Inba – who is frequently referred to as saami (god) by others – in public for questioning his continued overt affection for his relatives, overlooking her and their expected child. Nonetheless, writer-director Prasanth Pandiyaraj does not forget to include performative, tokenistic lines, delivered by the village elder Singarayar (Rajkiran), that compare wives to gods and advocate for treating them with the same respect as one's mother. To be frank, though, Inba has always treated Rekha like he treats his mother, as a volunteer caregiver. And yet, after all that's happened, once Inba apologises by touching her feet, Rekha melts because she can't bear to see him in that position; or rather, she doesn't melt, Prasanth makes her. To be honest, I'm waiting for the day when movie characters come to life and I'm certain that Dr Rekha would have a few sharp questions for Prasanth for writing her so subservient. She's a doctor, for crying out loud. From forgettable moments (especially since they all feel like déjà vu) to one-dimensional characters who only know how to scream their emotions rather than express them naturally, Maaman unfolds strictly according to the writer-director's will and never organically. Throughout the narrative, there are several points where it's painfully obvious that Prasanth had no clear idea of what to do next. At such instances, Nilan is made to go ballistic, throwing tantrums demanding Inba's presence. And when Prasanth feels Nilan has been overused in recent scenes, the emotional baton is passed to Girija, who either fumes (usually at Nilan) or performs some overly dramatic act, just to stretch the story beyond the 150-minute mark. When even that creative well runs dry, what better fallback than a good old-fashioned accident to push the plot forward? Prasanth, unsurprisingly, doesn't hesitate to pull that trick also out of his sleeve. Nonetheless, despite their characters being poorly written, it's the female actors, particularly Swasika, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Geetha Kailasam, who keep the film afloat with compelling performances. While Geetha's vast potential — as seen in Angammal — remains largely untapped, she still manages to steal the show whenever given more than a couple of seconds on screen. Especially striking are her scenes with Swasika, and during their quarrels, in particular, the two clearly challenge each other to elevate their performances. Despite poor dubbing and even poorer dialogues, Aishwarya Lekshmi also manages to leave a lasting impression, something she hasn't quite been able to do with her recent roles in Malayalam films. Also Read | Lovely movie review: Stellar visuals can't save Dileesh Karunakaran and Mathew Thomas' thinly written 3D fantasy Considering Soori has delivered stronger performances before, his portrayal of Inba is merely average. However, his on-screen chemistry with Aishwarya is undeniably endearing, not only in their cosy, lovey-dovey moments but even in more serious scenes. Maaman, in fact, shows that the makers missed a golden opportunity to create a full-fledged romantic film with the two. While Soori's dynamic with Swasika also lands well, the bond between Inba and Nilan feels forced and contrived. If not for the dialogues, their connection would hardly register as genuine. On the technical front, the only aspect that deserves genuine praise is the music by Hesham Abdul Wahab. Even so, when compared to his previous work, Maaman feels like a step back. Maaman movie cast: Soori, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Swasika Maaman movie director: Prasanth Pandiyaraj Maaman movie rating: 1.5 stars Anandu Suresh is a Senior sub-editor at Indian Express Online. He specialises in Malayalam cinema, but doesn't limit himself to it and explores various aspects of the art form. He also pens a column titled Cinema Anatomy, where he delves extensively into the diverse layers and dimensions of cinema, aiming to uncover deeper meanings and foster continuous discourse. Anandu previously worked with The New Indian Express' news desk in Hyderabad, Telangana. You can follow him on Twitter @anandu_suresh_ and write (or send movie recommendations) to him at ... Read More
