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India Today
14 hours ago
- General
- India Today
‘Eco-friendly bakra' for Id? What a Bhopal Hindu group's drive is all about
A Bhopal-based Hindu outfit that claims to represent Sanatan followers has prepared what it calls 'eco-friendly bakras' ahead of Bakrid and appealed to the Muslim community to 'sacrifice' these instead of living male Tiwari of the Sanskriti Bachao Manch told INDIA TODAY that Hindus are often reminded that their major festivals, such as Holi, Diwali and Ganesh Puja, add to environmental degradation. 'We have started using dry colours and organic gulal on Holi; we are using Ganesh idols made from eco-friendly material; and we have also reduced sound and air pollution by bursting fewer crackers on Diwali. We now appeal to the Muslim community to shun the sacrifice of animals and instead perform symbolic sacrifices,' said Tiwari, adding that the onus of being environment-friendly was on all 'eco-friendly bakra' being pitched is a life-size model of a goat. It is made of mud with hair plastered on it. How has the response to Sanskriti Bachao Manch's appeal been? Well, the 'eco-friendly bakras' have not found any takers yet in claimed he wanted to retail the models at half the cost price of Rs 2,000, the subsidy aimed at promoting the concept. When asked if he had the same advice for those Hindus who offer animal sacrifices, Tiwari said the practice of 'bali' (sacrifice) had waned and it was mostly being done symbolically using a pumpkin instead of an animal. 'We are even against meat shops and killings of any kind, including by Hindus,' he said. Tiwari has four 'eco-friendly bakra' models in his inventory, but said he could supply more at short notice if orders were placed. 'I also appeal to Hindus not to sell goats on Id,' he to India Today Magazine
India Today
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why cinemagoers may be unforgiving of Rajkummar Rao's ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf'
Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) want to get married. Time won't allow them to. Funnily, it's running time which the makers struggle to move along in this comedy about Ranjan's tryst with time to reach his final plot is the least of problems for Bhool Chuk Maaf. In fact it's the only ingenious bit in the film. It's the characterisation of the lead hero, Ranjan, which makes this a hard pill to swallow. If one is to root for this guy's predicament, one's unable to because on paper there's not much appealing about him. His ambition is simple: get a government job so as to marry his sweetheart; the means to go about it are questionable and ultimately off-putting. It makes Titli's penchant for him all the more puzzling. Love does have mysterious ways, but surely idiocy isn't first 45 minutes the film trudges along with umpteen songs acting as disruptors to show the couple's attempt to find a sarkari naukri within a stipulated time. Once that hurdle is crossed, Ranjan eagerly awaiting his wedding day finds himself stuck in a swamp pit of time wherein the penultimate day before the wedding keeps repeating itself. Until Ranjan figures out the root of his problem, audiences have to endure the equally desperate attempts to induce Chuk Maaf is the kind of film where the decibel levels are always high—it's the misguided belief that the louder the delivery, the likelier the joke's ability to land. Rao does most of the heavy-lifting, but there's now something overly familiar and predictable about this small-town lover boy and gullible fool act. There's irritability at not being understood or believed; the one scene where he lets loose in a physical act, there's the quickfire delivery. Despite playing these familiar tropes, writer-director Karan Sharma struggles to hold the narrative There are brief moments of relief, especially when Ranjan has to make sense and resolve the trouble around reliving a day again and again. But Sharma can stretch the premise only for so long and is unable to delve into the harrowing emotional fallout of being trapped in a messy loop. By the time the last act arrives and the moral conundrum rises, setting up a preachy monologue to absolve the protagonist of his many fallibilities, it's too Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand writes that the most depraved type of human being is a man without a purpose. Bhool Chuk Maaf has good intent but lacks a clear purpose. And even when it finds one, the moral posturing is loaded and anodyne. 'Sahi ko chunna bahut mushkil hota hai,' says Sanjay Mishra's fixer in a lecture that touches on humanity, Bhagat Singh and doing the right thing. It isn't enough for Bhool Chuk Maaf is incredibly loud and extremely to India Today Magazine
India Today
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why Thug Life's biggest USP is Mani Ratnam, Kamal Haasan collaborating again
It's hard to believe it has taken 37 years for two stalwarts of Indian cinema to collaborate once again. Filmmaker Mani Ratnam and the multi-hyphenate Kamal Haasan join forces for Thug not the most obvious of titles to be associated with a film helmed by a 68-year-old (Ratnam) and 70-year-old (Haasan), but then Ratnam proclaimed at the Hindi trailer launch in Mumbai: 'We are Gen Z, so it works.' The title, he noted, was Haasan's suggestion and one he was happy to go they didn't delve into the reasons for the long interval since Nayakan, the mutual admiration was on full display. Haasan said the 'most exciting part of Thug Life was working with Mani—automatically all things happen', while Ratnam waxed eloquent about Haasan's cinematic abilities. 'He adds so much value to a scene; you see it grow in front of your eyes. As a director, you can take a backseat and see a scene grow.'Haasan is also the co-writer and co-producer of the film, which features Simbu, Trisha, Joju George, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan and Nasser. Ratnam described the film as an 'emotional drama within a world of crime'. With a soundtrack by A.R. Rahman and participation of the likes of Mahesh Manjrekar, Ali Fazal and Sanya Malhotra, the film (hitting screens on June 5) stands as the first of the big pan-India releases of Much of the chatter was centred around Ratnam and Haasan. For Trisha, who has worked separately with both, it was like returning to school. 'The anticipation of seeing them together, how would it be working with them, was exciting,' she said. 'They would speak with their eyes and are in total sync with each other. We all had to stop staring at them and do our work.'For Simbu, sharing screen space with Haasan, whom he equated to a 'screen guru' since childhood, was a 'special feeling'. 'I was a little nervous at the beginning, but then they (Ratnam and Haasan) make you comfortable,' he said. About his character, who going by the trailer is at crossroads with Haasan's, he said: 'He has a kind of pain. It is very important to maintain.'Action set pieces high on testosterone and screams dominated the trailer, but Ratnam emphasised on the need for an 'emotional punch'. 'Masters like Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa have told us that action need not be less lyrical. That sets a bar,' he was some nostalgia-tripping too as Haasan recalled their journey—from he and Ratnam living in the same area and being part of a friend circle that would discuss cinema to shooting Nayakan in Colaba in then Bombay and meeting Ramesh Sippy on that the failure of Indian 2, Haasan would be hoping that Thug Life is a course correction and return to form. Who better than his friend and acclaimed filmmaker Ratnam to help him fulfil that objective?Subscribe to India Today Magazine
India Today
21-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
As bullet train project hits milestone, why Maharashtra must catch up with Gujarat
India's first-ever bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has reached a crucial milestone: 300 km of the viaduct—the elevated sections that will carry the high-speed line—has been completed. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw called it a big push to the 508-km-long corridor, which has been ailing as work in Maharashtra lags much behind that in here on, it's a race against time to open the first, limited stretch in Gujarat sometime next year. The viaduct stretch was completed with a 40 m full span launched from Surat. The largest portion of that—some 257 km—has been constructed with the Full Span Launching Method (FSLM), which is many times faster than traditional construction methods. Another 42.6 km involves SBS (steel building solutions) and PSC (pre-stressed concrete) bridges and segments at station difference between Gujarat and Maharashtra is still glaring. Out of Gujarat's share of 352 km, casting of girders to a tune of 100 per cent and launching of over 299 km has been done. In Maharashtra, which is the only state where the train line extends 156 km, some 51 km of foundations and 36.68 km of piersare ready. While piling, earthwork for the underground BKC station in Mumbai has reportedly been completed, girder work has not the 12 stations, eight are in Gujarat: Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. All have had foundations finished; three are being prepared for finishingtouches. The four Mumbai stations—BKC, Thane, Virar and Boisar—are yetto witness the foundation work as well. The project is also serving as a testing ground for local engineering capabilities. Most of the equipment, such as straddle carriers, launching and bridge gantries, and girder transporters have been designed and built in India, in accordance with the government's Make in India push. Twenty-seven casting yards have been established, and steel bridge components are being produced in workshops from Gujarat to West address issues related to noise, over 300,000 sound barriers have been erected. Apart from this, work on the reinforced concrete track base is also in progress, with 157 km of track being laid out in Gujarat. Depots for the Japanese Shinkansen trains are being constructed in both states as well as stations intended to provide convenient, multi-type big question: how quickly can Maharashtra catch up? Many hurdles remain, including the slow pace of land acquisition and political clearances in urban areas like Mumbai. Besides full coordination between the two states looks way off. But with 300 km of viaducts now in place, India's bullet train dream is a step closer to reality. It's climbing, inch by inch, up and over the to India Today Magazine
India Today
14-05-2025
- India Today
Why a verdant Goa village is resisting Russian signages
It is often referred to as Goa's 'Mini-Russia'. Nevertheless, the boom of Russian tourists in Morjim village, in the state's north, has had a flipside. In a recent gram sabha meeting, dismayed villagers objected to the proliferation of signboards in Russian language, prompting the local panchayat to promise these will be taken top the charts among international tourists to Goa. Located on the banks of the Chapora river estuary in Pernem taluka, Morjim is known for its verdant beach. The high footfall of Russian tourists and immigrants has given the village the monikers of 'Little Russia' and 'Mini-Russia'. Some villagers have even picked up the Russian brush with Russians, though, has been anything but smooth, with local politicians in the past accusing them of criminal backgrounds and illegal Morje, the sarpanch of Morjim village, said many restaurants had put up boards in Russian for the convenience of tourists. 'These boards have signs in English and Russian. We will now ask them to use English, Marathi and Hindi. No signages in Russian can be put up on the main roads, but it's okay to have Russian language boards inside the restaurants,' he said. Morjim has some 200 small and large restaurants and 11 tourism shacks. Over 400,000 tourists visit the village during season, and some even come over during monsoons—an otherwise leaner period for Goa's tourism 2023, Goa was visited by 8.1 million domestic and 453,000 international tourists. Last year, the state welcomed 9.94 million domestic tourists and 468,000 international tourists. 'Goa has notched a notable 21 per cent growth in tourism, which is a very positive trend. While domestic tourist footfall increased by 22 per cent, foreign tourist arrivals climbed by 3 per cent. These statistics unmistakably indicate a robust growth, reaffirming the state's position as a most-preferred tourist destination,' stated the Economic Survey of Goa for tourism department has said tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2025 grew by 10.5 per cent year on year from the corresponding period in 2024. January to March 2025 saw over 2.8 million visitors as against over 2.5 million in the first quarter of to India Today Magazine
