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Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Govt writes to secretaries for devpt of Berhampur, Chhatrapur & Gopalpur towns
Berhampur: The state govt recently wrote to different department secretaries for comprehensive development of Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Gopalpur towns in the Ganjam district. The additional secretary of planning and convergence department, Y. Vijay, wrote to the secretaries in response to Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy's suggestions which he gave to chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi. Vijay asked for appropriate action on the proposals for the comprehensive development of these urban areas in the district. The proposals include the integration of peripheral panchayats into Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC), climate-resilient infrastructure and water resource management, underground cabling and the development of modern transport systems. They also cover the development of a city centre and regional trading hub, sustainable tourism and cultural preservation, smart city technology, disaster mitigation and preparedness, development of urban forests, revitalisation of water bodies and development of tourism sites. Panigrahy wrote to the CM on April 25, requesting comprehensive development work for Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Gopalpur urban local bodies for the socio-economic development of the residents and their comprehensive infrastructure development. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Arceto: L'ultima soluzione acustica svizzera: ingegnosa e quasi invisibile Migliora Udito Undo "Berhampur is the biggest trading centre in southern Odisha, while Gopalpur, a sea-shore town in the district, is one of the major tourist destinations. Chhatrapur, an NAC town, is the district headquarters of Ganjam district. Hundreds of people from far-off places visit these urban areas every day for business purposes in Berhampur, while visitors from across the country and abroad visit Gopalpur to enjoy its pleasant climate," Panigrahy said. "Underground cabling and climate-resilient infrastructure in these urban areas are needed as these towns are considered cyclone-prone areas. In the past, these areas faced several devastating cyclones like Phailin, Hudhud and Titli. The areas remained in darkness for several days when the power infrastructures were damaged in the calamities," he added. "The development of infrastructure facilities in these urban areas is urgently needed to attract more visitors and provide hassle-free services to them," Panigrahy said. He thanked the CM for directing the secretaries to his proposals. "I hope different departments will take prompt action for the implementation of his proposals," he added.
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
Pink Villa
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Bhool Chuk Maaf Box Office Day 2: Fantasy comedy rises despite pre-release setback to net Rs 9 crore, two-day total past Rs 15 cr
Karan Sharma's fantasy romantic comedy Bhool Chuk Maaf is showing encouraging legs at the box office despite its troubled release journey. Starring Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Seema Pahwa, and more, the film has registered a positive jump on day 2, collecting an estimated Rs 9 crore net, up from Rs 7 crore on its opening day. This brings the film's two-day total to Rs 16 crore net. The film's surge indicates strong word of mouth across urban and rural centers, with viewers appreciating its quirky time loop concept blended with small-town charm and romance. Set in Varanasi, Bhool Chuk Maaf follows Ranjan (Rao), a government employee caught in a bizarre time loop on the day of his haldi ceremony with Titli (Gabbi). As Ranjan relives the same day over and over while Titli remains unaware, the film explores his emotional struggles and churns comedy out of his attempts to break free from the cycle. Box Office Collection Breakdown: For those not in the loop and wondering about the aforementioned troubled release journey, the film almost didn't release on the big screens and was headed straight to digital. Originally slated for release on May 9, 2025, the makers abruptly announced a direct-to-digital debut on Amazon Prime Video for May 16, citing the then-tense political climate in the country. The move triggered a legal dispute with multiplex chain PVR INOX, which claimed massive losses due to the last-minute change and filed a case against Maddock Films. On May 9, the Bombay High Court granted interim relief to the exhibitors and restrained the production house from launching the film on any non-theatrical platform before the mandated eight-week window. Eventually, both parties settled the matter, and it was jointly announced that Bhool Chuk Maaf would hit theaters on May 23, with a digital premiere on Prime Video scheduled for June 6, following a two-week theatrical run. Trailer HERE: The pre-release drama seems to have fueled audience curiosity, if nothing more. If the upward trend continues in the coming days, Bhool Chuk Maaf could emerge as a surprise success this summer.
The Hindu
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘Bhool Chuk Maaf' movie review: Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi light up this timely parable
In the story of Satyanarayan, an important multi-stranded tale in religious storytelling in Indian homes, the protagonists tend to forget the noble deed they promise when they seek a blessing or a favour from the Almighty. But God has His ways to remind the faithful of the unkept vows. Cutting through a web of rituals, writer-director Karan Sharma brings the message of this timeless katha to theatres with a modern-day parable. A rollicking social commentary laced with a layer of magic realism, Bhool Chuk Maaf makes a sharp comment on the growing schism in society where goodness and compassion are often measured on a scale of religious identity, where the goal corrupts our action even when the Bhagavad Gita is invoked on a daily basis. Underlining the everyday hypocrisy where practice and preaching don't often match, the film begins in Banaras among Tiwaris, Dwivedis, and Pandeys. Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) loves Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi). Caste and religion are not an issue. The problem is more immediate. Ranjan is jobless, and the girl's father wants a groom with a government job. In the race against time, Ranjan bribes Mahadev in the temple and Bhagwan Das (Sanjay Mishra), an endearing fixer, outside. Things seem to fall in place, but on the wedding day, Ranjan finds himself caught in a time loop. The poor boy repeatedly wakes up on the day of his Haldi ceremony. Soon, we discover that Sharma is not just making fun of the Haldi ceremony, which has become the most significant wedding ritual for the youth. There is more to it than situational humour. Banaras has more to it than just Brahmin surnames, that unemployment is not community-centric, and that doing the right thing is not always the most acceptable thing socially. Bhool Chuk Maaf (Hindi) Director: Karan Sharma Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Seema Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Raghubir Yadav, Vineet Kumar, Zakir Hussain Runtime: 121 minutes Storyline: Ranjan gets his girl after he lands a government job, but an unfulfilled promise to Lord Shiva sends him into a time loop The best part is that Sharma makes us believe in his leap of faith for a while. The trap of the time loop feels realistic, for we don't learn from our mistakes and allow history to repeat itself. Curiously, after Operation Sindoor, it seemed that the film's release would also get stuck like its protagonist's love life, but the producers quickly fulfilled their pre-release promises. Returning to Ranjan and Titli, the vernacular jokes and jibes hit the right notes, and Rajkummar and Wamiqa seamlessly merge into the Banarasi setting. Titli has more agency than Ranjan, but Sharma doesn't turn their romance into a feminist exercise and presents both with their faults and prejudices. Usually, heroes, heroines, and the supporting cast seem to inhabit disparate worlds in modern-day rom-coms set in rurban locales. Here, if seasoned players like Seema Pahwa, Raghubir Yadav, Vineet Kumar, and Sanjay Mishra stitch a relatable social tapestry, Rajkummar and Wamiqa become the warp and weft in it. Wamiqa lives up to her character's name. Livewire with a sense of purpose, like many talented outsiders, Wamiqa's career is clogged in the labyrinthine Bollywood talent lines that remain jammed because of the film family ward quota system. Like a butterfly, her talent, it seems, has finally found an outlet in the big sea. In contrast, Rajkummar Rao, another outsider, is seafaring after years of struggle. Of course, he is attempting to repeat the box office gains made with Stree in Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video and here. But, for now, he is in a Bhool Chuk Maaf kind of space often reserved for a star. He should be careful with his everyman charm as it can easily turn into a slippery slope, as we discovered with Ayushmann Khurrana. However, Rajkummar has an edge over his contemporaries because he can dig deeper to be a Shahid or a Newton any day. The time loop is the crux of the story, but the trick is not to let it fall into a rut. After a lively build-up, which was reflected in the trailer, Sharma seems a bit insecure about how the big reveal will land and overwrites the portion. The jokes start overspeaking to keep the levity intact, making it an increasingly laboured exercise towards the denouement. For a story that demands a certain lightness of touch, the makers don't really trust the audience and pad it with an unnecessarily heavy background score. The song and dance sequences remain utterly bland despite names like Irshad Kamil and Tanishk Bagchi in the credits. So much so that Maddock has to recycle Irshad's gem from Love Aaj Kal to send the audience home humming Chor Bazari. On OTT, the audience remains in a Bhool Chuk Maaf mode but becomes the Almighty in theatres where it doesn't ignore unkept promises! Bhool Chuk Maaf is currently running in theatres
India Today
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Bhool Chuk Maaf review: Rajkummar Rao in time loop of misogyny and lopsided love
A time loop, lots of confusion, a story of faith, a love angle, and the signature small-town humour of Rajkummar Rao - 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' has got everything right on paper. But, nothing seems executed well. The film's idea of a love story is too lopsided and its humour, too crass, for an audience that now has access to world cinema. In 'Bhool Chuk Maaf', neither the time loop nor the love story seems wisely planned. Both are riddled with tons of loopholes and glaring inconsistencies that make it difficult to stay engaged. Oh! And moving on is another problem - because how can we, when the story itself refuses to?advertisementIt takes over one hour for the film to establish its central conflict, something that the trailer and other promos had already revealed to the audience. Rao's Ranjan Tiwari and Wamiqa Gabbi's Titli are in love and want to get married, despite their families' disapproval. Yet, Titli is never seen appreciating Ranjan or expressing deep love for him, but more on that later. Her father presents a condition: get a government job in two months, or forget about the marriage. The quest begins. Even after trying for several years, Ranjan hasn't managed to land any government job. He chooses an easier way: bribing someone to get the job done. And when that too becomes a dead-end, he turns to faith, vowing at a Shiva temple to perform a nek kaam (noble deed) if his wish is begin to fall into place, and he gets the job, only to find himself stuck in a loop, a day before his wedding. Ranjan must find a way to break the loop, or he will never wake up to his wedding day with Titli. The time loop is a fresh and intriguing concept for the Indian audience. Setting the story in Varanasi, the land of Lord Shiva, is another brilliant step that adds colours and thematic depth to the story. However, neither the setting nor the concept alone can salvage a film that drags endlessly. One glaring issue with 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' is Gabbi's over-the-top performance. She is like a loud child in a candy store, confused and constantly complaining. The complete lack of chemistry between Titli and Ranjan is kind of love that traps you in time must be deep, passionate, and compelling - rich with emotion, conflict, and depth. It should make you root for the lovers. In 'Bhool Chuk Maaf', you end up feeling nothing for the two lovers. There's no connection, no compatibility, no spark. Their bickering and tiffs are neither cute nor revealing, and their problems don't invite any empathy. In fact, at some point, you wonder whether the girl really needs to be moving heaven and earth to be with this An independent girl from Varanasi - educated, self-aware, and from a respectable family - is ready to sell her mother's jewellery for a man who brings nothing to the table. Her only ambition, we are told, is to marry him. This is both outdated and damaging. It reduces a small-town girl's life to a singular goal: securing a marriage with an unemployed lover, as though that's the highest aspiration she can have. It sets the wrong standard and reinforces a harmful narrative — that love, no matter how unequal or undeserving, is the only meaningful pursuit for women like her. Whatever happens to women dreaming bigger - of careers, of independence, of making their own choices!Rao brings sincerity and impeccable comic timing to his character. You do feel for this man who is waking up every day to do the same thing. But you are not convinced of his innocence and his righteousness. The faults are not in Rao's performance, because that is stellar and the only thing that keeps the film afloat, but in the poor writing and direction that feel disjointed and undercooked. 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' looks like a pretty package filled with hollow emotions and a love story that never truly is also misogynistic in parts. A line trivialising pregnancy - "Duniya ka sabse easy kaam hai bacha paida karna, aur usme bhi 9 mahine lag ate hain (Birthing a baby is the easiest job in the world, but even that takes nine months) - is repeated many times in the first half. A man is ridiculed because his wife supports the household through a small pickle business. All of it doesn't just make the story look tone-deaf, but also reveals its deeper gender by Karan Sharma, 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' is an idea with potential, but one that needs more introspection. Time may loop, love may falter, and faith may be tested — but cinema must evolve. Because audiences aren't stuck in yesterday! IN THIS STORY#RajKummar Rao
