News Analysis India

Category: News

  • Carolyn Bryant Donham, at center of Emmett Till death, dies

    By Associated Press

    JACKSON, Miss.: The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 has died in hospice care in Louisiana, a coroner’s report shows. Carolyn Bryant Donham was 88.

    Donham died Tuesday night in Westlake, Louisiana, according to a death report filed Thursday in Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office in Louisiana.

    Till’s kidnapping and killing became a catalyst for the civil rights movement when his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in their hometown of Chicago after his brutalized body was pulled from a river in Mississippi. Jet magazine published photos.

    Till traveled from Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi in August 1955. Donham — then 21 and named Carolyn Bryant — accused him of making improper advances on her at a grocery store where she was working in the small community of Money. The Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till who was there, has said 14-year-old Till whistled at the woman, an act that flew in the face of Mississippi’s racist social codes of the era.

    Evidence indicates a woman identified Till to Donham’s then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, who killed the teenager. An all-white jury acquitted the two white men in the killing, but the men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine.

    In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press in 2022, Donham said she was unaware of what would happen to Till.

    The contents of the 99-page manuscript, titled “I am More Than A Wolf Whistle,” were first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, North Carolina, who said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP.

    Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation the agency concluded in 2021. He said he decided to make it public after some of Till’s relatives and other people doing research at the Leflore County, Mississippi, courthouse in June 2022 found an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for “Mrs. Roy Bryant” in 1955 but never served.

    Tyson said in a statement Thursday that Donham’s precise role in the killing of Till remains murky, but it’s clear she was involved.

    “It has comforted America to see this as merely a story of monsters, her among them,” Tyson said. “What this narrative keeps us from seeing is the monstrous social order that cared nothing for the life of Emmett Till nor thousands more like him. Neither the federal government nor the government of Mississippi did anything to prevent or punish this murder. Condemning what Donham did is easier than confronting what America was — and is.”

    Last year, members of the New Black Panther Party and other activists, began showing up at addresses associated with the aging Donham, including in North Carolina and Kentucky. They were there to serve unofficial “warrants” for her arrest and trial.

    Weeks after the unserved arrest warrant was found, the office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said there was no new evidence to pursue a criminal case against Donham. In August, a district attorney said a Leflore County grand jury declined to indict Donham.

    Till’s cousin, Priscilla Sterling, filed a federal lawsuit against the current Leflore County Sheriff, Ricky Banks, on Feb. 7, seeking to compel him to serve the 1955 warrant on Donham. In a response April 13, Banks’ attorney said there was no point serving the warrant on Donham because the grand jury did not indict her last year.

    The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, run by some of Till’s relatives, posted a blank black square to social media sites Thursday after news of Donham’s death was reported.

    JACKSON, Miss.: The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 has died in hospice care in Louisiana, a coroner’s report shows. Carolyn Bryant Donham was 88.

    Donham died Tuesday night in Westlake, Louisiana, according to a death report filed Thursday in Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office in Louisiana.

    Till’s kidnapping and killing became a catalyst for the civil rights movement when his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in their hometown of Chicago after his brutalized body was pulled from a river in Mississippi. Jet magazine published photos.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Till traveled from Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi in August 1955. Donham — then 21 and named Carolyn Bryant — accused him of making improper advances on her at a grocery store where she was working in the small community of Money. The Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till who was there, has said 14-year-old Till whistled at the woman, an act that flew in the face of Mississippi’s racist social codes of the era.

    Evidence indicates a woman identified Till to Donham’s then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, who killed the teenager. An all-white jury acquitted the two white men in the killing, but the men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine.

    In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press in 2022, Donham said she was unaware of what would happen to Till.

    The contents of the 99-page manuscript, titled “I am More Than A Wolf Whistle,” were first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, North Carolina, who said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP.

    Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation the agency concluded in 2021. He said he decided to make it public after some of Till’s relatives and other people doing research at the Leflore County, Mississippi, courthouse in June 2022 found an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for “Mrs. Roy Bryant” in 1955 but never served.

    Tyson said in a statement Thursday that Donham’s precise role in the killing of Till remains murky, but it’s clear she was involved.

    “It has comforted America to see this as merely a story of monsters, her among them,” Tyson said. “What this narrative keeps us from seeing is the monstrous social order that cared nothing for the life of Emmett Till nor thousands more like him. Neither the federal government nor the government of Mississippi did anything to prevent or punish this murder. Condemning what Donham did is easier than confronting what America was — and is.”

    Last year, members of the New Black Panther Party and other activists, began showing up at addresses associated with the aging Donham, including in North Carolina and Kentucky. They were there to serve unofficial “warrants” for her arrest and trial.

    Weeks after the unserved arrest warrant was found, the office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said there was no new evidence to pursue a criminal case against Donham. In August, a district attorney said a Leflore County grand jury declined to indict Donham.

    Till’s cousin, Priscilla Sterling, filed a federal lawsuit against the current Leflore County Sheriff, Ricky Banks, on Feb. 7, seeking to compel him to serve the 1955 warrant on Donham. In a response April 13, Banks’ attorney said there was no point serving the warrant on Donham because the grand jury did not indict her last year.

    The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, run by some of Till’s relatives, posted a blank black square to social media sites Thursday after news of Donham’s death was reported.

  • US talk show host Jerry Springer dies aged 79

    By AFP

    NEW YORK: Longtime US talk show host Jerry Springer, whose program became a symbol of low-brow television with its on-air fights, swearing, and infidelity revelations, has died at the age of 79, US media reported Thursday.

    Springer, whose show became an international hit that ran for 27 years, died peacefully at his home in Chicago after “a brief illness,” TMZ cited a family spokesperson as saying.

    The spokesman did not give further details. TMZ reported that Springer had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago, citing anonymous sources.

    Launched in 1991, “The Jerry Springer Show” began life as an ordinary talk show focusing on social issues and US politics, led by the then mild-mannered lawyer and former politician Springer, who briefly served as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1977.

    But in an effort to boost ratings, the son of Jewish German immigrants switched things up dramatically after a few years, focusing on salacious and outrageous content.

    In most episodes, guests came to talk about family problems and expose adultery and other transgressions.

    Springer would supposedly try to mediate but the encounters often ended up in fisticuffs, with guests being held back by security guards.

    In the late 1990s, the show topped the daytime television ratings in the US, beating out even Oprah.

    It ended its run in 2018.

    NEW YORK: Longtime US talk show host Jerry Springer, whose program became a symbol of low-brow television with its on-air fights, swearing, and infidelity revelations, has died at the age of 79, US media reported Thursday.

    Springer, whose show became an international hit that ran for 27 years, died peacefully at his home in Chicago after “a brief illness,” TMZ cited a family spokesperson as saying.

    The spokesman did not give further details. TMZ reported that Springer had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago, citing anonymous sources.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Launched in 1991, “The Jerry Springer Show” began life as an ordinary talk show focusing on social issues and US politics, led by the then mild-mannered lawyer and former politician Springer, who briefly served as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1977.

    But in an effort to boost ratings, the son of Jewish German immigrants switched things up dramatically after a few years, focusing on salacious and outrageous content.

    In most episodes, guests came to talk about family problems and expose adultery and other transgressions.

    Springer would supposedly try to mediate but the encounters often ended up in fisticuffs, with guests being held back by security guards.

    In the late 1990s, the show topped the daytime television ratings in the US, beating out even Oprah.

    It ended its run in 2018.

  • Dakota Fanning to lead Ishana Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut ‘The Watchers’

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Dakota Fanning will star in “The Watchers”, the upcoming thriller which marks the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of filmmaker M Night Shyamalan.

    Ishana, who recently served as writer and director on the critically-acclaimed Apple TV+ series “Servant”, which was showrun by her father, has adapted the film from author A M Shine’s novel of the same name, according to entertainment news outlet The Hollywood Reporter.

    The project is backed by New Line Cinema.

    In “The Watchers”, Fanning will essay the role of Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland.

    “When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers that are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night,” the official logline read.

    M Night Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan are on board to produce the film through Blinding Edge Pictures.

    Nimitt Mankad with Inimitable Pictures will also serve as a producer, and Jo Homewood is attached as an executive producer.

    Production on the thriller will begin later this year with the studio eyeing a June 7, 2024, worldwide release.

    Ishana, a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, also directed the second unit on her father’s hit films “Old” (2021) and “Knock at the Cabin” (2023).

    Fanning will be next seen in “Equalizer 3”, which reunites her with “Man on Fire” co-star Denzel Washington.

    Her upcoming projects also include Netflix limited series “The Perfect Couple” and Steve Zaillian’s limited series “Ripley” adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels.

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Dakota Fanning will star in “The Watchers”, the upcoming thriller which marks the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of filmmaker M Night Shyamalan.

    Ishana, who recently served as writer and director on the critically-acclaimed Apple TV+ series “Servant”, which was showrun by her father, has adapted the film from author A M Shine’s novel of the same name, according to entertainment news outlet The Hollywood Reporter.

    The project is backed by New Line Cinema.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    In “The Watchers”, Fanning will essay the role of Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland.

    “When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers that are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night,” the official logline read.

    M Night Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan are on board to produce the film through Blinding Edge Pictures.

    Nimitt Mankad with Inimitable Pictures will also serve as a producer, and Jo Homewood is attached as an executive producer.

    Production on the thriller will begin later this year with the studio eyeing a June 7, 2024, worldwide release.

    Ishana, a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, also directed the second unit on her father’s hit films “Old” (2021) and “Knock at the Cabin” (2023).

    Fanning will be next seen in “Equalizer 3”, which reunites her with “Man on Fire” co-star Denzel Washington.

    Her upcoming projects also include Netflix limited series “The Perfect Couple” and Steve Zaillian’s limited series “Ripley” adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels.

  • Dune: Part Two  completely shot in IMAX

    By Express News Service

    The makers of Dune: Part Two have announced that the sequel film has been completely shot in IMAX. Warner Bros confirmed the same during the CinemaCon event held recently.

    It is to be noted that the first part was only 40% shot on IMAX. Speaking about shooting the sequel on IMAX, director Denis Villeneuve was quoted as saying, “Definitely. [Cinematographer] Greig Fraser and I, we fell in love with this format, and definitely there be—even probably more—IMAX footage in this movie. Definitely.”

    The shooting for the second part has been wrapped up. The science fiction film stars Timothée Chalamet in the lead role. Based on the 1965 novel by the same name, Dune is set in a distant future and inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, as the film focuses on Paul Atreides and his family thrust into a war for the planet.

    Along with Timothée, the film will also see other cast members returning, including Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, among others. Apart from them, the second part will also see additional cast members such as Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, among others.

    Dune sequel will release on November 3. 

    The makers of Dune: Part Two have announced that the sequel film has been completely shot in IMAX. Warner Bros confirmed the same during the CinemaCon event held recently.

    It is to be noted that the first part was only 40% shot on IMAX. Speaking about shooting the sequel on IMAX, director Denis Villeneuve was quoted as saying, “Definitely. [Cinematographer] Greig Fraser and I, we fell in love with this format, and definitely there be—even probably more—IMAX footage in this movie. Definitely.”

    The shooting for the second part has been wrapped up. The science fiction film stars Timothée Chalamet in the lead role. Based on the 1965 novel by the same name, Dune is set in a distant future and inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, as the film focuses on Paul Atreides and his family thrust into a war for the planet.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Along with Timothée, the film will also see other cast members returning, including Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, among others. Apart from them, the second part will also see additional cast members such as Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, among others.

    Dune sequel will release on November 3.
     

  • Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi travels abroad after 14-year ban

    By AFP

    TEHRAN: Dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi has left Iran for the first time in 14 years for a trip to France, weeks after being released from prison, his lawyer said Wednesday.

    The 62-year-old Iranian director, whose films have won numerous international awards, was freed on bail in early February after nearly seven months in detention in Tehran.

    “After having fully served his sentence, Panahi was authorised to leave the country and obtained his passport,” his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told AFP.

    On Tuesday evening Panahi’s wife, Tahereh Saidi, posted a photo on Instagram of herself and the filmmaker at an airport, with both appearing happy to leave the country after a 14-year ban.

    The lawyer said Panahi was travelling to France to visit his daughter.

    Panahi was banned from making films and leaving the Islamic republic after supporting mass protests in 2009 and making a series of films that critiqued the state of modern Iran.

    That did not stop him from working clandestinely in the country, and his 2015 film “Taxi” won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

    Arrested in Tehran in July last year, the director was to serve a six-year prison sentence handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”.

    However, Panahi was released two days after going on a hunger strike in early February to protest the conditions of his detention.

    “As far as I know, there are no more court cases against him,” Nikbakht said.

    As well as scooping the Golden Bear in Berlin, Panahi won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his film “The Circle”. In 2018, he also claimed the best screenplay prize at Cannes for “Three Faces”.

    Panahi’s latest film, “No Bears”, which like much of his recent work stars the director himself, was screened at the 2022 Venice Film Festival when the filmmaker was already behind bars. It won the Special Jury Prize.

    TEHRAN: Dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi has left Iran for the first time in 14 years for a trip to France, weeks after being released from prison, his lawyer said Wednesday.

    The 62-year-old Iranian director, whose films have won numerous international awards, was freed on bail in early February after nearly seven months in detention in Tehran.

    “After having fully served his sentence, Panahi was authorised to leave the country and obtained his passport,” his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told AFP.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    On Tuesday evening Panahi’s wife, Tahereh Saidi, posted a photo on Instagram of herself and the filmmaker at an airport, with both appearing happy to leave the country after a 14-year ban.

    The lawyer said Panahi was travelling to France to visit his daughter.

    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by Tahereh saeedi (@taherehsaidii)

    Panahi was banned from making films and leaving the Islamic republic after supporting mass protests in 2009 and making a series of films that critiqued the state of modern Iran.

    That did not stop him from working clandestinely in the country, and his 2015 film “Taxi” won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

    Arrested in Tehran in July last year, the director was to serve a six-year prison sentence handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”.

    However, Panahi was released two days after going on a hunger strike in early February to protest the conditions of his detention.

    “As far as I know, there are no more court cases against him,” Nikbakht said.

    As well as scooping the Golden Bear in Berlin, Panahi won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his film “The Circle”. In 2018, he also claimed the best screenplay prize at Cannes for “Three Faces”.

    Panahi’s latest film, “No Bears”, which like much of his recent work stars the director himself, was screened at the 2022 Venice Film Festival when the filmmaker was already behind bars. It won the Special Jury Prize.

  • Cinema without borders: Fun, fearless, furious, female- ‘Polite Society’

    Express News Service

    Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society is fun, fearless, furious and all female. A rollicking, delirious ride of a film, its appeal will be directly proportional to the viewers’ appetite for the wacky and the youthfulness of their mind. The British film turned out to be quite a popular crowd-pleaser at the Sundance Film Festival and is ready for a worldwide release this week.  

    Priya Kansara plays London-based schoolgirl Ria Khan, who is training in martial arts and has ambitions of becoming a renowned stuntwoman like her idol Eunice Huthart, even as she constantly battles her perennial rival and school bully Kovacs (Shona Babyemi). But life takes a major turn when she finds herself on an urgent mission to save her elder sister and an art school dropout Lena (Ritu Arya) from becoming “a trophy wife in a sham marriage”. What starts off as an attempt to dig out some dirt on her fiancée Salim Shah (Akshay Khanna) turns out to be an action adventure she wouldn’t have bargained for in her wildest dreams. Helping her emerge triumphant in executing a mad, deal-breaker heist at Lena’s wedding and becoming the true-blue “Fury” are her closest of buddies, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri).

    Polite Society feels like a vibrant cross between Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham and Ms Marvel, the recent mini-series created by Bisha K. Ali. There are the familiar themes and arcs of sibling love, sisterhood, friendships, parental expectations and familial loyalty, arranged marriage, gender parity, and women’s liberation. All navigated under the larger umbrella of the hyphenated, British-South Asian culture and identity issues. Been there seen that?

    Well, not quite. Where Manzoor scores is by telling the tale in a genre-bending style that is a non-stop mashup of superhero action of Hollywood, musical melodrama of Bollywood and Kungfu cinema of the East with an added dose of screwball comedy. An ideal fusion film which is rambunctious but also astute and perceptive when it comes to the world it is creating on screen. However, it wears its innate intelligence lightly and carries its audience along on a fun outing than being preachy or pedantic. 

    A deliberately heightened aesthetic suffuses the frames, be it the comic book energy of the lead or the medley of over-the-top characters surrounding her; the ludicrous, ominous, and nefarious plot twist involving genetics, cloning and a secret lab, the kitsch and colour suffusing the frames, costumes, and production design, or the nod to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Devdas and Madhuri Dixit. A lot about the film might feel downright crazy and ridiculous but it is resolute in its belief in itself and what it is trying to say and hence the message reaches out to the audience as well. 

    Polite Society is a Priya Kansara show all the way; and she plays the headstrong, driven, suspicious, caustic but well-meaning Ria with immense relish and aplomb. The entire ensemble meshes well but it’s the popular British-Pakistani actor Nimra Bucha (earlier seen in the series Churails and Ms Marvel) as Raheela, the diabolical mother-in-law of Lena who steals the show by articulating the contradictions of womanhood with great flair and finesse. A woman ruled by her thwarted dreams, desires, and ambitions.

    A woman who never got a chance to be what she was truly meant to be and who wants to use (rather abuse) her daughter-in-law to be a carrier, a vessel for a new version of herself. A woman who is seemingly liberated when it comes to young girls but is also a control freak around them. A woman who believes that “behind every successful man is a very tired mother” but is quite tiresome herself.

    In the comic action musical, all does end well after all. Ria does decimate patriarchy with a Hindi film song, of all things, as the most potent weapon. But no it doesn’t turn out to be your usual wedding spectacle pretending to be a film. Fresh and fun and not just plain and frivolous, Polite Society does make for a delightful outing not just for the adolescents but the adolescent soul lurking within every adult. 

    Cinema Without Borders

    In this weekly column, the writer introduces you to powerful cinema from across the world

    Film: Polite Society 

    Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society is fun, fearless, furious and all female. A rollicking, delirious ride of a film, its appeal will be directly proportional to the viewers’ appetite for the wacky and the youthfulness of their mind. The British film turned out to be quite a popular crowd-pleaser at the Sundance Film Festival and is ready for a worldwide release this week.  

    Priya Kansara plays London-based schoolgirl Ria Khan, who is training in martial arts and has ambitions of becoming a renowned stuntwoman like her idol Eunice Huthart, even as she constantly battles her perennial rival and school bully Kovacs (Shona Babyemi). But life takes a major turn when she finds herself on an urgent mission to save her elder sister and an art school dropout Lena (Ritu Arya) from becoming “a trophy wife in a sham marriage”. What starts off as an attempt to dig out some dirt on her fiancée Salim Shah (Akshay Khanna) turns out to be an action adventure she wouldn’t have bargained for in her wildest dreams. Helping her emerge triumphant in executing a mad, deal-breaker heist at Lena’s wedding and becoming the true-blue “Fury” are her closest of buddies, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri).

    Polite Society feels like a vibrant cross between Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham and Ms Marvel, the recent mini-series created by Bisha K. Ali. There are the familiar themes and arcs of sibling love, sisterhood, friendships, parental expectations and familial loyalty, arranged marriage, gender parity, and women’s liberation. All navigated under the larger umbrella of the hyphenated, British-South Asian culture and identity issues. Been there seen that?googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Well, not quite. Where Manzoor scores is by telling the tale in a genre-bending style that is a non-stop mashup of superhero action of Hollywood, musical melodrama of Bollywood and Kungfu cinema of the East with an added dose of screwball comedy. An ideal fusion film which is rambunctious but also astute and perceptive when it comes to the world it is creating on screen. However, it wears its innate intelligence lightly and carries its audience along on a fun outing than being preachy or pedantic. 

    A deliberately heightened aesthetic suffuses the frames, be it the comic book energy of the lead or the medley of over-the-top characters surrounding her; the ludicrous, ominous, and nefarious plot twist involving genetics, cloning and a secret lab, the kitsch and colour suffusing the frames, costumes, and production design, or the nod to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Devdas and Madhuri Dixit. A lot about the film might feel downright crazy and ridiculous but it is resolute in its belief in itself and what it is trying to say and hence the message reaches out to the audience as well. 

    Polite Society is a Priya Kansara show all the way; and she plays the headstrong, driven, suspicious, caustic but well-meaning Ria with immense relish and aplomb. The entire ensemble meshes well but it’s the popular British-Pakistani actor Nimra Bucha (earlier seen in the series Churails and Ms Marvel) as Raheela, the diabolical mother-in-law of Lena who steals the show by articulating the contradictions of womanhood with great flair and finesse. A woman ruled by her thwarted dreams, desires, and ambitions.

    A woman who never got a chance to be what she was truly meant to be and who wants to use (rather abuse) her daughter-in-law to be a carrier, a vessel for a new version of herself. A woman who is seemingly liberated when it comes to young girls but is also a control freak around them. A woman who believes that “behind every successful man is a very tired mother” but is quite tiresome herself.

    In the comic action musical, all does end well after all. Ria does decimate patriarchy with a Hindi film song, of all things, as the most potent weapon. But no it doesn’t turn out to be your usual wedding spectacle pretending to be a film. Fresh and fun and not just plain and frivolous, Polite Society does make for a delightful outing not just for the adolescents but the adolescent soul lurking within every adult. 

    Cinema Without Borders

    In this weekly column, the writer introduces you to powerful cinema from across the world

    Film: Polite Society
     

  • Death of a gatekeeper of truth: Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer, passes away at 96

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.

    Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.

    With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”

    He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

    Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyonce for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film “BlacKkKlansman,” he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.

    Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”

    Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”

    May Harry Belafonte, the lionhearted civil rights hero, rest in peace. He inspired generations around the whole world in the struggle for non-violent resistance justice and change. We need his example now more than ever. pic.twitter.com/oBTBBvx3ra
    — Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) April 25, 2023
    Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s “Almanac” and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”

    In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical “Carmen Jones,” a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie “Island in the Sun” was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.

    ALSO SEE:

    NEW YORK: Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.

    Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.

    With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

    Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyonce for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film “BlacKkKlansman,” he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.

    Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”

    Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”

    May Harry Belafonte, the lionhearted civil rights hero, rest in peace. He inspired generations around the whole world in the struggle for non-violent resistance justice and change. We need his example now more than ever. pic.twitter.com/oBTBBvx3ra
    — Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) April 25, 2023
    Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s “Almanac” and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”

    In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical “Carmen Jones,” a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie “Island in the Sun” was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.

    ALSO SEE:

  • ‘I’m totally fine, it was my fault completely’: Taylor Swift after fans spot her hand injury

    By ANI

    LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift took to social media claiming she was “totally fine” after fans noticed the singer performing with an open wound during her show in Houston, Texas recently.

    “For those asking how I cut my hand,” Swift said in a tweet, “I’m totally fine and it was my fault completely — tripped on my dress hem and fell in the dark backstage while running to a quick change — braced my fall with my palm. It was all very Mercury in retrograde coded. Don’t worry about me I’m gooooood,” she added, blowing fans a kiss emoji.

    Just got to play 3 insane shows in Houston and I’m waking up smiling reminiscing about how much fun we all had. Loving this tour so much because of the passion these crowds put into it all – seriously can’t wait for PS for those asking how I cut my hand, I’m totally… pic.twitter.com/j3MK7twzdc
    — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 24, 2023
    Swift has been making the most of her time on tour and ensuring fans that everything is good amid her recent split from Joe Alwyn, 32. While performing in Tampa on April 15, Swift gave a firm thumbs up to a fan holding a sign asking the songstress if she is OK, Page Six reported.

    Swift has also been making sure to fit in some quality time with her girl squad in between shows, making public appearances with Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively and the Haim sisters during an outing in New York City on April 20.

    LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift took to social media claiming she was “totally fine” after fans noticed the singer performing with an open wound during her show in Houston, Texas recently.

    “For those asking how I cut my hand,” Swift said in a tweet, “I’m totally fine and it was my fault completely — tripped on my dress hem and fell in the dark backstage while running to a quick change — braced my fall with my palm. It was all very Mercury in retrograde coded. Don’t worry about me I’m gooooood,” she added, blowing fans a kiss emoji.

    Just got to play 3 insane shows in Houston and I’m waking up smiling reminiscing about how much fun we all had. Loving this tour so much because of the passion these crowds put into it all – seriously can’t wait for PS for those asking how I cut my hand, I’m totally… pic.twitter.com/j3MK7twzdcgoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
    — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 24, 2023
    Swift has been making the most of her time on tour and ensuring fans that everything is good amid her recent split from Joe Alwyn, 32. While performing in Tampa on April 15, Swift gave a firm thumbs up to a fan holding a sign asking the songstress if she is OK, Page Six reported.

    Swift has also been making sure to fit in some quality time with her girl squad in between shows, making public appearances with Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively and the Haim sisters during an outing in New York City on April 20.

  • Shakira to be honoured with Billboard’s first ‘Latin Woman of the year’ award

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Colombian singer Shakira will be honoured with Billboard’s ‘Latin women of the year’ award at the first-ever Mujeres Latinas en la Musica, or Latin Women in Music, gala.

    Taking to social media, Billboard announced the news on their official page on Monday and wrote, “Global superstar Shakira will be honoured as Billboard’s Woman of the Year at the first-ever #BBMujeresLatinas.”

    Global superstar @shakira will be honored as Billboard’s Woman of the Year at the first-ever #BBMujeresLatinas@telemundohttps://t.co/IRP91daPYe
    — billboard (@billboard) April 24, 2023
    According to Billboard, the two-hour music special will be hosted by Ivy Queen and Jacqueline Bracamontes and honouring Latin women in music, will be taped at the Watsco Center in Miami on May 6 and will air exclusively on Telemundo on May 7 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.

    Soon after the news was announced fans swamped the comment section with red hearts and fire emoticons.

    “She deserves woman of the year,” a fan commented.

    “She is amazing one of the women we could inspired,” another fan wrote.

    “Queen Shakira,” a fan wrote.

    “Shakira is the ultimate Woman in Music. Thanks to her, Latin women all over the world have been empowered to write and perform deeply personal music. She created a movement all on her own, and continues to be more relevant than ever today, with grace, a deep tradition of giving back, and enormous talent. She is the definition of a Woman in Music,” said Leila Cobo, Billboard’s chief content officer for Latin/Espanol, as per Billboard.

    Shakira has earned the title of ‘Queen of Latin Music’ for her outstanding tracks over the course of three decades in her career.

    She is known for some blockbuster hit tracks like ‘Hips don’t lie’, ‘Can’t remember to forget you’, ‘Loca’, ‘Whenever Wherever’, ‘Waka Waka’, ‘Beautiful Liar’, ‘She Wolf’, ‘La Tortura’ and many more.

    WASHINGTON: Colombian singer Shakira will be honoured with Billboard’s ‘Latin women of the year’ award at the first-ever Mujeres Latinas en la Musica, or Latin Women in Music, gala.

    Taking to social media, Billboard announced the news on their official page on Monday and wrote, “Global superstar Shakira will be honoured as Billboard’s Woman of the Year at the first-ever #BBMujeresLatinas.”

    Global superstar @shakira will be honored as Billboard’s Woman of the Year at the first-ever #BBMujeresLatinas@telemundohttps://t.co/IRP91daPYegoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
    — billboard (@billboard) April 24, 2023
    According to Billboard, the two-hour music special will be hosted by Ivy Queen and Jacqueline Bracamontes and honouring Latin women in music, will be taped at the Watsco Center in Miami on May 6 and will air exclusively on Telemundo on May 7 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.

    Soon after the news was announced fans swamped the comment section with red hearts and fire emoticons.

    “She deserves woman of the year,” a fan commented.

    “She is amazing one of the women we could inspired,” another fan wrote.

    “Queen Shakira,” a fan wrote.

    “Shakira is the ultimate Woman in Music. Thanks to her, Latin women all over the world have been empowered to write and perform deeply personal music. She created a movement all on her own, and continues to be more relevant than ever today, with grace, a deep tradition of giving back, and enormous talent. She is the definition of a Woman in Music,” said Leila Cobo, Billboard’s chief content officer for Latin/Espanol, as per Billboard.

    Shakira has earned the title of ‘Queen of Latin Music’ for her outstanding tracks over the course of three decades in her career.

    She is known for some blockbuster hit tracks like ‘Hips don’t lie’, ‘Can’t remember to forget you’, ‘Loca’, ‘Whenever Wherever’, ‘Waka Waka’, ‘Beautiful Liar’, ‘She Wolf’, ‘La Tortura’ and many more.

  • Actor Danny Masterson drugged, raped women, prosecutor says

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Danny Masterson drugged then raped three women at his Hollywood-area home between 2001 and 2003, a prosecutor told jurors Monday in his opening statement in the retrial of the star of “That ’70s Show.”

    Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said Masterson put substances into drinks that he gave to a longtime girlfriend and two women he knew through friend circles around the Church of Scientology, all of whom Masterson is charged with raping.

    “The evidence will show that they were drugged,” Mueller told the jury. The defense denies such evidence exists.

    Direct discussion of drugging was missing from the first trial — which ended in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on all three counts — with Mueller instead having to imply it through the testimony of the women, who said they were woozy, disoriented and at times unconscious on the nights they described the actor raping them.

    But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo is allowing the direct assertion at the second trial.

    Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said in the defense opening statement that those hazy stories and assertions are all the prosecution has, and he told jurors, “there is no drugging charge in this case.”

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Danny Masterson drugged then raped three women at his Hollywood-area home between 2001 and 2003, a prosecutor told jurors Monday in his opening statement in the retrial of the star of “That ’70s Show.”

    Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said Masterson put substances into drinks that he gave to a longtime girlfriend and two women he knew through friend circles around the Church of Scientology, all of whom Masterson is charged with raping.

    “The evidence will show that they were drugged,” Mueller told the jury. The defense denies such evidence exists.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Direct discussion of drugging was missing from the first trial — which ended in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on all three counts — with Mueller instead having to imply it through the testimony of the women, who said they were woozy, disoriented and at times unconscious on the nights they described the actor raping them.

    But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo is allowing the direct assertion at the second trial.

    Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said in the defense opening statement that those hazy stories and assertions are all the prosecution has, and he told jurors, “there is no drugging charge in this case.”