In the state of Gujarat the devotees celebrate the Goddess with  garbas  because they believe that the Goddess likes to be entertained. Down South they observe what is called Gollu where they prepare nine steps to heaven and worship the deities Day three is called Teej and is associated with Goddess Chandra Ghanta who gets her name  from the image inscribed on her forehead of  a half moon. Devi Chandra Ghanta has ten arms and three eyes. She is also known by the name of Sherawali the Goddess who rides a tiger and vanquished the demons in times of war. The Teej puja associated with Devi Chandra Ghanta is called Gauri Puja.

Day four is called Chauth and is associated with Devi Kushmunda whose name signifies literally a ray of light. It is believed that the universe was a dark gloomy place till Devi Kushmunda filled it up with her light. The Chauth puja is also regarded by the worshippers as Durga Saran puja.

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The festival of Navratri is to invoke the Goddess and seek her blessings to eradicate all the perils from our lives. Different states have a different way of celebrating the festival. Up North, Navratri is usually associated with fast and Jagrata in honor of the Goddess

Day one is called Ekum and is associated with Devi Shail Putri who possesses the powers of the trio – Lord Bhrama, Lord Vishnu and Lord Mahadev. She rides on a Vrisshab and carries a Trishul. The pot is brought home on Ekum.

Day two is called Dooj and is associated with Devi Bhramacharini, she is forever in meditation and therefore unusually calm. She carries the beads in one hand and the other carries a pot. The puja associated with Devi Brahmachari is called Ghatta Sthapna.

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Film:Bhoomi

Date:  22 September 2017

Director: Omung Kumar

Writer: Sandeep Singh/ story, Raaj Shaandilyaa/ screenplay

Music: Sachin-Jigar/ songs, Ismail Darbar/ background

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharad Kelkar

After Kaabil, Maatr and Mom, Bhoomi is the year 2017’s fourth film on the subject of rape and revenge.

In Kaaabil it was the husband seeking revenge for his disabled wife, in Maatr and Mom the mothers seeking justice for their daughters and now Bhoomi has a father/ Sanjay Dutt settling scores with his daughter/ Aditi Rao Hyadri’s oppressors.

In Dholpur, a small town in Agra, Amar/ Dutt is famous for his shoe shop where foreigners visiting the Taj Mahal often stop by for shopping. Amar’s friend/ Shekhar Suman works in his shop by the day and in the evening they share a drink while Amar’s daughter, Bhoomi, a wedding planner is busy organizing mehandi/ sangit and shaadi for her clients.

A night before Bhoomi’s wedding she is mysteriously kidnapped, drugged and gang raped inside an empty movie theatre where the big screen plays a violent film. The wedding is called off and a pall of gloom falls over Amar and his daughter. With time both try hard to move on but it is not easy and the father-daughter decides to jointly fight the demons.

The treatment is a replay of the 80s cinema where scenes are over dramatized and emotions unnecessarily stretched. The writing is clichéd without any surprises and the climax unforgivably regressive with reference to shraad and devi puja.

Director Omang Kumar who started as an art director over dresses his interiors which have no continuity with the exteriors. Packaging social issues, slogans and statistics don’t make a sensitive film. The court room scene where the lady lawyer advocates her case and announces the victim characterless is disgraceful and the placement of Sunny Leone’s item number soon after the interval pathetic!

Sharad Kelkar is effective as the chauvinistic villain and Aditi Rao Hyadri looks beautiful when she is happy or sad but the film finally belongs to Sanjay Dutt who returns to arc lights in a role that suits both his age and image.

Watch Bhoomi only if you are a fan of Sanjay Dutt or Aditi Rao Hyadri.

I rate Bhoomi with 2 stars reserved only for Dutt and Hyadrri.

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Ajay Devgn is all ready for Diwali next year. In October 2018 he will be presenting a love comedy starring Tabu and a younger actress. After Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, this is the second of the multi-film association between Luv Films and T-Series. Producer Bhushan Kumar, T-Series is excited about the new project and says, “Our commitment is to keep entertaining the global Indian audience.”

The team is positive given Ajay’s connect with the family audience and a great track record of his movies’ Box Office performance during festive occasions or national holidays. The film will be directed by renowned editor Akiv Ali as a director.

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Actors do a lot to stay in character during the shooting of a film and the latest to join the passion club is Shradha Kapoor playig Haseena Parkar. To make certain she did not lose focus Shradha made certain to speak to everyone on the sets in the voice of Haseena. One day, director Apoorva Lakhia had a friend drop by on the sets and introduced him to Shraddha and to his surprise, Shradha intimidated him by speaking to him in her character voice which scared both the men. It was only after the friend had left the sets that Shradha burst into giggles much to Apoorva’s relief.

Cutting jokes of this kind seem to be in the genes of the Kolhapure family, in hey days aunt Padmini Kolhapure would have the entire unit in splits but once the camera began to roll, nothing to distract Pandi from her scene. Hope it is the same with Shraddha Kapoor.

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Year after year Literature Live brings us stimulating discussions with new writers. This time it is Tata Son`s Brand Custodian, Harish Bhat releasing The Curious Marketer. Now ‘curious’ could mean either ‘eager to know or learn’, or it could mean ‘strange, unusual.’ Which curious exactly does author Harish mean? Or is it both? The best way to find out is to be present at the book launch.  The subtitle reads Expeditions in Branding and Consumer Behaviour and since everyone is a consumer, there should be something for everyone in the evening today at NCPA`s Little Theatre. In conversation with Harish Bhat will be Mini Menon, former Executive Editor at Bloomberg TV, and co-founder of Live History India, an on-line portal.

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Often it is the trailer that determines how a film is going to be received by the audience and Saif Ali Khan’s trailer of Raja Krishna Menon’s Chef seems to have struck the right chord for two reasons. This is the first time we are exposed to Saif’s culinary skills and this is also the first time we are exposed to Saif as a contemporary Dad! Designer Raja have taken special effort to work on the nawab’s costumes to present him in the easy-going style when he is at work or spending quality time with his son on holidays. “My brief was to present Roshan Karla/ Saif Ali Khan as a new age cool dad and that is how you will find him.”

Now this is one film Taimur Khan would love to watch when he grows up.

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Tapsee Pannu was a big hit at the Jagran Festival this year. Over 130 movie titles scheduled for screening, to facilitate cross-cultural understanding and crowd intimacy through the wide world of cinema.

The 2017 edition of Jagran Film Festival traversed from Delhi to the Indian hinterlands of Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Dehradun, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhopal, Indore, Hisar, Ludhiana, Meerut, Raipur, and will now culminate in Mumbai.

Screening World Cinemas featuring from Turkey, India, Greece, US, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Morocco, Spain, Sri Lanka, Czech and more. The festival showcased the best of regional cinema including Amraawati, Rama Rama Re and Bengali movies – Messi and Posto, Chandras Chor and more.

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