Based on a story byShamim Padamsee, published by Tulika, adapted and directed by Timira Gupta and music by Johns Soans and Janit Temkar, A Silly Story of Bondapalli is a play about food. Looking and cooking it, smelling and touching it, crunching and slurping it, chewing and licking it. 

And who does all of this, well a king who loves to eat and his three chefs who love to cook.

All is well in the happy kingdom until the day the princess is born. She turns out to be the fussiest eater in the world and just nothing that the chef spreads out for her meets her approval.

The three chefs spend their day chipping and chopping, boiling and baking, roasting and frying but nothing presented to the princess makes her happy.

Will the king be forced to hang the royal chefs who cannot please his princess or will they finally suceed in discovering the magic recipee that will make the princess happy?

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Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet will now have a different expression. Artist Sujaya Batra has chosen it as her subject to illustrate into an adult colouring book. Sujaya first read the book when she was 16 and was fascinated with the concept and has gone back to it at every turning point in her life. Says Sujaya “Everytime I needed answers to difficult situations, I went back to The Prophet and everytime Khalil Gibran balmed me with his soothing philosophy.”

So inspired by the book and a commercial artist by profession, she decided to combine the two passions. She says sketching is her way of meditating and has chosen to interpret select verses from the book into creative illustrations.

Aleph Book Company saw the potential of the drawings and their verses and turned it into a beautiful colouring book for adults elaborated with images of flowers, birds, animals.  Sujaya concludes that today’s young adults live in a stressed world and need to decompress and introspect. “This book is my tribute to The Prophet and the wisdom it offers.”

Sujaya Batra is a textile designer and commercial artist and a qualified T’ai Chi teacher. She sketches predominantly in black ink, pencil work and watercolours.

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Inspired by Mahashweta Devi’s story Why-Why Girl published by Tulika Books the poem of Safdar hashmi is adapted and directed by Shaili Sathyu and choreographed byHamsa Moily.

How often do children ask questions and actually get answers from adults? And how often do adults make an attempt to enter the magical world of questions raised by children?

The play tells the story of Moyna and many similar children, who always have so many questions to ask. Performed through dance and live music the writing gives insights into an innocent world.

Kyun-Kyun Ladki has been performed for schools, at theatre festivals and at theatres across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Patna, Guwahati, Kolkata and Delhi, including TIFLI, International Theatre Festival for Young Audiences.

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Omang Kumar directed Sarabjeet Pakistan ki jail mein barson tak qaid rahe Hindustani kisan Sarabjeet Singh ki kahani hai.

Amritsar ke Bhikwindi gaon ka Sarabjeet Singh ek raat, apne khet se lautte hue, galti se Pakistan border paar karta hai aur giraftar ho jaata hai.

23 saal tak, Pakistan sarkar Sarabjeet ko Lahore mein bomb blast karwane wala Manjeet maanti hain.

Aur 23 saal Sarabjeet ki behan Dalbir Kaur apne bhai ki begunahi ki ladai ladti hai.

Film ka minus: film ki disjointed story telling aur slow paced editing jo tragedy ko aur bhi depressing bana deti hai.

Film ka plus: film ka detailed art design, camera work, costumes, music or performances…

Lawyer ke role mein Darshan Kumar aur Sarabjeet ki patni bani Richa Chadha lajawab hai! Dalbir Kaur, Aishwarya Rai ke career ka sab se brave aur musjkil performance hai aur Sarabjeet Singh, Randeep Hooda ka sabse behtar aur yadgaar performance!

Aise kirdaaron ko humara dil chalni kar dena chahiye tha jo nahi hota hai…

Shayad isliye, kyon ki ye film bhi Sarabjeet ki zindagi ki tarha kuch tooti-bikhri-nirash-aur-neerras hai!

Agar aap ko manoranjan ki talash hai toh Sarabjeet aap ke liye nahi hain.

Agar aap ko itihaas mein, samajik muddon mein, pariwar mein ruchi hain, toh Sarabjeet aap ke liye hai.

Sarabjeet ko sache performances, nek sandesh aur prayas ke liye Big EntertainmentRatings milte hain 3 stars.

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We have heard of books on different subjects but Dr Shyam Bhat, a psychiatrist in Bengaluru has a unique

clinic titled Mind Body Clinic where he promotes a Self Therapy, inspired from trans-personal method drawing insights from Vedanta and Western psychotherapy. Dr Bhat is also an author and host of a radio show called ‘Heart line’.

Today at Little Theatre, Nariman Point he will address a talk based on his latest book How to Heal Your Broken Heart, followed by a conversation with  columnist, author Anil Dharker.

It`s open to all and the security will not be checking at the door for broken hearts.

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We are living in times where everything is news and the credit for manufacturing catchy headlines goes to professional PR teams. There is intelligence in the way every film/ play/ program/ channel/ product is promoted.  

The Angry Birds Movie in a unique campaign to promote the brilliant animation film has come up with the original idea to award celebrities who are angry, and for a good reason. After bestowing,,,Sonakshi Sinha and RJ Malishka with The Angries awards, The Angry Bird has found the next angry celebrity – Neha Dhupia who has never restricted herself from expressing her mind. Recently Dhupia tweeted about the potholes menace in the city and had to face with angry protestors outside her home but that does not stop Neha from being heself.

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In less than a month we will witness the power of three formidable performers namelyAmitabh Bachchan,

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, withVidya Balan in Ribhu Dasgupta’s TE3N. 

As we all know the film is a thriller shot in Kolkatta and Vidya Balan comes in a special appearance. Vidya has a special relationship with the film unit and if last time in Kahaani she had to learn to walk and breathe like a pregnant woman, this time she has to learn skill she is not good at, for instance driving.

Vidya Balan shares that she learnt driving very early when she was in college but was never a confident driver. For TE3N however I’m required to drive in a very important sequence in the film and I wanted to do it myself without a double, so took over the wheel and after a brief warning to all to look after themselves dashed around driving around the narrow streets of Kolkata. I don’t know about my companion Nawazudin in the adjoining seat but I felt safwe because Sujoy Ghosh was my driving instructor.”

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 In the olden days the actor’s job was over when the film shooting was completed. He was called to dub the film and was rarely involved in the post production of the film. The film was packaged, promoted, marketed and advertised by the producer. Sometimes the producer and the director had creative differences on how the film should be edited or ended but these differences never became public. Sometimes the director faced problems with the censors and the actor was taken as a mediator to express and influence the team but these details also never became public. While the production house hassled with release details, the stars came into action when it was time to participate in the premier of the film.

Today it is a reverse story, today the film is promoted from the day it is planned/ announced/ shot and released. The promotion gets more and more aggressive as the release date gets closer and the best example of this is Ajay Devgn’s ambitious project Shivaay.

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