Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movies released in Navi Mumbai’ (Fraud Saiyaan, Bombairiya, Why Cheat India, Rangeela Raja, Woh Jo Tha Ek Messiah and 72 Hours) that was published in Newsband

New movies released in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Fraud Saiyaan

Fraud Saiyaan (English: Fraud Husband) is an Indian Bollywood Comedy film directed by Sourabh Shrivastava, presented by Prakash Jha and produced by Disha Jha and Kanishk Gangwal. It stars Arshad Warsi, Saurabh Shukla and Sara Loren in lead roles. The supporting cast includes Deepali Pansare, Flora Saini and Nivedita Tiwari.

Fraud Saiyyan is the story of a con artist in North India who convinces women to marry him just so he can live off their money. It is the story of a con artist whose business plan is marrying woman after woman and living off them. He has 13 wives, but in a potential 14th wife, he meets his match. A woman who also marries for money!

The film has Arshad Warsi as Bhola Prasad Tripathi, Saurabh Shukla, Flora Saini, Sara Loren, Varun Badola, Deepali Pansare, Parag Tyagi, Ritesh M M Shukla, Nivedita Tiwari as Mala, Peeyush Suhaney, Mohit Balchandani, Parul Bansal, Kanchan Awasthi, Anangsha Biswas, Amrita Puri, Mihika Verma and Elli Avram (item number "Chamma Chamma")

The music of the film has been composed by Sohail Sen and Kumaar has pennned the lyrics. The song "Chamma Chamma" which featured Elli Avram, is a recreated song from 1998 film China Gate which originally featured Urmila Matondkar. The film has songs like "Chamma Chamma", "Ishq Ishq Tera", "Fraud Saiyaan" and "Mashoor Hazoor - E - Aala".

Bombairiya

Bombairiya is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language black comedy drama film directed by Pia Sukanya and written and produced by Michael E. Ward with story from Ward, Sukanya and Aarti Bagdi. The film stars Radhika Apte, Siddhanth Kapoor, Akshay Oberoi, Adil Hussain, Ravi Kishan, Amit Sial, Ajinkya Deo and Shilpa Shukla. It follows the story of Meghna, who gets embroiled in a series of events after her phone gets stolen.

Bombairiya follows the story of Meghna, who gets embroiled in a series of events after her phone gets stolen. Three stories merge on one mad December day in the temperamental city of Mumbai. Meghna, a PR agent, has her phone snatched by a 'Biker'; Have-A-Go Hero, Abhishek, puts his private life on hold to help; and Pandya, a politician facing trial in the High Court, hopes his hitman will swiftly eliminate a mysterious witness. Fading film star, Karan Kapoor, and Deputy Home Minister, Irawati, are just trying to get through their day, when everyone suddenly becomes entangled in each other's messy lives. Events quickly snowball to reveal that the fate of the witness lies in all their hands. Will Meghna and this bunch of strangers, from the highest echelons to the lowest ranks of society, overcome their self-obsession for just long enough to prevent the identity of the star witness from falling into the wrong hands?

The film has Radhika Apte as Meghna, Siddhanth Kapoor, Akshay Oberoi, Adil Hussain, Ravi Kishan, Amit Sial, Ajinkya Deo, Shilpa Shukla, Saniya Anklesaria and Shailesh Hejmady.

Arko Pravo Mukherjee and Amjad Nadeem composed songs and also has written lyrics. The movie has songs like "Sanki", "Bairiya" (version 1), "Sajde Karoon" and "Bairiya" (version 2).

Why Cheat India

Why Cheat India is an Indian comedy drama film written and directed by Soumik Sen. It features Emraan Hashmi and Shreya Dhanwanthary in the lead roles.

The movie focuses on existing malpractices in country's education system, the whole concept of buying your way through education, jobs and earnings. Even with an evolving education system, the country faces scams like SSC and HSC paper leaks, CBSE re-examination, Vyaapam, etc. The movie tries to shift the attention of people to understand the vulnerability of hardworking and gifted students who get left out.

The film has Emraan Hashmi and Shreya Dhanwanthary.

The music of the film is composed by Rochak Kohli, Guru Randhawa, Krsna Solo, Kunaal-Rangon, Agnee and Soumik Sen while the lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir, Kumaar, Kunaal Verma, Guru Randhawa and Juhi Saklani.

The film has songs like "Daaru Wargi", "Taiyaari", "Dil Mein Ho Tum", "Phir Mulaaqat", "Kaamyaab", "Stupid Saiyaan", "Phir Mulaaqat" (Female) and "Dil Mein Ho Tum" (Female).

Rangeela Raja

Rangeela Raja is an Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Sikander Bharti and written and produced by Pahlaj Nihalani, starring Govinda, Mishika chourasia and Anupama Agnihotri.

Set in Rajasthan, Rangeela Raja is the story of two brothers who lead completely different lifestyles. Due to certain circumstances in life, the elder brother gets drawn towards an aimless life which is not for him. The younger brother who leads a life of a yogi, decides to bring his elder brother back on track. What follows is comedy, romance and action. Rangeela Raja features Govinda in a double role, with Mishika Chourasia and Anupama Agnihotri in additional lead roles. The film tells the story of a strong-headed woman, Natasha, who wants to explore her career. She meets Raja Vijendra Pratap Singh, a business tycoon. After meeting Natasha, Raja Vijendra Pratap Singh's life turns around, as do the lives of his family. His younger brother, Ajay Pratap Singh, leads a life of a yogi and decides to bring his elder brother back on track.

The film has Govinda as Vijendra Pratap Singh, a philandering businessman, and Ajay Pratap Singh, a pious yogi, Mishika Chourasia as Natasha, a strong-headed woman working with Vijendra Pratap Singh, Shakti Kapoor as Padampat, a driver, Kader Khan as Special appearance, Prem Chopra as Guruji, Anupama Agnihotri as Aalekha, the love interest of Ajay Pratap Singh, Digangana Suryavanshi as Shivranjani, the wife of Vijendra Pratap Singh, Karishma Kaul as Pallavi, Karan Anand as Yuvraj, Aarti Gupta as Shikha, Govind Namdev as Sharma and Imran Khan as Special appearance.

All the songs of the movie are composed by Ishwar Kumar. There are total 5 tracks in the album. Shreya Ghoshal has rendered her voice to three tracks from the album. The film has songs like "Rangeela Raja", "Jogi Dil", "Dholi Dol Baja", "Jagmag Jagmag" and "Aum".

72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died

72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died is an upcoming Hindi movie scheduled to be released on 18 Jan, 2019. The movie is directed by Avinash Dhyani and will feature Avinash Dhyani, Alka Amin, Virendra Saxena and Shishir Sharma as lead characters. Other popular actors who were roped in for 72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died are Sumit Gulati, Mukesh Tiwari, Gireesh Kr. Sahdev and Prashil Rawat.

The film revolves around the life of Jaswant Singh Rawat and takes us into the 1960s era, when apart from economic instability, famine and religious fights, our country was struggling with a new danger-the war of Indo-China. Jaswant was born in a poor family of Dehradun and his family belonged to the beautiful hills of Garhwal. He grew up to be a responsible son, devoting his life towards study and his family, but destiny wanted him to serve his country. Due to some incidents, he decided to join army at a very young age and received his training in Lansdowne District and became a successful soldier of Garhwal Rifles Regiment. Shortly after his training, their paltan was sent to defend the approaching Chinese army from the North-East front on India. And began the historical war of Indo-China where our soldiers were outnumbered and outgunned but fought till the last man.

Due to adverse circumstances, the infantry had to step back. However, one soldier stood there till his last breath and fought against the Chinese army alone for 72 hours. The soldier was Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Quota system - the cause of poor quality jobs and education' that was published in Newsband

Quota system - the cause of poor quality jobs and education

The Centre has extended reservations for the economically weaker sections among the forward castes in all educational institutions (including private ones) and government jobs. This is aimed at winning over educated Middle India that is unable to secure a decent education or white-collar job. The move is also meant to appease the dominant, resentful peasant castes, such as the Jats, Gujjars, Patels and Marathas who have been hit by rural distress and don’t fit in the industry and services sectors.

The initiative entails a Constitutional amendment to Articles 15 and 16 to include the ‘economically disadvantaged’ as a category entitled to reservations, in addition to ‘socially and educationally backward classes’. The creation of a distinct category of ‘economically disadvantaged’ upper castes is an altogether different matter.

The clamour for quotas stems from the inadequate supply of quality education and jobs. The economically weaker sections is existing everywhere whenever there is wide variations in the Income level of the people. It is a cumulative effort of the individual to sustain in the competitive world. The Government provisions in the form of Job reservations is in the miniscule for satisfying the people of country. Within the 100 percentage, all the economically weaker sections of the people irrespective of the caste, creed, etc would entail the process of determining which income level the people of our country is fit into which is a big question. Creation of intelligent people in terms of GDP Growth has been declined as per Articles intimation. Changing the percentage of job reservations is a political game for diverting the people’s attention from their ruling affairs.

The needed amendments must be made in the constitution in articles 15 and16 to include the term economically disadvantaged for giving life to this new needed reservation.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India’s war against plastic pollution' that was published in Newsband

India’s war against plastic pollution

India won global acclaim for its “Beat Plastic Pollution” resolve declared on World Environment Day last year. 22 States and Union Territories have joined the fight, announcing a ban on single-use plastics such as carry bags, cups, plates, cutlery, straws and thermocol products.

Voluntary initiatives are having an impact in many States, as citizens reduce, reuse and sort their waste. Yet, this is only a small start. But the depressing reality is that State and local governments are unwilling to upgrade their waste management systems, which is necessary to even measure the true scale of packaging waste. To recover thousands of tonnes of waste that end up in dumping sites, cities and towns need competent municipal systems to achieve this.

The Bengaluru-based Plastobag Industries is one of the sixteen companies in India that have permission from the Central Pollution Control Board to make bioplastics. Can bioplastics solve India’s plastic pollution woes?

Most bioplastics produced globally are made from the byproducts of food crops, they are expensive. Compared to conventional plastics, which are derived from fossil fuels, a bioplastic carry bag could cost almost thrice as much. With only a few municipal corporations implementing the 2016 countrywide ban on conventional plastic carry bags of less than 50 micron thickness, there has been no economic reason for most people to switch. In the coming years, however, the price difference between bioplastics and conventional plastics is expected to shrink.

Many had lost business after the 2016 ban on thin carry bags. Many firms shut down due to the plastic ban. These people are now trying to switch over bioplastics. In India, bioplastic carry bags have been exempted from the 50 micron rule. They are allowed to be thinner because this will let them break down faster. Such factors can keep the prices of bioplastics down, at least in some cases.

There is a case for greater bioplastic use worldwide and in India. But experts caution that bioplastics, while useful, are no panacea for pollution. This is because the key culprit today is the lack of awareness among people, who don’t segregate their waste. A large amount of the discarded plastic today wouldn’t be an environmental hazard in the first place, if it were properly recycled. With most bioplastics, degradation is fast in industrial composting facilities, but takes years in the natural environment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should formulate a great policy that will force all container manufacturers and snack packers to switch to microbe degradable plastics for all sort of packing needs.

Clean India and Clean Ganga campaigns will not succeed unless we stop the culture of "tear the snack pack, eat and throw" mentality. Plastic is not only the problem for the human on one side but also this creates many problems for soil, water, tree etc. on the other side.

In view of environment hazards like Global warming, Earth & Air pollution, the innovative technologies some people are coming up with should be really appreciated and implemented for the well-being of our environment. The solution would be to increase agricultural land for banana trees and go back to the traditional Banana leaves for having food and jute bags instead of plastic bags. No approvals required, and would also benefit farmers a great deal.

Our culture of littering has to change. One must have noticed a kit with shopkeepers when they lock and leave for home. The kit contains plastic to be disposed enroute home on the roadside. Some others set fire to plastic on roadsides. Both are dangerous to environs. Why people behave like this? It would be good if a waste disposal barrel is established in front of every home and shop so that the municipality men can collect them and dispose them without harming the environment.

Dinesh Kamath's news 'Backstage Heroes in the field of Cinema felicitated at Vashi' that was published in Newsband

Backstage Heroes in the field of Cinema felicitated at Vashi

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Angha Events, D S Entertainment and Rangmanch Kamgar Sangh (Registered) had jointly organized an Award Distribution Ceremony for backstage heroes at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium. These award winners have done great jobs in films, dramas and entertainment world during their lives time. Present during this event were National award winner direcot Rajesh Mapuskar (Ventilator), famous director Kedar Shinde, famous director Samit Kakkad, actress Nirmiti Sawant actress Madhura Velankar Satam, Akhil Bharatiya Natya Parishad’s president Prasad Kambli, Rangmanch Kamgar Sangh’s president Ratnakant Jagtap, actress Sima Deshmukh, director Shrirang Deshmukh, actress Kunjika Kalvint, Chef Gauri Gujar and others.

This prize distribution ceremony witnessed famous movie distributor Sadik Chitlikar who distributed films like Sairat, Natsamrat, Lai Bhari, Naal etc. (more than 150 successful films), Sachin Gurave who did poster designs for many Hindi and Marathi films and dramas, Anand Gaikwad (Chief Producer), Bharat Kuchekar (Film Setting), Shivraj Chabra (Sound Recording), Rajiv Wagh (Production Management), Uttam Mankar (Managing Production), Umana Vaiju Kinikar (Light Arrangement) and other technicians of cinema world. The award winners also included workers in Drama World who served for four decades.

Shivaji Mandir’s Balumama, light arrangement supervisor Suresh Pednekar, stage management supervisor Vishwanath Tayade, make up man of many hit drams Eknath Talgaonkar, sound coordinator Sadanand Korgaonkar, make up man Vaman Gamre, choreographer Mahipat Panchal, stage manager Sunil Sawant, art teacher Shrihari Pawle who organized free Childre Drama Camp free of cost for twenty five years and produced many artists.

In his speech, the National Award winner director Rajesh Mapuskar said, “All these people are our backbones and because of them we could present our artistic talents before the audience.”

People who contribute to various fields like Mayur Dhumal who runs Police Parikshan Kakhi Training Academy, Afsha Kapadia who runs Fashion Institute, cinematographer Piyush Ghadge, celebrity photographer Santosh Gambhire, Priti Singh, DJ Viki, actor Mayur Pawar and Prabhakar Belvi were felicitated. The comperting of the event was done by Smita Gawankar while the people who slogged to make the event successful were organizer Umesh Choudhary, Angha Lad and Dipak Shetty.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The SP-BSP tie-up to combat BJP' that was published in Newsband

The SP-BSP tie-up to combat BJP

The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have thrown a serious challenge to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They have alienated the Congress, which is the only national-level force in an emerging anti-BJP coalition. The two biggest parties in U.P.'s opposition space have equally carved out 76 of the 80 seats between themselves, leaving four to the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal,

The Congress has been pushed into a forlorn corner in India's most populous State. The regional parties know it is easier to do business with a weakened Congress than with a resurgent one. The strategy of the SP and the BSP and some other regional players to defeat the BJP without making the Congress win is high-risk and difficult to implement.

It is very clear from the past experience that opposition unity is a failed experiment. This is due one and only one reason - the greed! They act as if they were starved and grab everything causing indigestion. Let any single party come to power, that will be better for the nation. But let it be without anyone from regional opportunist parties.

Congress is running after the regional parties and this has affected their national identity. There is not a single leader worth looking up to. It is really scary to think of PM from the SP-BJP-Congress-TMC-TDP. Do any of the leaders of these parties have any stature in the International arena?

The main reason for the alliance between SP and BSP is the humiliation suffered by SP in the recent State elections in which SP found Congress as baggage. Rahul Gandhi lacks the charisma as compared to Sonia Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi flip flops on religious issues extracts less applause but more laughter.Thus this alliance was more out of frustration against Rahul rather against BJP. BJP might put all its acts together to gain the confidence of UP electorate to win all those seats.

Somehow we are getting more and more entrenched into personality politics. Our media is of least help in giving a shift from this trend. The media’s loud cry about tall leaders than proffered policies is deafening and blinding the perceptions of majority. When will media dialogues will mature to fore-stage the policy differences, that day will be the day our Indian politics attain maturity. Let the media take a conscious effort to stop indulging in the image building of preferred leaders and demeaning of other leaders. Don’t we have enough free media to move in that direction?

The SP BSP combination might have helped in assembly elections but it would not be the same for Loksabha elections.The people have a different view when it comes to voting for Loksabha.The Congress is now left alone; it has to attack the combination and BJP to win seats in UP

All alliances are for mutual benefit and no one cares about a common programme or common ideology. Success of alliance between two parties, BSP & SP, will be obviously dependent on caste equations and on division of votes. Benefit of division of votes went to BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha election. No one knows what will happen in 2019 election. Voters are aware of dangers of such opportunistic alliances but are simply helpless. They have very little say in this regard. But they can reject such alliances by voting for either of two national parties, Congress & BJP.

SP and BSP are themselves not confident in winning the UP elections independently in UP. Opposition parties who were enemies for more than two decades can never remain united and it clearly implies that neither of these parties have anything common for the development of UP. The only thing they have in common is 'Keeping BJP out'. UP people must now clearly understand that SP and BSP are joining hands just with the dream of Non BJP alternative only and not with any agenda of UP development. In the process, they have ousted Congress from the UP elections. The opposition are already proving themselves that 'Mahagatbandhan' is a failed experiment at both the state level and central level also.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Tussle in the CBI’s top echelons' that was published in Newsband

Tussle in the CBI’s top echelons

The tussle between Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana has ended with the former’s removal, although it is couched as a transfer. The government was even-handed in asking both Verma and Asthana to proceed on leave.

The legal protection for the CBI Director from external interference is not strong. The court’s reinstatement of Verma was not unconditional. It asked the committee — comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, and the leader of the largest Opposition party - whether he should be divested of his powers. The majority ordered Verma’s transfer. The committee refused Verma a personal hearing because the Central Vigilance Commissioner had heard him and as he was neither suspended nor transferred, but only given a post of equal rank, there was no need for a hearing. But the future regimes may use this precedent to get such an adverse report against an inconvenient director and unseat him.

Verma has claimed that the CVC report was based only on the complainant’s charges against him, and did not represent the CVC’s ‘findings’. CBI Director’s shifting is justified as serious charges were leveled and is under investigation. It is established procedure that till charges are cleared, an officer should be under suspension or shifted to avoid hampering or intervening the investigation. In this case,a prima facie is established in presence of retired SC judge and due procedure has been followed. Independence of any Institution is not absolute but subject to regulation.

The action by the government is strictly in accordance with Supreme Court ruling that only a committee appointed can remove the CBI director and the judge was also nominated by none other than CJI. There are clear indication of corruption against Alok Verma and hence one cannot say that the post of CBI director can be easily removed. It is unfortunate that the CBI director himself fell into the trap by charging his second in command with corruption charges. But the entire episode has reduced the image of the institution.

The CBI cannot be so 'independent" that its director cannot be removed by any power on earth under any circumstances whatsoever. That just cannot happen for quite valid reasons. Here the people rule themselves through their representatives. It cannot be that police rule us. The provision of a selection committee with powers to remove/transfer is only meant for ensuring that the government does not err in taking action when it deems needed.

Some people suspect that the removal of director of CBI is an attempt by Central Government to escape from being exposed. Varma was to examine the Rafale dealings and retired CJI. Deepak Misra's mistakes. So the Government felt afraid and had the director removed from CBI.

SC wanted the committee to settle the matter in a fortnight. Anyway, Verma was due to retire on 31^st January. What was the hurry for Verma to reverse the orders taken by his predecessor, even though he knew he was on borrowed time. He could have waited till the meeting of the committee before taking such decisions. That shows he had an agenda. Finally, everyone knew how the two political votes in the committee would go. Hence, by questioning the decision of the committee, everyone is questioning the credibility of Justice Sikri. This is fraught with danger for every decision will be viewed suspiciously and from a political angle.

Alok Verma has had an unblemished career in the IPS for forty years. The only complaint against him came from a disgruntled senior colleague, who the Delhi High Court has confirmed today should be investigated by the CBI for corruption. It would have been graceful to allow him to have served for another three weeks and then allowed retire in peace. The allegations made against him could have been enquired into with professionalism.

Independence of investigating agencies is sacred in a democracy. Why is it that FBI reports to the Deparment of Justice in the US but CBI reports to the PMO in India?

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Election spending poses a challenge to the economy' that was published in Newsband

Election spending poses a challenge to the economy

As per the estimate of Central Statistics Office, the GDP growth rate for the full year is projected to be at 7.2%, which is significantly higher than the growth rate of 6.7% achieved last year. Many sectors of the economy are projected to do better than they did last year in the aftermath of demonetisation and the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax. The CSO’s growth estimate for 2018-19 is lower than the estimates made by institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India and the World Bank.

A worrying trend in the economic data is the recent sequential deceleration in growth over consecutive quarters. According to the CSO, growth is likely to slow down considerably from the average of 7.6% recorded during the first half of the current fiscal year to around 6.8% in the second half.

Ahead of the general election, the government may wish to help growth by boosting spending, but any such move would be ill-advised. The government cannot crank up spending without severely affecting its finances, along with investor confidence in the economy.

Announcements and advertisement rhetoric do not mean achievement of development, harmony and peace. Socio-economic reality of India is that there is no significant unemployment, even though there is lot of manifest underemployment, low and uncertain wages and economic, old age and health insecurity. Jobless Growth is persisting and whatever employment is created all that is in the unorganised sector, what with even the government coupled with corporate sector is engaged in outsourcing sectors of production and service to informal employers; adding to the economic misery of the poor and less skilled. Technological changes have been consistent in replacing labour by machines, robots and AI. Though Agriculture is losing out on incomes and employment, albeit proportionately and not absolutely, it still holds the best hope for expansion of employment at the lowest rural levels. Multi cropping, use of dung manure, leveling of land, rain water harvesting, economy in irrigation in India! Jai Hind!

Big corporates money to all political parties must be paid digitally with income tax GST deductions. No mainstream party is interested in economy: every politician is trying to gain votes by any means. Congress goes on promising huge farm loan waivers across states for the upcoming election. That's a significant drain on the economy and a political mischief. Any temptation to bestow an expensive favour on the farming community should be firmly resisted.