THREE RING CIRCUS...........

Erudite lawyer and nocturnal Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson; Meenakshi Lekhi is back to doing what she knows best namely putting her foot in her mouth time and again, only this time around she seems to have bitten off more than she can chew and finds herself embroiled in a massive controversy pertaining to a tweet that emanated from her phone and inadvertently mentioned the surname of the victim embroiled in the now infamous Tarun Tejpal rape case........


Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi has always been at the forefront in espousing women oriented causes and has been steadfastly raising her voice against every crime both real as well as imagined perpetrated against the fairer sex and that is why her gaffe has caused that much more consternation and indignation amongst the hallowed and rarefied ranks of woman rights activists and others of their ilk.....

On her part, Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi has been out rightly and stoutly denying any and every such allegation and come up with the none too convincing explanation about some anonymous smart alec hacking into her smartphone and misusing the same in an effort to besmirch her pristine and sterling reputation.........

Not willing to miss out on a golden opportunity that has been served to them on a platter, the Congress spokesperson and president of the Congress Mahila Morcha demanded that a case be filed against Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi under the applicable sections of the Indian Penal Code and that she be sentenced to two years imprisonment as mandated under the applicable tenets of the relevant law..........

The National Commission of Women has also jumped into the fray demanding an unconditional apology from Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi and also asked her to render a written explanation presenting her version of events within 25 hours of the receipt of the notice issued to her by the Commission........

Ladies and gentlemen, the "three ring" circus is back in town, so do book your box office seats at the earliest so that you do not miss out on even a moment of the heady excitement, inanities and absurdities of this sheer balderash..........

THE SORRY SAGA CONTINUES.......

Here is the latest update on the Lakhimpur outrage, that has forced thousands of Assamese, mostly women and children to take to the streets in an effort to ensure that the government hears their collective plea this time around at least and belatedly puts in place an efficacious security apparatus that guarantees the safety and security of both women and children.......


Just to jog your memories, a 31 year old woman who also happened to be the mother of a six year old daughter was gang raped and brutalised by four demons in a rapidly moving vehicle, who subsequently threw her out of the speeding vehicle on the roadside unconscious and copiously bleeding from her numerous injuries........

In an ironical twist to the proceedings, the victim was thrown out of the vehicle barely hundred metres or so away from Lakhimpur's most prominent police station and passersby solicited the ambulance that rushed her to the government hospital where she succumbed to her grievous and life threatening head injuries after braving the odds for almost two fateful days.......

Seven days on, both the Assam government and it's faithful police force have precious little to show for their efforts apart from the dubious facts that they have thus far apprehended one person who is slated to be a distant cousin of the victim and that the post mortem report submitted by a team of captive doctors has failed to find any external evidence of rape.......

What they have failed to mention are the facts that three culprits still remain at large, their woeful failure to either identify and apprehend the driver of the "wanted" vehicle as well as it's make and registration number; while the three term chief minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi has done precious little apart from constituting a five member Special Investigation/ive Team that will examine all aspects and angles of this horrendous crime and submit it's report to the government within thirty days.........

Yes, the chief minister has also mouthed the now cliched and familiar platitudes, homilies and ditties about his government being committed to the noble cause of ensuring the safety and security of all Assamese women and children, but conveniently omitted the fact that the team of captive doctors has also badly botched up the post mortem and failed to conclusively establish the precise reason for the victim's untimely demise even though seven days have elapsed since the hapless victim met her maker.......

As far as the victim's family is concerned, they continue to clutch on to stray crumbs of comfort and fervently hope and pray that the culprits will be brought to book and that the full and requisite force of the law will be brought down upon them in all it's collective might...........

EPOCHAL JUDGEMENT???????

The Supreme Court in it's infinite wisdom also duly recognised the irrefutable fact that there is no express statutory regulations or laws to regulate live-in relationships that end on an acrimonious note as these relationships do not conform to the laid down tenets pertaining to marriage and are also not given their due recognition by the existing laws of the day......


In the landmark and epochal judgement a bench headed by justice K.S. Radhakrishnan framed the required and necessary guidelines to bring all such relationships under the expression "relationship in the nature of marriage" so that the womenfolk involved in these relationships are accorded due protection under the Domestic Violence Act and hence do not fall prey to the avaricious and brutal instincts of their male partners........

It also appealed to the saner instinct of parliamentarians and beseeched them to frame the required laws and guidelines pertaining to the protection of women and children born out of such relationships, even though these live-in relationships might be an anathema to society as a whole and also not conform to the existing tenets and laws pertaining to the age old institution of marriage.......

"Live-in or marriage like relationship is neither a sin in the eyes of god or the law even though society as we know it may frown and fret over all such relationships and even go to the extent of condoning or outrightly condemning them. The decision to marry or not to marry or carry on with such a heterosexual relationship is an intensely personal decision and hence may not conform to the sanctimonious views of the purists in this regard", the bench went on to add while duly recognising the fact that a plethora of countries worldwide had already accorded legal sanction to all such relationships.........

The apex court also went on to remark that such legislation is the crying need of the hour as the numbers of people involved in these relationships is exponentially increasing and also because the hapless woman is at the receiving end in most if not all cases of such relationships coming to an abrupt and untimely end without as much as a by your please........

The bench also raised a red herring and said that the legislature cannot legalise and accord due sanction to pre-marital sex and that people may freely express their opinions both for and against pre-marital sex.........

"Most if not all such relationships endure for an inordinately long interim or considerable period of time and protecting the interest of the weaker sex becomes the sworn duty of the government of the day, even though society and the existing laws of the day might not accord due sanction to live-in relationships", the bench concluded........

Will the government of the day pay heed to the Supreme Court's sage advice, buckle down and get down to the business of framing laws that safeguard the interests of women involved in live-in relationships and children born out of such liasions or then will this much needed legislation fall prey to the exigencies of chauvinistic mindsets and holier than thou attitudes largely prevalent amongst the politicians of the day; well your guess in this regard is as good as mine..........

"OPERATION ELABORATE COVER UP".........

In what must come as an affront, insult and cruel blow to the family of Lakhimpur's 31 year old brave heart's family, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has come out with the baffling and logic defying statement that the post mortem carried out by a battery of doctors on the victim at Assam's foremost government hospital has ruled out the incidence/occurrence of penetrative sex and stated the grievous head injuries suffered by the victim as the immediate cause of her untimely demise........


Refuting all media reports that have emanated over the last seven days pertaining to the victim being gang raped by three/four men in a rapidly speeding tempo, the chief minister said that the post mortem report has put paid to all idle speculation about the horrendous gang rape and has proved to be nothing more than the media sensationalising another crime against a woman in order to garner eyeballs and TRP's..........

On being asked whether his government was amenable to the possibility of a second post mortem being carried out on the victim by a team of eminent doctors without any links whatsoever to the Assam government, the chief minister vehemently ruled out the possibility of the same and stoutly defended the capabilities and competence of the government doctors who carried out the autopsy, thereby giving rise to numerous fears about the credence of the autopsy as well as the initiation of a well orchestrated cover up exercise to save his government's skin and blushes..........

Adding insult to injury, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police of the very same state also denied reports about the assailants gouging out the victim's eyes crudely and painfully in an effort to save their own skin and went on to say that the post mortem report hints at the possibility of only one eye being gouged out and slated the grievous head injuries inflicted on the victim by the assailants with a blunt object/s as the immediate cause of death..........

Resolutely defending his police force's lethargy/slumber and woeful failure to arrest/apprehend even one of the three/four alleged assailants despite six days having elapsed since the occurrence of the most gruesome and macabre sexual assault of 2013, the DIG said that two persons including a distant cousin of the victim and another person well known to the victim have been taken into custody and are being questioned about their whereabouts and actions on the fateful day...........

On being asked why the police had failed to identify and apprehend the vehicle in which this horrendous crime was committed thus far, the DIG found it fit to completely sidestep and evade the rather inconvenient and cumbersome question..............

And so "OPERATION ELABORATE COVER UP" continues without a glitch........

HORROR IN ASSAM......

And pitiably, the carnage continues unabated, the latest victim of the heightened libido, misplaced sense of masculinity and dubious sense of superiority of the stereotyped Indian male is none other than a hapless 31 year old woman who lost her life after bravely grappling with her assailants for a considerable length of time........


According to eyewitnesses and passers by who happened upon the fateful spot in Assam's Lakhimpur district six days ago, the victim who incidentally happens to be the victim of a six year old was last seen getting into a tempo already occupied by the three alleged assailants in a now furtive and murderous effort at reaching her ward and escorting him to the supposedly safer climes of home and hearth after the rigours of the school he attended.........

Alas, the victim did not foresee the calamitous fate that was soon to befall her and the rest of her family; the three alleged rapists soon turned upon her like a pack of depraved wolves and accosted her in an attempt to outrage her modesty and satisfy their enraged libidos, but, to their dismay the lady was made of sterner stuff and fought back like a tigress before succumbing to the superiority of overwhelming numbers and supposedly superior physical strength of the male species.........

Taken aback by the ferociousness and ferocity of the victim's defence, the three brutes soon took to assaulting her repeatedly with iron rods, knocked her senseless, gouged out her eyes so that the victim could not identify them physically and forced themselves repeatedly on the now inert form of the doughty lady before throwing her out of a speeding vehicle and making good their escape from the endangered spot...........

The lady was rushed to the nearest government hospital and valiantly fought for her life for two full days before succumbing to the grievous head injuries inflicted on her by the devils masquerading as men; leaving in her wake a six year old orphan and grieving spouse...........

This horrific, heart rending and spine chilling incident which is now being touted as the most horrendous one of 2013 has yet again thrown open the pandora's box pertaining to the safety and security of women within this glorious nation that supposedly venerates and pays obeisance to the female form..........

It also raises long held questions about the apathy about the rest of the nation towards their brethren and sisters from the North East and also begs a reply from those bleeding hearts who took to the streets in the wake of the Nirbhaya rape in the national capital, but are conspicuous by their deafening silence and woeful failure to take up cudgels on behalf on behalf of Lakhimpur's "braveheart"........

As for the three assailants, they were still at large six days after the incident despite throwing the now deceased victim out of a speeding vehicle a mere hundred meteres or so away from the boundaries of Lakhimpur's most prominent police station.........

SINGH SAAB: NOT SO GREAT AFTER ALL...........

As many a wise man who preceded us said one disappointment always follows another and the same does certain hold true at the cinema as Singh Saab the great proves to be almost as big a let down as Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Ram Leela......


Die hard fans of Sunny Paaji ventured into our friendly neighbourhood multiplexes with exalted expectations as the very same combination of Sunny Paaji and Anil Sharma had delivered a tour de force like Gadar in the past; alas this one is a far cry from the afore mentioned blockbuster and leaves one with a sour after taste in the mouth and pondering over what might have been.....

The most significant problem with Singh Saab is that it tries a little too hard to surreptitiously occupy the space temporarily vacated by Salman Khan and his Dabbang avatar; yes there is no denying the fact that Sunny Paaji was the original "Dabbang" and began the trend os the chest thumping, testosterone churning sagas with "Ghayal", but much water has flown under the bridge since and Sunny Paaji is in his late fifties and expecting him to do an encore of Ghayal and Gadar is akin to asking for the sun, moon and stars at the same time........

Poor writing, a practically non existent screenplay and the penchant of settling all pending issues between the two protagonists (Sunny Paaji and Prakash Raaj) only serve to pull down the narrative even further; yes, Sunny Paaji, Prakash Raaj and Amrita Rao do strive to salvage this not so great venture more than manfully, but moon sized craters in the screenplay and amateurish etching of characters soon puts paid to their sterling efforts.........

Alas, this supposed tour de force does loose steam even before it reaches the half way mark and Sunny Paaji's earnest efforts to combine "Gandhigiri" with "Goondagiri" fail to strike a chord and leave one indifferent to this beleaguered and belaboured effort to regain lost ground with "seeti maar" dialogues and "Dhai Kilo" ke haath.........

Sadly Sunny Paaji is reduced to the the rather forlorn status of a rampaging bull in the proverbial China shop by the time the third act comes around and repeated attempts to chrun the same emotions from the audience in the name of Sunny Paaji's better half and dearer than life sister leave the audiences squirming in their seats and praying fervently for the final curtains to come down on this anything but great venture...........

Catch this one only if you are a die hard Sunny Paaji fan like moi as this one has nothing new to offer and at best is a misplaced effort to spawn old wine in a vinatage bottle and leaves one with the feeling of "been there done that" and so on and so forth...........

LOVE"S LABOUR LOST????????

Am still reeling from a mind numbing assault on my senses entitled "RAM LEELA", which I and my better half had the misfortune of catching or then should I say viewing at a neighbouring multiplex on Monday afternoon...... Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's homage to William Shakespeare's ditty of tragic and unrequited love "Romeo and Juliet" does certainly begin on a bright and boisterous note with the foot tapping Ramji ki chaal dekho but soon meanders into a predictable and sonorous tale of clannish enimity, plots, sub-plots and self indulgent film making that leaves your head pounding and your feet urging you to make a beeline towards the nearest exit........ What can one say about a tale of tragic love that meanders along without ever causing a ripple or two within your heart or even evoking a tear or plaintive cry for the ultimate fate of the star crossed lovers whose love and lives are bound to be sacrificed at the altar of misplaced honour and pride of the clan and "biradari"........ The melodious songs and more than decent performances of Supriya Pathak, Richa Chadda, Barkha Bisht, Ranveer Singh and last but not the least the charming and effusive Deepika Padukone, but sadly these performances are overshadowed by a barrage of bullets, guns, blood ,gore and machinations that would put both a Chanakya and Machiavelli to shame........ Yes, the opulence, attention to detail and mesmerising camera work that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has come to symbolise over the years is very much in place and does tantalise and tease your senses for a brief interlude; but self indulgent editing and nocturnal film making soon puts paid to the opulence and spectacle and leaves you wringing your head in consternation wondering at what might have been with tighter and brutal editing and attention to story and screenplay rather than spectacle and opulence........ "RAM LEELA" is nothing more than a golden opportunity missed, it promises so much and delivers oh so little like that Hindi proverb "OONCHI DUKAAN PHEEKHA PAKWAAN", one expected so much more from an accomplished and seasoned film maker par excellence a la Sanjay Leela Bhansali but unfortunately your heady expectations are soon drowned in the cacophony and resounding boom of deis tamanchas and AK 56 spin offs......... Catch or rather watch this one at your own peril, or then if you are a glutton for punishment or then afflicted with incurable insomia as the same will induce a sense of such blissful stupor that you might not wish to step out of the air conditioned climes of the auditorium for the next week or so........