Shital

  LUCKNOW: What began as a dream of a better life overseas ended in fear, abuse, and captivity for 30-year-old Vinod Kumar, son of an e-rickshaw driver from Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, who recently returned to India after being deported from Myanmar. Kumar is one of the 38 other men from UP who were rescued after Thailand and Myanmar police arrested 100 people in the last week of January as a part of its crackdown on the scam centres in the country.  A senior UP Police officer said that Indian embassies in Myanmar and Thailand coordinated with local authorities to secure the repatriation of 283 Indian nationals by an IAF aircraft from Mae Sot in Thailand, 38 of whom were from UP. Back home, they recounted their tales of horror from the notorious KK Park, a major hub of cybercrimes, internet frauds, investment frauds, on the Myanmar-Thailand border.  Atul Singh, a 25-year-old BCA graduate from Auraiya, had his eyes welled up while talking to TOI. “My mother sold he...

  Hyderabad Charminar Fire:  Thirteen people, including four children died and over 15 injured in a massive fire at a residential building in Gulzar House, near Hyderabad’s Charminar, early Sunday morning. The blaze, which started around 6 AM, prompted a swift response from Fire and Emergency Services. Officials said they received a call around 6:30 AM and rushed 12 fire tenders to the location. Firefighters worked for several hours to bring the flames under control. Several people were found unconscious inside the premises and were immediately rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals for treatment. According to officials, the fire started at a building identified as Srikrishna Pearls. The exact cause has not yet been confirmed, though preliminary findings suggest a short circuit may have triggered the blaze. A detailed investigation is currently underway. Among those injured were several children and the condition of some victims is reported to be critical. Medical teams at ne...

  CAST: Sanya Malhotra, Nishant Dahiya, Kanwaljit, Varun Badola, Loveleen Mishra Mrs. revisits the themes of patriarchal oppression and domestic drudgery explored in The Great Indian Kitchen. While Jeo Baby’s 2021 Malayalam film was raw and immersive, almost documentary-like in its portrayal of the exhausting, repetitive nature of "women’s work," Mrs. doesn’t suffocate you in the same way. The Great Indian Kitchen was unwatchable at times because of the horror it slowly emanated. You wanted to run away from it. Mrs. doesn't hit you quite that hard. Arati Kadav’s direction makes it more accessible to a mainstream audience while retaining the core message. In Mrs., for instance, the scenes depicting the pariah-like attitude towards the new bride during the days she’s on her period are almost normalised. The humiliation that the protagonist felt in the Malayalam original is toned down.  What director Arati Kadav has done differently is that from a teacher, she has turned the...

  CAST: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb, Kumud Mishra, Sharib Hashmi, Revathy, Ashwath Bhatt How refreshing it is to see John Abraham not punching Pakistanis with a hand pump, like Sunny Deol in Gadar. His weapon of choice is a phone and he’s trying to diplomatically solve a crisis. Who knew the man was capable of not using his muscles as the main tool in his skill set? The Diplomat, inspired by the real-life rescue of Uzma Ahmed, revolves around Indian diplomat J P Singh (John Abraham), who finds himself in the middle of a very uncomfortable diplomatic situation. A woman, Uzma (Sadia Khateeb), shows up at the Indian High Commission in Pakistan, claiming she’s been abducted by a Pakistani man who tricked her into a marriage. Now, it's up to J P, a man of courageous diplomacy, to wade through a minefield of international tension. And no, John doesn’t rip off his shirt and beats the bad guys to a pulp while enacting J P. This time, he’s acting as if speaking calmly to his Pakistani count...

  CAST: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Soha Ali Khan, Hardika Mehta & Gashmeer Mahajan Director Vishal Furia made the Marathi film Lapachhapi back in 2017 and remade it in Hindi as Chhorii (2021). It was headlined by Nushrratt Bharuccha. Despite being a far from perfect horror film, it did give us the required chills. In Chhorii, Sakshi (Nushrratt Bharuccha) is taken to a lonely place by her husband when she's heavily pregnant. She keeps seeing visions of small girls and later learns that her husband has brought her here to sacrifice her child if it turns out to be a female. Guided by ghosts, she somehow makes her escape. Chhorii 2 is set seven years later. Sakshi now has a kid Ishaani (Hardika Sharma), who suffers from a rare skin disorder in the sense that she can't bear to be out in direct sunlight. Guess what, Ishaani gets abducted and Sakshi and her policeman friend Samar (Gashmeer Mahajani) trace her back to the same village where Sakshi had escaped from earlier. She's to b...

  Amol Parashar, Vinay Pathak, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, Anandeshwar Dwivedi, Akash Makhija, Garima Vikrant Singh, Santoo Kumar TVF’s Gram Chikitsalay brings us back to the rural heartland of India, treading a path well-worn by its predecessor Panchayat. Set in the fictional village of Bhatkandi, the series explores the challenges of delivering healthcare in under-resourced settings with a mix of satire, realism, and sincerity. While the show shines in its performances and atmosphere, it struggles to rise above the familiarity of its format. Dr. Prabhat Sinha (Amol Parashar) arrives in a remote village of Bhatkandi, Jharkhand totally unprepared for the chaos that’s rural India. He should have at least watched Panchayat, where Jeetendra Kumar was shown facing similar issues. Dr. Prabhat barely has time to unpack before he’s handed his to-do list. Approve vaccines for the upcoming camp without a receipt? Obviously—because who needs proper protocols? Falsify medical certificates to help ...