IFFI 51, 16-24 January, 16: Bengali and Hindi veteran Actor-Director-Singer Biswajit conferred Indian Personality of the Year Award The 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India, Goa has conferred Biswajit Chatterjee, veteran actor, producer, director and singer of Hindi and Bengali cinema, with the Indian Personality of the Year Award. The Award was announced at the opening ceremony of the festival, by Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Prakash Javadekar....

Shashi Kapoors don’t die: Part I Showbiz is often cruel, usually ruthless. It takes so many factors to make it as an actor, luck or lineage included. Then, you need to stay on, weather flops and hits, and keep grabbing opportunities, in the hope that the next one will do it for you. Son of Prithviraj Kapoor, Balbir (Shashi) Raj Kapoor had done his bit of drama at his Papajee’s Prithvi Theatre, like his two older brothers (Ranbir) Raj Kapoor and Shamsher (Shammi) Raj Kapoor. They h...

Indian films’ greatest playback singer Mohammed Rafi: Tributes on his 92nd birthday Rafi died in 1980. Among the singers who gave playback to songs picturised on Indian actors, he topped the list, both in terms of quality and quantity. Opinions have been expressed that Kishore Kumar had the edge when it came to spontaneity and Manna Dey was a classical wizard. My own childhood favourite, Mukesh, too, was the darling of a few millions, but nobody, nobody could eye the spot that Rafi had ...

Mr. Holmes-The Man beyond the Myth, Review: And you thought you knew your Sherlock! Mr. Holmes presents a 93 year-old Sherlock without his coat and pipe, after Dr. Watson and his house-keeper Mrs. Hudson are dead and gone, living with a new housekeeper (Mrs. Munro) and her young boy (Roger) in Sussex, cultivating a keen interest in bees and nurturing an apiary, in the year 1947, having quit his Baker Street office and his profession 35 years ago, out of professional disappointment, suffering...