Latest news with #Satyanarayan
Hindustan Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Adarsh Gourav opens up about his bond with his dad: I see myself…
Actor Adarsh Gourav has noticed something both surprising and endearing — he's becoming more like his father, Satyanarayan (65). Opening up about the deep sense of connection with his dad, Adarsh tells us ahead of Father's Day, 'I haven't spent a lot of time with my dad collectively, he was in a transferable job with the Central Bank of India, but now, I laugh just like him." He adds, 'We both love pickles and rice. Increasingly, I see myself becoming more like him, especially when it comes to food (habits).' The similarities don't stop there. 'My dad has a really good sense of humour and we both love mimicking people,' he says, adding, 'My fondest memory as a kid was seeing him mimic other family members." Born in Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Adarsh moved to Mumbai in 2007 to pursue acting. His first break came in 2010, playing young Shah Rukh Khan in My Name Is Khan. Recalling that moment, he shares a special memory from the audition day. 'My dad was posted in Mumbai at the time. I'd auditioned to play SRK's son. And I remember my dad coming with me to Bandra, standing with him at the bus stop, and reflecting on how bad the audition went,' he recalls with a laugh. Also Read| Exclusive| Adarsh Gourav, Shanaya Kapoor's film Tu Yaa Main to go on floors in June Coming from a small-town background, Adarsh admits that having the support of his family was far from ordinary. Reflecting, his dad adds, 'Initially, I felt this (Adarsh pursuing acting) was tentative and I was nervous, but then decided to leave it to destiny.' Born in a village called Sungaanv in Andhra Pradesh and completing his high school in Raajaanv and then university in Vishakhapatnam, Satyanarayan, who led a simple life. On his part, he instilled discipline in his son which Adarsh mentions became a 'key part' of his life as an actor. 'He instilled a sense of discipline in me from a very young age and that forms a key part of my process as an actor,' Adarsh says, adding, 'Both my parents gave me a lot of freedom. Both these things have been key in me making the choices I have as an actor.' Proud dad Satyanarayan adds, 'I admire Adarsh's conviction and determination.'
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Wagle Ki Duniya: Sumeet Raghavan promises to strike an emotional chord in every Mumbaikar's heart with the upcoming twists; says 'This track means a lot to many people, especially in a city like Mumbai'
Wagle Ki Duniya continues to bring heartfelt stories from the quintessential middle-class person's everyday life. In the latest episode, with property prices rising due to nearby redevelopment, Sai Darshan Society is filled with cheer. Yet, Santoori's (Tarjanee Bhadla) husband fears that something ominous may be approaching. In the upcoming episodes, the residents of Sai Darshan Society are thrilled when their building is chosen for redevelopment given its deteriorating condition. Vandana (Pariva Pranati) begins searching for a temporary place to stay, and Dakku (Deepak Pareek) arranges a Satyanarayan pooja to protect the society. But late at night, a sudden tremor shakes the building, and the children—Atharva (Sheehan Kapahi), Krishna (Vyom Thakkar), and Kittu (Mahi Soni) are found missing. Rajesh ( Sumeet Raghavan ), Dharmesh (Khanjan Thumber), and Dakku search for them, and to their relief, they are found safe. The next morning, cracks appear across many homes due to the tremor. As the society members discuss compensation and builders for the redevelopment process, they choose one—only for him to end up getting arrested by the authorities for tampering with the buildings he was constructing. With plans falling apart and rain pouring in, the residents make temporary fixes. The redevelopment debate heats up, but in the end, the Wagle family and their neighbours decide to move forward, holding on to hope and togetherness. Sumeet Raghavan, playing the role of Rajesh Wagle in Wagle Ki Duniya, said, 'This track means a lot to many people, especially in a city like Mumbai where redevelopment affects so many homes. It's not just about buildings being torn down and rebuilt — it's about people's lives, memories, and emotions. I really liked how the episode didn't just show the process, but also the emotional stress it brings to families. It was heartwarming to see the mix of humour, the strong sense of community, and the real struggles of city life. The episode struck a nice balance between being entertaining and showing the serious side of what redevelopment really feels like.' Keep reading this space for more updates.
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Review: Needle at the Bottom of the Sea by Tony K Stewart
I come from a Hindu, Ghoti Bengali family (ie one native to West Bengal) that migrated to Rajasthan three generations ago. I moved to Delhi for college and stayed on for over 20 years and now live in Bengaluru. The world of the Sundarbans is far away from the worlds I have inhabited and I have never set foot there either. Most of the stories in this collection feature pirs and fakirs while, as a child, I grew up juggling between my grandmother's Shaktaism and grandfather's Vaishnavite faith. And yet, I can relate to the five stories in this collection. Why? Because they are about faith, honesty, virtue and bravery – fairly universal qualities. Although, that's not quite the end of it. Included here is a story, Wayward Wives and Their Magical Flying Tree, from Satya Narayaner Puthi of Kavi Vallabh. Our family continues to hold Satyanarayan paths at home and an uncle who is unabashedly right wing is a great believer in Satyanarayan. In this book we find that Satyanarayan was/is Satya Pir. In fact, 'All of the texts assert that Satya Narayan and Satya Pir were more than synonymous – they were simply two names for the same figure and were used interchangeably.' Stewart explains this in his introduction, 'The adventures of the pirs and bibis evidently struck a chord somewhere in the Bengali psyche, establishing an equivalence of characters and cosmology that normalized the Sufi world in the Bengali cultural landscape. The pirs and phakirs, the bibis, the gajis became the equivalent of Vaisnav mendicant vairagis of nath siddhas, of ascetic sannyasis. And this is certainly a large part of the cultural work these tales performed, for they did not seek to impose a new religion imported from outside, but to locate their holy figures in the traditional Indic cosmology of Bengal. These stories are not just commemorative of how Islam came to Bengal, but of how they served to naturalize, to insinuate Bengal into Islam. Writing Bengal and Bengalis into the literature of the wider Muslim world, they give us a glimpse of the way Bengal made Islam its own.' In these stories, as Stewart writes in his informative introduction, 'The protagonists encounter predicaments faced by every human being, but the presence of marvels beyond the ordinary signals creative solutions on a heroic scale.' Sounds like fantasy, right? It is Indian fantasy without any tropes or the hero's journey borrowed from Western writing. There are ghosts and fairies and gods and demi-gods galore. There are at least two major battle scenes between Gaji Pir and Dakshin Ray that reminded me of the battle scenes from the Iliad, though with a touch of the comic as there are lions and supernatural beings that talk of their brave feats. Sample this from one of Gaji Pir's tigers: 'I, Sisir, have double the strength in my body. I have stalked men by the hundreds in the forest, then strike and maul them from my hiding place. Is there any other who can match my footspeed?/ When I crouch and ball up my body, tighter and smaller than a cat, I slink undetected, with my chest pressing the ground.' The appearance of a tiger called Pecamukha made me laugh because peca also means owl in Bangla – so he is called 'owl-face' – and, of course, every Bengali child has been told to not make a face like a peca!. What's also remarkable is that despite the fact that Pir and Ray are pitted as adversaries, in the first story, The Auspicious Tale of the Lord of the Southern Regions: The Ray Mangal of Krsnaram Das, Ray is the hero while in the second story, which is actually a love story – maybe the only love story of a Pir ('it is simply unprecedented', we are told – Gaji Kalu O Campavati Kanyar Puthi of Abdul Ohab), Gaji Pir becomes the hero. This balancing act indicates Stewart's meticulous curation. In his introduction, he says: 'Literary historians have somewhat mistakenly characterized them as fairy tales or folktales, but those labels impose expectations on the reader that imply in the South Asian context that the tales lack literary merit. While they are certainly akin to those genres in spirit, the stories involve a kind of timelessness, taking place in an indeterminate age, long before the present, though not without occasional allusions to historical events.' He also discusses the beauty and specificity in details in the descriptions, especially of the flora and fauna of the region to highlight the literary merit of the stories. In the introduction to the Ray Mangal story, he shows how the author Krsnaram Das has a pitch perfect beginning. Ray visits him in his dream, commissioning him to write his story properly. If he doesn't, he says he will kill Das and his family. Why? Because 'previous author had made it into a farce'. The author also employs the meta-narrative trope when Puspadatta, a voyaging merchant asks one of his helmsmen about Ray and Gaji's fight for dominion. We find another story-within-a-story in the Satya Narayan Puthi tale. A funny bit has Gaji saying about Ray, 'I have to see for myself quickly what kind of devil, Saytan, he is. Every day his bare fists pummel people into bloody submission. He seizes their land and with a flourish produces a document that testifies to his ownership, that claims it as his property.' A critique of the zamindari system? The translation, which perhaps in trying to be as close to the original as possible, slips in places as it does on page 62 with 'personally do physical battle with the phakir.' Also, machjed for masjid, 'darbar court', 'Stainless Lord, Niranjan' might seem odd to an Indian reader. In places, the stories echo the Manusmriti with women being seen as a distraction from the spiritual path and also being exhorted to take control of the domestic realm to 'be the women you are meant to be' (p. 235). They are either benevolent, protective matrons like Bonbibi or airheaded murderous villains as in Wayward Wives and Their Magical Flying Tree. Nothing revolutionary there. Still, the book has something for everyone. There are precise diacritics, extensive bibliography and glossary, notes, exhaustive introductions detailing the research methodology and versions and their differences for the academics. But if you are not into that, the storytelling with the perfect arcs and characterizations holds the average reader's attention too. Priyanka Sarkar is an editor, translator and writer.
The Hindu
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘Bhool Chuk Maaf' movie review: Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi light up this timely parable
In the story of Satyanarayan, an important multi-stranded tale in religious storytelling in Indian homes, the protagonists tend to forget the noble deed they promise when they seek a blessing or a favour from the Almighty. But God has His ways to remind the faithful of the unkept vows. Cutting through a web of rituals, writer-director Karan Sharma brings the message of this timeless katha to theatres with a modern-day parable. A rollicking social commentary laced with a layer of magic realism, Bhool Chuk Maaf makes a sharp comment on the growing schism in society where goodness and compassion are often measured on a scale of religious identity, where the goal corrupts our action even when the Bhagavad Gita is invoked on a daily basis. Underlining the everyday hypocrisy where practice and preaching don't often match, the film begins in Banaras among Tiwaris, Dwivedis, and Pandeys. Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) loves Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi). Caste and religion are not an issue. The problem is more immediate. Ranjan is jobless, and the girl's father wants a groom with a government job. In the race against time, Ranjan bribes Mahadev in the temple and Bhagwan Das (Sanjay Mishra), an endearing fixer, outside. Things seem to fall in place, but on the wedding day, Ranjan finds himself caught in a time loop. The poor boy repeatedly wakes up on the day of his Haldi ceremony. Soon, we discover that Sharma is not just making fun of the Haldi ceremony, which has become the most significant wedding ritual for the youth. There is more to it than situational humour. Banaras has more to it than just Brahmin surnames, that unemployment is not community-centric, and that doing the right thing is not always the most acceptable thing socially. Bhool Chuk Maaf (Hindi) Director: Karan Sharma Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Seema Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Raghubir Yadav, Vineet Kumar, Zakir Hussain Runtime: 121 minutes Storyline: Ranjan gets his girl after he lands a government job, but an unfulfilled promise to Lord Shiva sends him into a time loop The best part is that Sharma makes us believe in his leap of faith for a while. The trap of the time loop feels realistic, for we don't learn from our mistakes and allow history to repeat itself. Curiously, after Operation Sindoor, it seemed that the film's release would also get stuck like its protagonist's love life, but the producers quickly fulfilled their pre-release promises. Returning to Ranjan and Titli, the vernacular jokes and jibes hit the right notes, and Rajkummar and Wamiqa seamlessly merge into the Banarasi setting. Titli has more agency than Ranjan, but Sharma doesn't turn their romance into a feminist exercise and presents both with their faults and prejudices. Usually, heroes, heroines, and the supporting cast seem to inhabit disparate worlds in modern-day rom-coms set in rurban locales. Here, if seasoned players like Seema Pahwa, Raghubir Yadav, Vineet Kumar, and Sanjay Mishra stitch a relatable social tapestry, Rajkummar and Wamiqa become the warp and weft in it. Wamiqa lives up to her character's name. Livewire with a sense of purpose, like many talented outsiders, Wamiqa's career is clogged in the labyrinthine Bollywood talent lines that remain jammed because of the film family ward quota system. Like a butterfly, her talent, it seems, has finally found an outlet in the big sea. In contrast, Rajkummar Rao, another outsider, is seafaring after years of struggle. Of course, he is attempting to repeat the box office gains made with Stree in Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video and here. But, for now, he is in a Bhool Chuk Maaf kind of space often reserved for a star. He should be careful with his everyman charm as it can easily turn into a slippery slope, as we discovered with Ayushmann Khurrana. However, Rajkummar has an edge over his contemporaries because he can dig deeper to be a Shahid or a Newton any day. The time loop is the crux of the story, but the trick is not to let it fall into a rut. After a lively build-up, which was reflected in the trailer, Sharma seems a bit insecure about how the big reveal will land and overwrites the portion. The jokes start overspeaking to keep the levity intact, making it an increasingly laboured exercise towards the denouement. For a story that demands a certain lightness of touch, the makers don't really trust the audience and pad it with an unnecessarily heavy background score. The song and dance sequences remain utterly bland despite names like Irshad Kamil and Tanishk Bagchi in the credits. So much so that Maddock has to recycle Irshad's gem from Love Aaj Kal to send the audience home humming Chor Bazari. On OTT, the audience remains in a Bhool Chuk Maaf mode but becomes the Almighty in theatres where it doesn't ignore unkept promises! Bhool Chuk Maaf is currently running in theatres
The Print
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Print
Play Marathi devotional songs on private radio stations: Shelar
He said the state government aims to strengthen the use of Marathi through radio and strengthen coordination between the state and the private radio sector. 'The Marathi emotional and devotional songs from the gramophone and cassette era still rule the hearts of Marathi listeners. These songs should be broadcast regularly on private radio stations,' Shelar told representatives of private radio channels at Mantralaya. Mumbai, May 21 (PTI) Maharashtra cultural affairs minister Ashish Shelar urged private radio stations on Wednesday to regularly broadcast classic Marathi devotional and emotional songs, saying they continue to hold a strong emotional connection with listeners. 'Our generation grew up listening to such songs on All India Radio. There was a strong emotional impact. The audience in Maharashtra has always had a special connection with emotional and devotional songs,' the BJP leader said. He cited the example of devotional ceremonies across the state. 'Even today, whether in cities or villages, a Satyanarayan puja feels incomplete without the immortal songs of Prahlad Shinde. These songs have become part of the tradition,' Shelar added. Representatives of radio channels, including those from Red FM and Radio City 91.1, attended the meeting. The discussion also addressed challenges faced by the radio sector. PTI ND NSK This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
