Mumbai: She was called the first female superstar of the country. She ruled the industry in such an era when it was explicitly dominated by superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, and Dharmendra. She broke the glass ceiling in the industry and established herself as a crowd-puller.
Sridevi, the enigmatic actor in the hindi film industry, left us five years back. The undisputed queen of the silver screen left some unforgettable performances for the audience. She left too early. But she will live forever through her on-screen characters. From Chandni to Sashi… Let’s take a trip down memory lane…
Sadma
There’s hardly any person who has not shed a tear in the last scene of this movie. Remake of a Tamil movie, this film established Sridevi as one of the most powerful actors at the very early stage of her Hindi career.
Chandni
Her white look in this film set a fashion trend back in the 80s. Helmed by Yash Chopra, this movie is also celebrated for its music.
Mr India
Sridevi was not only a powerful actor, but she was also one of the most successful commercial heroines in the hindi industry. From ‘Hawa Hawai’ to ‘Kaate Nehi Katte’, Sridevi showed her range of versatility in this movie.
ChaalBaaz
Sridevi played twin characters in this movie, the tamed and submissive Anju and the boisterous and go-getting Manju. Sridevi’s comic timing was mostly talked about in this movie.
Khuda Gawa
Amitabh Bachchan, larger-than-life setting and Sridevi! The film was talked about as Amitabh and Sridevi were struggling to deliver hits at the box office back then.
Lamhe
Teaming up with her ‘Chandni’ director Yash Chopra one more time, Sridevi played double roles in this movie. For playing the dual roles of mother and daughter, Sridevi won accolades.
English Vinglish
After a 15-year-long hiatus, Sridevi made a pleasant comeback at the movies with Gauri Shinde’s directorial debut ‘English Vinglish’. The film received a standing ovation at the Toronto International film festival. The present generation is perhaps more acquainted with Sridevi’s Sashi than her Chandni.
It’s difficult to live up to Sridevi’s legacy. But she is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic actresses on the silver screen who remained a mystery even in her death.
“We’re not trying to be anti-anybody, anti-trans, anti-anything, we’re just trying to protect our kids,” said Bentley, who acknowledged at the hearing that schools expressed concerns that student performances might be targeted if costumes had exaggerated anatomical features or had certain types of singing and dancing. “We’re not trying to stop plays. We’re not trying to stop Peter Pan, or Tootsie, or any of those things.”
Drag show restrictions have become a leading cultural issue during this year’s legislative sessions for the right and prominent Republicans like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is set to deliver her party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Lawmakers in at least eight states — including Arizona, South Carolina and Texas — introduced measures to block children from drag shows at the start of this year, according to PEN America, a free speech advocacy group. Many of the measures would subject educators, business owners, performers and parents to criminal prosecution and professional sanctions for allowing children to view performances, many of which have been the focus of recent armed demonstrations.
Drag performers are not a regular presence at school events, despite GOP uproar. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, reportedly petitioned the state school board association for help this week after middle school students attended an event that featured a drag performance.
The bills often seek to categorize drag shows the same way as explicit adult entertainment, and sometimes include language saying restrictions only apply to “prurient” exhibitions with erotic intentions, or include nudity or explicit material. Several proposals would prohibit drag performances or appearances in schools, while other bills further regulate shows on public property and in private businesses.
Opponents argue that signing these measures into law might not only violate constitutional protections, but also provoke a broader cultural suppression of LGBTQ people.
“The goal for many of these lawmakers has been to frighten people about what drag performances are, and what kids are actually being exposed to,” said Sarah Warbelow, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign.
“Many of these bills essentially allow private individuals to report a performance to be investigated oftentimes for violations of criminal law,” Warbelow said in an interview. “That’s going to have a chilling effect on drag performances from Pride parades, to the drag queen story hour at the local library, to college campuses that might have a drag performance as part of a Pride celebration.”
North Dakota’s House of Representatives last week approved a drag show ban that would categorize repeated performances in front of children as a felony offense, sending the measure to the state Senate for consideration.
Bentley’s measure in the Arkansas House was approved by a committee on Wednesday, one week after the state Senate signed off. Lawmakers backtracked on Thursday, however, by filing an amendment that scrubs all “drag performance” mentions from the proposal.
Sanders appeared eager to sign the original measure into law.
“This is not about banning anything; it is about protecting kids,” Sanders spokesperson Alexa Henning told POLITICO in a statement, before the legislation was amended. “We don’t let kids smoke, drink alcohol, go to strip clubs, or access sexually explicit material, and the Governor believes sexually explicit drag shows are no different. Only in the radical left’s woke dystopia is it not appropriate to protect kids.”
North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office declined to comment on the proposal moving through his state’s legislature, but one of its top Democrats is livid.
“It pisses me off,” state House Minority Leader Josh Boschee said of the bill.
“There aren’t parents coming forward to say there are all these drag performances happening on Main Street and we need to be protected from them,” Boschee, who is gay, said in an interview. “These are all concepts and ideas that are being taken from the dark sides of the internet.”
State Rep. Brandon Prichard, a newly elected Republican lawmaker who introduced North Dakota’s bill, is still confident the measure will win Senate approval.
“There is a clear path to victory for the bill,” Prichard said in an interview. “The Senate is more conservative than it has ever been in North Dakota. And I think that there is a natural tendency in North Dakota to agree with this bill.”
In South Carolina, the proposed “Defense of Children’s Innocence Act” explicitly bars schools and publicly funded entities from using taxpayer dollars to provide a drag show, and would allow the prosecution of anyone who allows a minor to view a drag show with a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine.
“I don’t know when drag shows became the devil,” said Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, in an interview. “To my knowledge, I don’t know that schools are doing this. I’ve never known of a school to do this. The homophobic attitude from some of our elected officials is quite concerning and disappointing.”
A Montana bill would prohibit state-funded schools and libraries from hosting drag performances during school hours or at school-sanctioned extracurricular activities. Librarians or educators convicted of violating the law would face $5,000 fines and the potential suspension and revocation of their teaching license.
Nearly two dozen South Dakota lawmakers have co-sponsored a proposed change to state education law that would prohibit university systems and public schools from using public money and facilities to “develop, implement, facilitate, host, promote, or fund any lewd or lascivious content” including drag performances.
Arizona Republicans have proposed a trio of drag restrictions including a bill that would classify drag performers, their shows, and establishments that host them as “adult-oriented businesses” — under existing law that regulates strip clubs, erotic massage parlors and movie theaters. Approval would prohibit cross-dressing performances within a quarter-mile of schools, playgrounds, and child care facilities.
“The tactics and the angle that these bills are taking are very different,” Warbelow, of the Human Rights Campaign, said. “But the goal really feels the same, which is to ensure that young people have no exposure to the LGBTQ community.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan is considered one of the finest and the most underrated actors of this generation.
Over the span of his almost two-decade-long career, Abhishek has never shied away from shedding his vanity to take up challenging roles which push him out of his comfort zone.
Despite, all the trolling, criticism and hatred, he has always delivered a remarkable act, whenever the writing and the execution have been right.
As the actor turns a year older today, take a look at some of his finest performances.
1. Guru
Helmed by the acclaimed director Mani Ratnam, the drama film ‘Guru’ has to be on the list. Abhishek delivered one of his career’s best performances and the film emerged to be a blockbuster hit. Released in the year 2007, the film also starred Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, R Madhavan and Vidya Balan in pivotal roles.
2. Bol Bachchan
Released in the year 2012, the action comedy film was directed by Rohit Shetty and also starred Ajay Devgn, Asil, Krushna Abhishek and Prachi Desai in the lead roles. Abhishek received a lot of appreciation for his performance in the film. The film marked Rohit Shetty and Abhishek’s second collaboration after ‘Zameen’ in 2003.
3. Raavan
Although the film failed to impress the audience at the box office. But Abhishek excelled in his part and received massive appreciation for his negative portrayal in this Mani Ratnam’s directorial. The film also starred south actor Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles.
4. Bob Biswas
In the thriller film, Abhishek portrayed the role of Bob Biswas, a middle-aged hitman-for-hire who comes out of a prolonged coma and does not remember any details about his life and his past, including his wife and children. The film premiered directly on the OTT platform Zee5 and Abhishek grabbed everyone’s attention with his outstanding performance.
5. Breathe: Into the Shadows
Abhishek marked his digital debut with the web series ‘Breathe: Into the Shadows’ which premiered exclusively on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video. In the psychological thriller series, Abhishek played a double role and the show turned out to be a big hit.
