Big Story: Afzal Guru Prefers Death Sentence

The Home Ministry has asked the President to reject Afzal Guru’s mercy petition and award him a death sentence.

They argue that his crime – attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 – is so heinous that it doesn’t deserve any mercy.

Mohammed Afzal Guru along with five others had attacked the Parliament killing nine security personnel. He was charged with plotting the attack a few days later.

December 18, 2002: A year later, a local court awarded Guru the death sentence. He moved the Supreme Court.

October 29, 2003: Delhi High Court upholds Guru’s death sentence.

August 4, 2005: The apex court upheld the death sentence.

A committee chaired by academicians, lawyers and human rights activists such as Nirmala Deshpande with Mahasweta Devi, Rajni Kothari, Prabhat Patnaik, Ashish Nandy, Prashant Bhushan, Sumanta Banerjee, Mihir Desai, and others as members, held a press conference within a week of the judgment by the Supreme Court.

They took up Afzal’s case and appealed for further inquiry as they felt he, ‘a surrendered militant,’ “was practically unrepresented in the trial” and a victim of whatever the police fed the courts.

October 20, 2006: Afzal Guru was to be hanged, but his wife Tabassum filed a mercy petition, so his execution was stayed. According to procedure, the then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam asked for the Home Ministry’s views on the plea.

The Home Ministry then sent the Afzal file to the Delhi Government where it was held up for four years.

March 2010: Afzal had filed an application in SC seeking an early decision on his clemency plea. In fact, he pleaded for a death sentence instead of the solitary confinement saying  “life in jail was worse than death”.

May 18, 2010: Several reminders didn’t yield any response till Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna sought clarifications on the Afzal Guru mercy petition last month.

June, 2010: Only two weeks ago, the Delhi Government sent the file back to the Home Ministry saying it supported the Supreme Court’s verdict of a death sentence.

Interestingly, the President has only commuted 10 death sentences to life imprisonment out of the 77 mercy petitions that have been filed in the last 30 years.

Read Afzal Guru’s story in his own words.

Raavan Review: Abhi-Ash Are Insufferable

Don’t know where to start, it is difficult to imagine that a director as talented as Mani Ratnam conceived the film and actually went ahead to execute this flight of fantasy. The Ramayana-inspired plot has no new twist in the tale, from Sita’s haran to Sita’s agnipariksha, Ratnam hardly ever digresses from the predictable narrative to add anything new to the story to keep the audience hooked.

The first half of the film is spent in futile foreplay trying to portray Beera as the ominous villain. Bachchan Jr provokes neither fear nor awe; rather his attempted eccentricity manages to repulse the audience so much that some left the theatre during interval. Abhishek wears everything from soot to mud and even turmeric to appear dark and dangerous but nothing masks his total ineptitude as an actor to execute the layered character of Beera. He sleepwalks through the film and it is difficult to imagine that this is the same actor who was the conflicted yet endearing Lallan Singh in Yuva or the imposing yet flawed Gurukant Desai in Guru.

The less said about Aishwarya’s performance the better. For the most part, she looks possessed, her performance inspired either by Vidya Balan in Bhool Bhulaiyaa or Urmila Matondkar in Bhoot. When she is done screaming and contorting her face to convey everything from pain to love to angst, she attempts the Jolie pout to appear vulnerable and sexy.

Much has been said of Vikram’s arrival in Bollywood, but he disappoints as Dev Pratap Sharma. The multi-faceted actor who pulled off three diverse characters with ease in the Tamil film Anniyan, failed as ‘Ram’, probably because he was simultaneously playing Raavan in the Tamil version. His character comes across as more negative than heroic.

Of the cast, only Ravi Kishan and Govinda are worth a mention. The characters of Raavan are mere caricatures; Ratnam’s Roja had beautifully portrayed the pangs of separation of a couple, the desperation felt by someone trying to find a loved one and the fear built by the uncertainty in the plot. We feel none of that in this film. It was a torturous experience and left me with a throbbing headache. Watch it if you must for the visual treat and for the brilliant cinematography by Santosh Sivan and V. Manikandan.

TGIF: Abhi-Ash’s Top 5

The much awaited Raavan releases today. Will the Abhi-Ash magic work at the box office?  Well, while we wait for the viewers’ verdict, a look at a few memorable songs from their movies:

Guru (2007): Tere Bina

Mani Ratnam’s Guru is bound to be the one closest to their heart, for not only was it the first Bollywood film to have its world premiere in Canada, it was two days after its release that Abhishek and Ash announced their engagement. Rahman dedicated this melodious song to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Bunty Aur Babli (2005): Kajrare kajrare

While Aishwarya Rai had just an item number in this film, this song was a huge hit featuring both AB Sr and Jr. Sushmita Sen had been earlier considered for this song. Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy’s number had the nation tapping its feet to their tune.

Dhoom 2 (2006): Crazy Kiya Re

A lot was said about the sizzling chemistry between Hrithik and Ash in Dhoom 2. The kissing scene between the lead couple raised quite a few eyebrows, especially because rumours of the Abhi-Ash romance were doing the rounds then. However, no one can deny how good Hrithik and Ash look together in this song.

Umrao Jaan (2006): Salaam

A lot was expected from this Abhi-Ash starrer but the film failed to ring at the box office. Anu Malik’s music couldn’t contribute much to the film but a song or two were hummable.

Kuch Naa Kaho (2003): Kuch Naa Kaho

Well, Kuch Naa Kaho is from the days when Abhi and Ash were ‘just friends’. While Abhi was nursing a broken heart after his engagement with Karisma broke off, Aishwarya was dating Vivek Oberoi after a bitter breakup with Salman Khan. While the film didn’t spark any romance between the lead couple, it is remembered for its melodious title number.

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