ITV

Tag: CBI

  • Akshay Kumar in Neeraj Pandey’s next

    Akshay Kumar in Neeraj Pandey’s next

    The actor-director combo of Akshay Kumar and Neeraj Pandey was last seen in Special 26 which turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 2013. Now the two are set to make a comeback in yet another project.

    The untitled film is supposed to be based on another real life incident just like their previous venture which was based on the 1987 robbery wherein con-artists posing as CBI officers conducted a raid in a popular jewellery retail chain in Mumbai.

    While the rest of the cast and crew are yet to be finalised, the film is slated to go on floor in 2014.

    Pandey’s best works include a drama-thriller based movie A Wednesday, for which he won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director. His work on the film was highly praised by audiences as well as critics.

  • Zee Media Exclusive interview with former Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, who says “there is a conspiracy” to implicate him in Cash-for-Promotion

    Zee Media Exclusive interview with former Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, who says “there is a conspiracy” to implicate him in Cash-for-Promotion

    New Delhi: Zee Media aired the first Television Interview of Pawan Bansal today, the former Minister of Railways, since his implication in the Cash-for-Promotion saga. He said there was a conspiracy being hatched against him since he held a very prominent position and was trying to eradicate a lot of ills that were plaguing the system.

    In an exclusive interview with Rahul Sinha of Zee Media, he said, “I’m not involved in any wrong doing and I am not an accomplice in the Cash-for-Promotion case. These are vested interests of people who are trying to malign me and my family’s image through false accusations and I’m sure that the courts will finally be able to bring the truth out.”

    He shared the various dates and the file movements on the issue to show that he was not involved in any way in the highly publicized issue. Bansal said that had there been even an iota of possibility of his involvement, he would not have been there to help the prosecution. He also pointed out that the file movement and the various conversations, said to be made on his behalf, do not gel.

    He went on to say that he was clean and that there was a conspiracy to implicate him in the matter. He also shared that he was shocked upon learning that his nephew was embroiled in the act. According to him, CBI has done a thorough investigation and the Courts will bring out the truth in the case. He also said that some of the companies that he is being made an owner of (105 in total) include PSUs and some companies based down south that he doesn’t even has clue of, let aside question of ownership.

    He further clarified that he does not think there was an internal conspiracy within the Congress party against him and he believed the party’s leadership will also understand that he has done no wrong. He was just hurt by the way the whole issue panned out and the media reports that accused him of the wrongdoing and pronounced a sentence against him.

    Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor, Zee Media said on the occasion, “We have always striven to bring out the truth in all cases of public importance and have given everyone the right to defend themselves. With this interview as well we are trying to give opportunity to the accused to provide his side of the story; it is up to the viewers to make a decision for themselves on the issue.”

  • Inkaar: A love story badly told

    Inkaar: A love story badly told

    MUMBAI: Inkaar has been widely promoted as a film on sexual harassment at work place. Ideally, the work place here is an ad agency. Ad agencies are generally identified with glamour because that is what they cater through their ads and are thought to be full of people with open and free minds. It helps the cause of the film because, otherwise, ad agencies are not the only place where romances, affairs or molestations happen. Whatever the perceptions created, Inkaar, in a nutshell, is just another love story.

     

    Producers: Tipping Point Films, Viacom 18.
    Director: Sudhir Mishra.
    Cast: Arjun Rampal, Chitrangada Singh, Deepti Naval, Vipin Sharma, Gaurav Dwivedi, Mohan Kapoor, Rehana Sultan.

    Arjun Rampal is a high flying ad executive, the CEO of a happening agency with a US tie-up. Since ad agencies are generally identified with their leaders, Rampal is a legend in his own right in the ad world. Like all good leaders he encourages and grooms his team. One such person he has chosen to groom and hone talent of is Chitrangada Singh, a sensuous, sharp and ambitious girl from a small town, Solan in HP. Even before she can prove herself, Rampal is struck by her poise and beauty; if you count his ogling her at all meetings and briefings that happen in any office, he is obsessed with her!

     

    Rampal takes Singh under his wings, she shows sparks and soon her talent and contribution make her the blue eyed girl of the agency. The proximity leads to a romance between Rampal and Singh. The job creates many opportunities to travel and spend time together and soon the relationship becomes physical.

     

    Singh has also impressed the owners, especially the American partner, and she is soon delegated to the American partner agency. On her return, before the romance can rekindle, a management move to make her the creative head of the agency leads to parallel powers in the agency. After all, she is an ambitious woman and has no reason to say no despite Rampal‘s suggestion not to accept as he thinks she was not yet ready for the responsibilities.

     

    In the egos clash, romance is sacrificed, and this being a creative field, also sacrificed are some client accounts. Every time Singh needs Rampal‘s help, there are hurdles, or so she feels. Due to their past liaison, she smells a demand for sex whenever she encounters him. Exasperated, she decides to complain of harassment against her CEO, Rampal. You would expect a horde of woman activists to descend on him and newspaper headlines all over. But, no, here it is all hush, hush, no media and no activists, only one social worker; Deepti Naval sits on an inquest.

     

    As both the parties are called to testify in turns, the film‘s narrative comes in flashbacks because the inquest hears a particular incident told by Singh, Rampal follows with an explanation. This leads to unfolding of the film in various flashbacks. This does not help the cause of gripping the viewer with a taut telling of the story and fails to involve him. Other colleagues also tell their part in the events over the years. While a bias is evident against Singh from most colleagues, Naval also thinks that with two attractive persons working closely, sex is bound to happen! When the matter is not clear, Naval asks the panel sitting with her to vote on guilty or not guilty!

     

    When there is no inquest in progress, the ad world seems busy in revelry, drinking and generally having fun.

     

    Rampal has decided enough is enough and SMSs his resignation and heads home to Shahranpur to meet his father of various flashbacks in the film, Kanwaljeet Singh. Before that, he has had a confrontation with Singh in the washroom. When asked by Singh about his attitude, his response is ‘Because he was angry and because he loved her‘. Singh remembers it and its time for her also to pick up her car keys and follow Rampal to Shahranpur!

     

    Due to the piecemeal style of the script, the direction never gets a handle on the proceedings. Music lacks appeal.

     

    Rampal, as a lover in flashbacks and an annoyed accused in present is good in latter part. Singh is mainly glamour. Rest have no definite roles to play.

     

    Inkaar, has opened with poor response with little chance of improving.

     

    Mumbai Mirror: Lacks face value

     

    Producer: Raina S Joshi.
    Director: Ankush Bhatt.
    Cast: Sachin Joshi, Gihana Khan, Prakash Raj, Vimala Raman, Mahesh Manjrekar, Aditya Pancholi, Prashant Narayanan, Ra

    A guy wanting to be the clone of Salman Khan is understandable. After all, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan have had hundreds of them. But the hero here, Sachin Joshi, in his self financed film, also wants to clone a Salman Khan film! So, Mumbai Mirror is to be watched with Joshi as its hero but while imagining you are watching Salman Khan on screen.

     

    Joshi, in his pretence of playing Salman Khan, brings along the same actor, Prakash Raj to play the villain. What lets him down is his thin voice.

     

    Joshi is a police inspector in a station headed by his maternal uncle, Mahesh Manjrekar. He drinks, womanises, gambles on cricket matches and finally, also takes to snorting drugs. However, when it comes to action, he is never found wanting. Worst crime a man can commit, according to him, is raise a hand on woman of which he is unforgiving. Typically, he had a thing going with a bar dancer, Gihana Khan, who is now the don Raj‘s mole.

     

    Raj is the biggest don of Mumbai owning almost 70 per cent dance bars in the city, a man whom no policeman can touch. Joshi and Raj are soon to be pitted as the latter wants to open a dance bar in Joshi‘s precinct which Joshi would allow as long as there are no dance girls involved. Joshi also learns that dance bars are just a front and the real business behind this façade is that of drugs.

     

    The war between Raj and Joshi peaks and game of chess laid out in Raj‘s den now becomes real as both try to outwit the other. As a result, Joshi is suspended from the force. He continues his fight and, in the process, also meets a TV reporter, Vimala Raman, to add a mild romantic angle to the proceedings. Joshi adds another bad man, Aditya Pancholi, to the fight, turns Raj and Pancholi against each other. He is surprised to trace the source of drugs supply, and carries out the final elimination. Also eliminated is the corrupt CBI man and Raj‘s puppet, Sudesh Berry.

     

    To fill up the screen and make the film watchable, there is a line up of some known talent in the cast. There is always some action on screen but the problem is that there is nothing new. Dialogue by Ghalib Asad Bhopali is good when not remixing old Salman Khan lines. Music is out of sync. With a seasoned supporting cast, the performances are good. Joshi, Gihana and Raman are okay.

     

    Mumbai Mirror, lacking face value, finds no takers and is faced with no show situation.

  • Journalists can be prosecuted for sting operations: CBI

    Journalists can be prosecuted for sting operations: CBI

    NEW DELHI : Journalists can be prosecuted on corruption charges for conducting sting operations to expose corruption in public life, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

    The CBI told the Supreme Court that a party to a sting operation, allegedly undertaken to expose corruption by public servants, can be liable for prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, if he/she does not inform the law enforcing agency before or immediately after the sting.

    A bench headed by Justice Altmas Kabir admitted petitions filed by journalist Arvind Vijaymohan and businessman Rajat Prasad who are facing prosecution for their role in a sting operation. The petitions challenge the 30 May 2008 order of the Delhi High Court dismissing their plea against framing of charges by a special CBI court in Delhi.

    The video showed then Environment Minister Dilip Singh Judeo allegedly receiving Rs 900,000 bribe from an Australian firm in exchange for mining rights in Chhattisgarh on 5 November 2003.

    Senior counsel Harish Salve who appeared for the petitioners said journalists exposing corruption in public life could not be prosecuted as they acted like ‘whistleblowers’.

    He drew the court’s attention to the NDTV sting operation case in which the court praised the channel for exposing the nexus between the accused and the prosecution and no action was taken against the journalists.

    The CBI, however, has said a party to a sting operation can also be prosecuted when there is active inducement by the sting party or when there are other vested interests other than the public interest.

    The probe agency asserted: “Law enforcement is exclusively a function of government machinery. Others can only help the competent/intended government institution in enforcing the law of the land but can never do the job independently taking law into their hands keeping the intended government machinery at bay.”