When we woke up this morning and reached for our phones to make our presence felt on the internet, little did we expect <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>’s homepage to pay tribute to a man whose birthday we’d forgotten over the birthday of our beloved Prime <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=narendra+modi">Minister Narendra Modi</a> and the homecoming of Ganesha, popularly known as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/GodSaveTheOcean-This-Ganesh-Chaturthi-Mumbai-NGO-makes-idols-that-fish-can-eat/articleshow/48786857.cms">Ganesh Chaturthi</a>. 
 Maqbool Fida Husain, the renowned Indian <keyword id="6448302" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Painter">painter</keyword> would have turned 100 today. 
 
In keeping with his cubist style, Google used Husain’s favourite colours to come up with an abstract geometrical illustration comprising circles and a painted portrait of the late artist holding a brush, at the centre. 
 
The Padma Shri award winner had relocated to London and Dubai after numerous death threats and lawsuits from right-wing Hindu fundamentalists over his depiction of Hindu gods. 
 
At the age of 95, the maestro breathed his last in London on June 29, 2011 where he used to spend his summers while on his self-imposed exile. 
 
The multi-faceted painter was also an accomplished illustrator, photographer and filmmaker. 
 
However, despite his greatness, people of his own country forced him to go on a self-imposed exile and give up Indian citizenship. 
 If that was not enough, a section of people who took to social media to express their astonishment at Google choosing the late artist for its tribute and not <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>., while the rest joined in on the rituals of wishing the famed painter a Happy Birthday. 
 
Soon enough, M. F Husain started trending on Twitter, as well- which brings me to my original point. 
 
Would M.F Husain be the subject of all this fanfare had he not featured on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-5-best-Google-Doodles-of-all-time/articleshow/47338021.cms">Google Doodle</a> today? Would we have gone about our usual day celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi and wishing the leader of the largest democracy in the world, but forgetting to spare more than a minute for one of the greatest painters India has seen? 
 
Before nodding your head to say ‘No, we would not,’ do bear in mind we are the same country who took offense to his painting depicting Hindu gods, labeled him anti-Hindu, mainly due to his religion, harassed him non-stop and protested against his existence in the country he was born in, while burning his posters. 
 
We failed in giving him the treatment he deserved when he was alive and we would have failed in revering him today too, had it not been for Google reminding us about Husain's unapologetic devotion to beauty, people, and the world. 
 
If that’s not enough, there are also some people who want Google to apologise for featuring Husain on their doodle. 
 
A Happy Bithday indeed.

Google Doodle remembered M.F Hussain’s greatness,
but did we?

The protests and counter protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University are refusing to die out. What started as an event to mark the death anniversary of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, by alleged students of the University, at the campus has snowballed into a gigantic political controversy, resulting in detentions under sedition charges, assault on journalists amongst other things etc. 
 
Here is the timeline of what happened at the JNU campus: 
 
- Alleged students of the JNU had organised an event to protest against judicial hanging of Afzal Guru in 2013 and also to express solidarity with Kashmiri migrants. 
 
- Posters were put up at the Sabarmati dhaba of JNU campus about the same. Also, a programme-‘A country without a post office — against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt’-was supposed to take off. 
 
- This didn’t go down well with ABVP members, who protested against the event, demanding expulsion of the organisers. 
 
- A disciplinary enquiry was taken up by the university administration. The administration claimed the organisers went ahead with the event without permission. 
 
- A protest march was also carried out and ABVP members accused JNU students of shouting anti-India slogans. A video also appeared in which students were heard shouting slogans like ‘Kashmir ki azadi se, bharat ki barbadi tak, jangh rahegi jari’. 
 
- Now, ABVP members and JNU students are at loggerheads. In the face-off, JNU students say they did not shout any anti-national slogans. 
 
- A sedition case against unknown students was registered at Vasant Kunj (North) police station and the university also barred eight students from academic activity pending an enquiry. 
 
- JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges and ordered to three-day police custody. 
 
- Students of JNU gave a shutdown call and #JNUShutdown started trending everywhere, demanding Kumar’s release. JNU teachers also joined the students in boycotting classes. 
 
- On February 14, the Patiala House saw violence as a mob, wearing lawyer’s robe, slapped and kicked supporters of Kanhaiya Kumar. Journalists and students bore the brunt of the violence. 
 - Over 400 journalists had taken out a procession after mediapersons were attacked by lawyers at the <keyword id="286287" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Patiala-court">Patiala Court</keyword>. The Supreme Court had slammed unruly behaviour of the lawyers and ordered that both the clients and media persons should be given security in the premises of the courts. 
 
 
 
- On February 17 also, violence was witnessed outside Patiala House Court when two groups of lawyers clashed with each other. Pro-India slogans were raised by lawyers who called themselves 'deshbhakts' and referred to those stopping them as 'deshdrohi'. 
 
- The group of lawyers that attacked journalists said that they cannot be termed 'goons'. Lawyers were heard chanting ‘Vande Mataram’. The Supreme Court was also informed that Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked in the court premises. 
 
- Some reports of stone-pelting at the Patiala House court also surfaced. 
 
- SC restricted the number reporters to five and two supporters of arrested students for the hearing. 
 
- Kanhaiya Kumar has been sent to judicial custody till March 02. Before his hearing, journalists were yet again attacked in the scuffle between two lawyer groups. 
 
- Doctor has been called to provide medical aid to Kanhaiya. 
 
- Kumar has maintained that he did not shout any anti-national slogans and few outsiders were involved in raising anti-India slogans. 
 
(Images: Indiatimes)

Everything you need to know about the JNU unrest

It has been 11 years since he made his screen debut with the critical and commercial success Ishq Vishk. In these 11 years, he has seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows of the film industry, but <keyword id="6355887" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shahid-Kapoor">Shahid Kapoor</keyword> has always managed to be included in the list of top-earning Indian celebrities. 
 
Reportedly, the fees that Shahid takes for doing each film varies from Rs 8 to 10 crores, other than the Rs 1 crore that he charges per day for endorsement ads. 
 
The actor, however, decided to let go of his high financial demands to be a part of the upcoming film Haider. 
The best film in his career as an actor, as per Shahid himself, is Kaminey, which came in 2009 and was directed by ace director <keyword id="33638" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vishal-Bharadwaj">Vishal Bharadwaj</keyword>. 
 
So when Vishal Bharadwaj decided to complete his Shakespeare trilogy by adapting <keyword id="35686" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Hamlet">Hamlet</keyword> into a film after successfully making Macbeth and Othello into films titled Maqbool and Omkara, respectively, the young actor was his choice to play the title role of Haider. 
 
Getting an opportunity to work under Bharadwaj again, Kapoor did not charge anything so that the budget of the film, which is shot in Kashmir, remains stable and the quality is not compromised. 
 
“Vishal sir and I decided that we want to be as true to the film as we could. And we didn’t want the pressure of either his remuneration or mine to curb us in going out and making a film that we needed to make. So therefore we wanted to take that pressure off and be able to spend all the money on the film. And when I look back, I feel that it was the most right decision,” said the Jab We Met actor. 
 
Even Vishal Bharadwaj, who is one of country’s most successful directors, didn’t charge his fees from the producers. Confirming the same, he said, "When we started planning the film, both Shahid and I agreed that it had to make money from day one. But, we also knew that Haider was a big film with a huge budget, an ensemble cast and lavish action pieces. Filming in Kashmir added to the costs. The only way we could succeed in our endeavour was not to burden the film with our remunerations. We kept the secret between us for a long time, but it's finally out." 
 
Well, we hope that this sacrifice by both the talented actor and the ace director doesn’t go in vain and the film gets its due. 
 Also starring <keyword id="89958" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shraddha-Kapoor">Shraddha Kapoor</keyword>, <keyword id="6358125" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tabu">Tabu</keyword>, <keyword id="6359686" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Irrfan">Irrfan</keyword> and <keyword id="29287" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="kay-kay-menon">Kay Kay Menon</keyword>, the film is releasing on October 2 this year. You can catch the official trailer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xakmvJ0WPa4">here</a>. 
 
Image courtesy: Youtube

When Shahid Kapoor Decided To Work For Free

Who doesn’t know <keyword id="6359288" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shakespeare">Shakespeare</keyword>? The genius playwright’s plays have been performed in theatres across the globe since time immemorial. Veteran Indian actor <keyword id="6354338" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Naseeruddin-Shah">Naseeruddin Shah</keyword> had once said, “The roots may look lost, but every big story in the Hindi film industry is from Shakespeare." 
 In <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> Shakespeare has found many admirers, who have turned his plays and stories into Bollywood blockbusters. The latest being Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, which is based on the 17th century tragedy Hamlet and is getting released this 2nd October. Let’s take a look at some of the other Bollywood movies based on the writing genius’ plays. 
 
The Tragedy Of Macbeth 
Written in April 1611, this tragedy play was the inspiration of Maqbool. The movie had some of the biggest Indian parallel cinestars like Pankaj Kapoor, Irrfan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Piyush Mishra. Released in the year 2003, the movie was produced by Bobby Bedi and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, who also composed the background score of the movie. Though it failed to perform much at the BO, the movie is considered a landmark in terms of acting and direction. 
 
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice 
Written approximately in 1603, this tragedy play inspired Omkara, starring Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Naseeruddin Shah and Bipasha Basu. The 2006 movie was produced by Kumar Mangat and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, thus becoming the second Shakespeare work adapted into a movie by Bhardwaj. The movie was a critical and commercial success, and won three National Awards. 
 
The Comedy Of Errors 
Believed to be written in 1594, the comedy play has inspired six Indian movies, viz. Do Dooni Char (1968) starring Kishore Kumar and Asit Sen; Angoor (1982) starring Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma; Bhrantibilas (1963 Bengali film) starring Uttam Kumar and Bhanu Bandopadhyay; Ulta Palta (1997 Kannada film) starring Ramesh Aravind and Karibasavaiah; Aamait Asal Eemait Kusal (2012 Tulu film) starring Naveen D Padil and Jyotish Shetty; and Double Di Trouble (2014 Punjabi film) starring Dharmendra and Gippy Grewal. 
 
Romeo And Juliet 
Written in 1597, the tragedy play has inspired many Bollywood movies till date. Some of the movies inspired by Romeo and Juliet are: Bobby (1973) starring Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia; Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) starring Kamal Haasan and Rati Agniohotri; Sanam Teri Kasam (1982) starring Kamal Haasan and Reena Roy; Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) starring Amir khan and Juhi Chawla; Saudagar (1991) starring Manisha Koirala and Vivek Mushran; Ishaqzaade (2012) starring Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor; Issaq (2013) starring Prateik and Amyra Dastur; and Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela (2013) starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. 
 
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 
Written in 1603, the tragedy has inspired Haider, starring Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Tabbu, Kay Kay Menon, and Irrfan Khan. The movie is produced by Vishal Bhardwaj and Siddharth Roy Kapur, and is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. This is the third film that Bhardwaj has adapted from Shakespeare’s plays. The movie is all set to release on 2nd October 2014. 
 
Image: indiatimes

You Searched For "Maqbool" and got 4 results

Google Doodle remembered M.F Hussain’s greatness, but did we?

Poulomi Das

Everything you need to know about the JNU unrest

Akanksha Jain

When Shahid Kapoor Decided To Work For Free

Nandini Sharma

5 Bollywood Adaptations of Shakespeare’s Novels

Nandini Sharma