Year In Review April to June 2010
April 1: St. Andrew’s School donates $1,257.38 to Father Tony Chakkungal’s orphanage in India during a special Mass at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church.

Read more on South Peace News

Temasek Review: Where do we go from here?
Dear readers The latest intended gazetting of The Online Citizen is worrying but not without “understandable” reasons (TOC to be gazetted as a Political Association) . We saw it coming and the team at TOC should have too. Given the “notice” from the Prime Minister’s office, TOC will either have to comply with the gazetting and allow both of its [...]

Read more on The Temasek Review

New India In Tst PLC – Blocklisting Interim Review
New India In Tst PLC – Blocklisting Interim Review

Read more on AFX CNF Finance Regulatory News via Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance

Movie Review | Today’s Special: Using familiar recipe doesn’t make result unpalatable
Word to the wise: Don’t see Today’s Special on an empty stomach. By the time the credits roll for the slight but sweet and affecting seriocomic story of a struggling chef’s efforts to make a go of his dad’s failing Indian restaurant, you’ll have images of all things tandoori, masala and vindaloo dancing in your head.

Read more on The Columbus Dispatch

Dance review: Indian festival a study in styles
Even if your attendance was limited, you couldn’t help feeling that history was made over the weekend during “Traditions Engaged,” the three-day international festival of classical Indian dance and music that filled both the Forum and the Novellus Theater at… Indian classical dance – Dance – Performing Arts – India – Arts

Read more on San Francisco Chronicle

Satyam board to review audited results on Sept 29
NEW DELHI, INDIA: Shares in Indian IT services firm Mahindra Satyam rose more than seven percent on Tuesday, as investors looked forward to their first peek into the audited financial results at the firm that was hit by India’s biggest corporate scandal nearly two years ago.

Read more on CIOL

The menacing Abhishek A man with ten heads and hundred names That’s how the eponymous protagonist of Mani Ratnam’s film Raavana is described

Watch Raavan Teaser and Raavan Trailer online here, taken from the links RaavanTeaser and RaavanTrailer. RaavanMovie music of the movie is composed by Academy Awards winner A. R. Rahman. Raavana audio is scheduled to be released on 24th April 2010. Ravanamovie audio rights were bought by T-Series. Ravana movie first look promo debuted on YouTube on 16th April 2010 as the music launch teaser.

Abhishek Bachchan looks every bit menacing playing the character with shades of gray. His character is said to be a naxalite who kidnaps Aishwarya Rai and flees to forests. Ash is married to Vikram in the bilingual film’s Hindi version. The movie also has Govinda playing a character inspired by Hanuman. Ash’s character is based on Sita and Vikram’s is on Lord Ram

Watch Raavan Movie Online

Directed by Mani Ratnam
Produced by Mani Ratnam
Written by Mani Ratnam
Rensil D’ Silva
Starring Abhishek Bachchan
Aishwarya Rai
Vikram
Govinda
Priyamani
Ravi Kishan
Nikhil Dwivedi
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Santosh Sivan
Editing by A. Sreekar Prasad
Studio Madras Talkies
Distributed by Madras Talkies
BIG Cinemas
Release date(s) 18 June 2010
Country India
Language Hindi

Mani Ratnam has reportedly shot a film that is a modern day version and a loose adaptation of the great Indian epic Ramayana which tells the story of Rama, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rākshasa) king of Lanka, Ravana. It is said that Raavan will have a new twist on the Ramayana.[5] Mani Ratnam had earlier directed Thalapathi, which bore close resemblance to the Mahabharata. While everyone thinks that Abhishek Bachchan plays a character based on Raavana in Mani Ratnam’s Raavana, the film’s most wellkept secret is out. Abhishek’s character in the forthcoming film is not only based on the life of Raavana but also on Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy. Our source said, “Mani Ratnam loves having a strong element of contemporary history in his films. Be it Nayakan based on don Vardha Rajan’s life, Guru based on Dhirubhai Ambani’s life or Bombay which depicted the Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid demolition. Even in Roja, Dil Se and Yuva, Mani dealt with serious issues such as terrorism in Kashmir, a woman suicide bomber and college politics respectively. While there is a buzz about Raavana being inspired from the Ramayana and that Abhishek is playing Raavana, fact is that the real inspiration for Abhishek’s character came from Kobad Ghandy.” Mani had appointed a team of researchers to get as much data available about Kobad Ghandy as he wanted Abhishek’s character to be strikingly similar to the Maoist leader. “In Raavana Abhishek plays Veera, a naxalite leader of the downtrodden villagers in eastern Madhya Pradesh. Just like Ghandy’s Communist party India-Maoist is banned, Abhishek’s organisation is also banned in the film,” added the source. “Abhishek’s character in Raavana is very intelligent. Ghandy was assigned the task to win over the middle class and intellectual society in Karnataka and Kerala as the Maoists thought that he could do this with ease. The major difference between the two characters is that while Ghandy is an educated man, Abhishek’s character is from a small and remote village from Eastern MP. In short, the story of the Ramayana is very nicely and intelligently woven into the story of Kobad Ghandy,” said the source.