I was never a massive Sushant Singh Rajput fan. I enjoyed his debut film Kai Po Che, as well as MS Dhoni and Sonchiriya, but never had any strong feelings about any of his other performances.
After he passed away on June 14, his fans were eagerly looking forward to his last film, Dil Bechara, and even rallied for it to get a theatrical release as opposed to streaming online, but given the measures being taken to Covid-19, it was released on Disney+ hotstar on Friday, July 24.
Dil Bechara is the Indian adaptation of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, which was also adapted by director Josh Boone in 2014 and starred Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. It was touted as a tearjerker, and while it didn't have that effect on me, Dil Bechara sure did.
Rajput stars as Immanuel Rajkumar Junior, or Manny, an osteosarcoma survivor, who falls in love with Kizie Basu (Sanjana Sanghi), who is battling thyroid cancer.
They live in Jamshedpur city in Jharkhand, and while the film follows the original plot for most part, a few bits have been changed up.
For example, Manny and his friend JP (played to perfection by the effervescent Sahil Vaid), are in the process of making their comedy film and cast Kizie as their actress. The scenes where their movie is being shot are among the most hilarious in the film.
Instead of Amsterdam, the characters head to Paris to meet an Indian musician who Basu is a fan of.
But director Mukesh Chhabra ensures these changes don’t feel jarring.
He adds his own touches to make the story his own.
One aspect I particularly liked was the camaraderie between Manny and Kizie’s father (played by Sawata Chatterjee, most popularly known for his terrifying turn as Bob Biswas in Kahaani).
It is very unlike other Bollywood films that usually show the hero and heroine’s father at loggerheads.
Sanghi makes her debut with Dil Bechara, and gives a commendable performance, but the hero of the film is truly Rajput.
Lovable, over the top, dramatic, yet vulnerable, he instantly makes you fall in love with him.
Manny is smart, funny and persistent, much like Rajput in real life, and it is difficult to view the two apart in the actor’s last performance.
Knowing how the film ends makes it even more heartbreaking.
This short (at least by Bollywood standards at 100 minutes) and sweet story is worth a watch for the myriad characters, including an appearance by Saif Ali Khan.
It is also well worth your time for Sanghi’s effortless portrayal of Kizie, which marks her as one to watch, and, of course for Sushant Singh Rajput, who has bowed out with a bang.
Dil Bechara
Stars: Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjana Sanghi
Director: Mukesh Chhabra
Rating: 4.5 stars
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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