Mumbai.Mr Brij Kishore Sharma, Chairman of Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, released book ‘The Role of the President of India’ by Prof Balakrishna, Press Attaché of the First President of India – Dr Rajendra Prasad, on 26th September 2015 at Press Club,CST, Mumbai.

Written in early 1990’s, the book is based on a report submitted to the first President of India about his role and powers. When the Constitution came into force on the 26th January 1950, President Dr. Rajendra Prasad was faced with the challenge of interpreting his role based on the given provisions. He queried with the then Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Attorney General M.C. Setalvad. Being a distinguished Lawyer himself, he felt that the matter needed further examination and entrusted the work to Prof. Balakrishna on confidential basis. Late Professor Balakrishna, the author of the book, joined the Secretariat of the Constituent Assembly of India after an invitation from Dr. Rajendra Prasad. He  was entrusted the work of preparing the Constitution in Hindi. He joined the personal staff of the President as Press Attaché, and later on functioned as his Deputy Secretary. He was sent to Ministry of Law to initiate the preparation of the authoritative texts of Central Laws.After retirement wrote a book in Hindi on Jurisprudence, which published posthumously. The Ministry of Law awarded a prize for the work. Prof Balakrishna had many admirable traits. He refused to use official perks while in office. He was an early proponent of equality of women and also dropped his surname to make a beginning to end the caste system in India.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Brij Kishore Sharma said “Equating our President to the King of Great Britain was a grave mistake committed by the jurist. The two are as different as chalk and cheese.Had we correctly interpreted the constitution and given to the president the powers contemplated by the constitution there would have been no emergency, no misuse of article 356 and no need of periodical revision of the procedure for appointing the judges.Even now, it is time for the Supreme Court to revisit its decisions on this point.”

“Given the present political scenario, is it time to re-examine the role of the President of India, as originally envisaged in the Constitution but practiced differently. This is the theme of this book.” said Commodore Arun Kumar, AVSM, NM (Retd.), the son of Late professor Balkrishna. Cmde Arun Kumar also announced donating 300 copies of the book to the libraries accessed by rural and poor students, through ‘The Brave New World Foundation,’ a Public Charitable Trust set up to commemorate the memory his exceptionally gifted and bright son, Alyosha Kumar.

One of the India’s eminent Constitutional Lawyer, Mr. Fali S Nariman had sent a message to be read on the occasion. “An elected President notionally represents the collective will of the people – he can use it (and I believe he must use it) to temper the occasional excesses of its elected representatives,” wrote Mr. Fali Nariman in his message.

The event was attended by professor Balakrishna’s sons, Mr. Dharmendra Kumar, Cmde Arun Kumar, Mr Heman Kumar, daughter Prabha Rao, publisher Joseph P Chacko with his wife ,guest Sumit Mehta and relatives and friends. The book has been published by frontier India technology and is priced Rs 250/-

Krishan Hooda directorial Rebellious Flower won Special Mention Jury Award at Salento International Film Festival held in Tricase, Italy 2015. The film was a closing night film and the screening was graced by Indian Ambassador to Italy Mr. Basant Gupta. Krishan Hooda represented officially represented India in Italy.

As reported by Italian news media “Rebellious Flower by Indian director ‘Krishan Hooda’, is a contribution to the knowledge of the personal biography of a man who represented a philosophical reference far beyond the borders of his country, and that brings us back to the ancient roots of certain philosophy / spirituality of the ancient ‘West mixed Orient”.

Salento International Film Festival celebrates real cinema around the world and the event witnessed many Italian celebrities and filmmakers, one of them was Marco Leonardi – Once upon a time in Mexico fame. The event was held in Piazza Pisanelli, in the heart of the Historic Centre of Tricase from 4^th September to 12^th September 2015.

 “Our work was liked and appreciated by everyone. I always wanted ‘Rebellious Flower’ should speak for itself and it spoke volumes. We could hear that with the accolade we received” said director Krishan Hooda.

Rebellious Flower

The story is a bouquet of handpicked flowers from the garden of an unending celebration. Inspired on the life of Osho, the film is a first film on the spiritual guru – Rajneesh Osho.

The film narrates life of Raja in his adolescence and youth and moreover a rebellion in him, who is keen to unearth the answers beneath the surface of facts, which are acceptable to others. It beautifully narrates the transition Raja goes through in the phase of enlightenment and sanctity.

His childhood mentor his maternal grandmother called as nani by him, who nurtures his childhood and a strong pillar in his learning phase is very well depicted in the film. Their bond, love and unsaid understanding are soothing therapies of emotional connect.

Rebellious Flower is an anecdote which takes on the path of beliefs, Raja resolves to walk on. In retrospect he surmises that existence is inevitably attained by purely accepting the simplicity of subconscious with the help of his mentors

He embarks on a journey to understand the beauty that lies behind the unexpressed phrases of human perception and this is how he transforms to be a rebellious flower to share the essence and scent of its being, unconditionally.

In the spirit of celebrating India’s leadership position in the fight against poverty, they took to the stage to shine a spotlight on India’s progress in recent decades in eradicating poverty as well as to highlight the challenges that remain, such as regarding India’s sanitation issue. This was delivered as part of a special India-themed moment that was curated at this year’s 2015 Global Citizen Festival.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent Global Citizens a poignant recorded message that pledged his government’s commitment to eradicating poverty from India and support for the United Nations’ newGlobal Goals campaign.

The Global Citizen Festival was a precursor to kick-start the Global Goals campaign, founder by filmmaker Richard Curtis, which aims to reach 7 billion people in 7 days.

Chris Martin (Coldplay) introduced Sunidhi Chauhan on stage for her performance.

Video of Arjun, Freida, Chris Martin, Sunidhi on stage

Mumbai welcomes 6^th Jagran Film Festival

~ Festival opens with a gala opening ceremony and 2015 French film ‘Standing Tall’ ~

~ The opening day saw presence of personalities like R Madhavan, Ranveer Shorey, Kunal Kapoor, Dibakar Banerjee and many more ~

Mumbai, September 28, 2015: It is Mumbai’s turn to roll out a red carpet welcome to the country’s biggest travelling film extravaganza, the Jagran Film Festival in its sixth edition. On Day 1, the buzz at Fun Cinema auditorium was infectious as the film lovers from in and around Mumbai gathered to witness a star-studded opening ceremony. With a stellar film line-up from all corners of the world, the Mumbai edition is shaping up to be a grand affair not to be missed.

Emmanuelle Bercot’s film ‘Standing Tall’ drew celebrities and cinephiles alike to witness a magnanimous screening. This low-key French drama which has also been the opening film at Cannes chronicles the life of an at-risk adolescent dabbling with violence, punishment and the idea of rehabilitation. The screening turned into a star-studded evening in the presence of film luminaries such as R Madhavan, Ranveer Shorey, Kunal Kapoor, Dibakar Banerjee, among others from the entertainment industry.

On the very first day, JFF also showcased some offbeat shades of Arabic cinema with films such as an Israeli-Palestinian Joint Venture ‘Sport’ and a series of recent short films including Matan Gur’s ‘Jisr Boys’, Lily SheffyRize’s ‘Just a Man’, Tal Oved’s ‘Ziva and Amal’ and Ahmad Barghouthi’s ‘Blue Eagles’ and ‘WOUROD’.

Hindi film lovers grabbed the opportunity to walk down the cinema lane with Hiren Nag’s 1984 romantic classic ‘Abodh’, Phani Majumdar’s 1962 romantic drama ‘Aarti’, Govind Mooni’s 1982 family love triangle ‘Nadiya Ke Paar’, K Balachander’s epic love story of the 1980s ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’ and Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 romantic thriller ‘Sadak’, that paid a homage to the late actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar.

Film enthusiasts were seen juggling between the big screens and auditoriums to catch the cinema of their choice. In days to come, the much anticipated Mumbai edition is studded with a noteworthy collection of Jagran Shorts, Hindi classics, World premieres as well as a handpicked selection of International cinema. And since its Jagran keeping up the promise of making the 6^th edition bigger in every possible way, there are master classes and workshops on Screen Writing, Reviewing Cinema and Animation along with panel discussions on Casting, Film Direction, Making Advertising Films, Editing adding to the charm.

Talking forward the theme of the year, ‘Happiness’, the Mumbai editions is set to showcase iconic films such as the Hindi cinematic delight ‘Mera Naam Joker’, much loved 1942 American classics ‘Gone With the Wind’ and ‘Casablanca’, 2006 American biographical drama ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, 1997 Italian tragic-comedy drama ‘Life is Beautiful’ and the rare and ravishing 1965 Hindi drama ‘Guide’ among others.

Promising to present some of the finest works of cinematic geniuses, India’s only travelling film festival, ‘Jagran’, features a delectable mix of movies, master-classes and memorable experiences for avid cinema lovers based in and around Mumbai. Showcasing a good number of feature and short films this year, Jagran Film Festival in its 6^th edition is slated to be an eyeful treat for one and all.

The 2015 edition of Jagran Film Festival after traversing rom Delhi to the Indian hinterlands of Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal is culminating in Mumbai.  In close collaboration with festival partners such as Whistling Woods International (WWI), Film Federation of India (FFI) and Motion Picture Dist Association (India) Pvt Ltd, Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the 2015 edition is all set to surpass its own last benchmarks of presenting over 16 cinema appreciation workshops, 400 screenings in 17 cities, that were witnessed by a direct audience of more than 50000 film aficionados and a media reach-out to nearly 50 million people in India in 2014.

The 6th edition of the Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai 2015 is scheduled from 28th September – 4h October, 2015 at the Fun Cinemas, Mumbai.

• For more details and festival registration, please visit:http://www.jff.co.in/

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan along with ace director Sanjay Gupta were seen interacting with the students of Mithibai college today, where they had gone to promote their upcoming film Jazbaa which is slated to release on the 9th of October, 2015.

Aishwarya was thrilled by the response she got at her arrival at the institute and was seen clicking selfies with the students lovingly.