Step away from the selfie machine that is your smartphone - you no longer need to plague our Facebook timelines with profile pictures of your gurning, trout-pout… you can turn them into videos instead.
Announced during Facey-B's annual F8 developer conference, the social giant has confirmed that the long coveted move to video-based profile pics is finally on the way - huzzah.
Not all video formats will be supported, but you'll be able to transform your static profile picture into a moving image through a number of third-party apps.
Shane Nigam and Shruthy Menon's Malayalam movie "Kismath" was released in 41 screens in Kerala by Lal Jose's LJ Films Pvt. Ltd on Friday, July 29. The movie has locked horns with megastar Mammootty's romantic entertainer "White" at the Kerala box office.
Despite being a small-budget movie with newcomers in lead roles, Shanavas K Bavakutty's debut directorial venture "Kismath" has become one of the most awaited movies of the year. Thetrailer and the songs of the romantic entertainer, which is based on a real life incident that happened at Ponnani in Malappuram in 2011, have already impressed the audience. Many celebrities have also been promoting the movie.
The film narrates the story of a 23-year-old Muslim boy, Irfan, who falls in love with 28-year-old Anitha, a Dalit girl. The issues they face for hailing from different communities are being discussed in the background of the social and cultural life at Ponnani. The film also stars Alencier Ley, Binoy Nambala, Sajitha Madathil, P Balachandran, Surabhi Lakshmi and Sunil Sukhada in pivotal roles.
Check out what viewers have to say about "Kismath" movie here:
Vishnu Udayan
Kismath is a beautiful tale with a very lovely tale end. Technically, it looked near to perfect with very cute mirror-frames and sound designing. Shane Nigam is such a promising youngster to our industry. He can deliver more astonishing performances within his limits. Sruthy Menon's career best and Vinay Forrt's best after Premam. I think after Vimal sir, this character is going to fetch a lot for Vinay.
While I give full credits to the director for sticking to realistic film making, the dramatic dialogues towards the end could have trimmed. But never mind, the story is deep enough! Sushin Shyam's background score is a cherry on top.
Salute to Rajeev Ravi and LJ Films Pvt Ltd. for taking up such a strong project. Shanavas K Bavakutty, we will look forward to you for more strong films like this. Do not miss it in theaters.
Aneesh Gopi T
#Kismath is a beautiful movie. Nice story, brilliant direction, awesome acting by #ShaneNigam #VinayFort #ShruthiMenon etc and great music. The movie looks fresh and rightly paced for 102 minutes. Every character that appears in the movie is portrayed very well the actors and kudos to casting of the movie. The must watch Malayalam movie in theatres and don't miss it.
Shohaib Khan Rawther
kismath is a good movie intensely performed by our new boy shane nigam and arrogantly enacted by dear vinay fort,picturised simply and perfectly by suresh rajan,musically lifted by sushin shyam ...good debut mr.shanawas. if you can please cut down that tail end song ,which distracts the film well and fine
Vishnu Sasidharan
Kismath a movie inspired from true events happened in ponnani has shown justice in every aspect. It is the story of a Irfan a Muslim boy who is in love with Anitha a dalit girl who is elder than him by 5 years. Its more than enough to know what the story will be about and as it is based on true events nothing filmy is gonna happen in it. Irfan is a engineer who is immature and easygoing but in the matter of love he is very serious and when he understands caste and society wont allow their marriage he takes things into his hands and goes to police station with his love seeking help for them to live together. Movie then shows how the society, law and caste tries to defend this.
Special mention to cast director, not many roles but just perfect and everyone were spot on. Vinayfort needs a special mention. Shine Nigam and Shruty Menon doid all justice to their roles.
The movie was so realistic that you wont see any actors but only the characters throughout the movie. Director Shanavas with Rajeev Ravi production has done all justice to the movie. No gimmicks, stunts, mass dialogues movie is very simple and real. So all those who like realism in movies go for it. Also who are in love this is a must watch :)
White is the romantic drama, which stars Mammootty and Huma Qureshi in the lead roles. The movie is directed by Uday Ananthan and produced by Eros International.
White Story
Prakash Roy is a middle-aged banker, who lives in London. He is a widower and leads a luxurious lifestyle. Roshni Menon, on the other hand, is a simple girl is in her mid-20's, who is an IT professional.
White....
Some unexpected incidents bring Prakash and Roshni together, and soon they fall love with each other. What happens in the couple's life forms the crux of the story.
Cast And Performance
Mammootty, who plays Prakash Roy mesmerizes with his extremely charming screen presence and exceptional dialogue delivery. But the role doesn't offer him much scope to perform.
Huma Qureshi, who makes her M'town debut matches Mammootty with her looks and decent performance. But the unmatching dubbing voice has badly affected her efforts.
Artists like KPAC Lalitha, Siddique, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Sona Nair, Sunil Sughatha, who played the supporting roles, doesn't have much to do in the film.
Script & Direction
The script, which is penned by director Uday Ananthan, Nandini Valsan, and Praveen Balakrishnan is weak and lacks crispiness. As a director, Uday failed to execute a convincing narrative and connect with the audiences.
White narrates the love story between the lead pair with a touch of mystery, but end abruptly leaving the audiences confused. The slow pace in the storytelling and philosophy-filled dialogues are other major minus factors.
Technical Aspects
The breathtaking visualization of debutante Amarjeet Singh is the major saving grace. The newcomer has captured London in its full glory, thus making the movie a complete visual treat. Achu Ajayan's editing is not up to the marks.
Music
Rahul Raj's songs, except Oru Vela by Shwetha Mohan, are easily forgettable. The background score is fine, but severely disappoints at certain portions.
Verdict
A love story which was killed by the weak screenplay and execution. Watch it only if you are a die-hard Mammootty fan.
The Rajinikanth starrer Kabali opened to mixed reviews last weekend. The positive reviews tended to be from Tamil Nadu and the negative ones from the North. There were some negative reviews in the South too, but the ferocity of the naysayers from the North was remarkable.
Regardless of negative reviews, fans everywhere in India celebrated the new movie of the 65-year old Superstar. According to sources, the film has collected something in the region of Rs 250 crore over the first weekend – making it one of the biggest openings for any Indian film worldwide.
Rajinikanth plays an ageing crime lord in Kabali – one who uses his power to do good to the Tamils in Malaysia. He fights for dignity and equal pay for equal work. While the movie is unarguably long, it certainly does not warrant the acerbic putdowns from North India.These reviews made much of two aspects of the film: its two-and-a-half-hour duration and its meandering story line. But talk to any Rajini fan; most of his movies are like that. There are few Rajini movies with a very strong storyline – like Thalapathi(Commander), or Padayappa. The rest are movies for the masses with Chuck Norris-style action sequences, emotional family drama, and a moral to end it all. Rajini’s movies aren’t known for portentous storylines.
Fans watch Rajinikanth movies for his style and charisma, his ability to outwit opponents, his celebration of the rags-to-riches story, and his care for family values.Kabali is true to those qualities.
The Malaysian Tamil problem
Kabali addresses three major concerns of Tamils in Malaysia – their desire for freedom from slavery, social dignity, and equal pay.
The movie shows how hard it is for Tamils to gain an education in Malaysia. It shows the susceptibility of Tamil youth to violence and drugs, and their vulnerability in a social structure that makes it tough for them to get jobs.
In a long Facebook note, a Tamil Malaysian, Visithra Manikam, says that the poorer segment of the community continues to earn very little in a recurring cycle of poverty. Young men have to start working by 15, usually in low-wage jobs. Some turn into gangsters. They are into relationships by 17, and may or may not marry their girlfriends when they get pregnant. So there is a single-parent dimension to this underclass. Kids grow up poor, lucky if they are lodged in orphanages. Some are recovered by their single mothers and put to work. And the cycle continues. These kids turn gangsters, not just for money alone, but for respect.
With the Malaysian government turning a blind eye to this plight of its Tamil citizens, almost half a million ethnic people left the country between 2007 and 2009 – a majority of them were ethnic Indians or Chinese. “Of course, one could argue that discrimination isn't new for these Chinese and Indians. Malaysia’s affirmative action policies for its Malay majority — which gives them preference in everything from stock allocation to housing discounts — have been in place for decades,” according to a Wall Street Journal article from 2011.
Tired of being treated as second-class citizens in their own country, denied opportunities in education, businesses and jobs, they left their country and returned to the land of their ancestors – the Chinese to China, and Tamils to Tamil Nadu.
North-South divide
While the hostile reviewers have tried to put the movie down in terms of the usual Rajini-isms and the supposed lack of a strong introductory scene for the superstar (seriously?), Kabali does strike a chord in the hearts of Tamils because it deals with something we care about – our place inside and outside India.
Being Tamils, we connect to the Malaysian Tamils’ need for dignity and upward economic mobility. While India turns a blind eye to the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka and other counties, we in Tamil Nadu end up taking more than our share of refugees. Don’t get me wrong, we are happy to take in fellow Tamils who come to us fleeing persecution. But we are quite peeved that the Indian government won’t do more to deal with such situations.
Tamils understand the larger context of the story depicted in Kabali. The rest of India does not. In simple words, the reviews of Kabali, juxtaposed with the success of the film among Tamils, brings out the North-South divide: North India sees things in terms of nationalism, while Tamil Nadu sees them in terms of ethnicity. The success of the movie must therefore be befuddling to the movie critic. Post-facto, these critics are likely to put this success down to the ‘Rajini’ effect rather than the brilliance of Kabali’s director Ranjith, who has brought out a subject that touches every Tamil’s heart.
North India does not understand this because it does not know the context. Even when it does, its reaction is likely to be: “But they are not Indians, they are Malaysians, or they are Sri Lankans. We cannot interfere in another country's affairs.” While North India sees Tamils in Malaysia as Malaysians, we in Tamil Nadu see them as Tamils and not Malaysians.
This was the same divide we saw when India dealt with the Sri Lankan Tamil situation: we saw the Sri Lankan Tamils as Tamils, while North India saw them as non-Indians. The argument went, “They are not our people, they are not Indians. Why should we help them?”
Well, here’s why. When Tamil Nadu was asked to be a part of India, they asked all Tamils to be a part of it — not just the ones in Tamil Nadu. So, Tamils outside of India may not be Indians for North India, but they are very much Tamil for us – and that inherently makes them ethnic Indians.
(The writer is a former journalist, currently working in the US. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of the newindianexpress.com)
What company in 2016 advertises a phone as having a touchscreen?
BlackBerry does. Now, I know it's because the Canadian mobile granddad
distinguishes between its keyboard and touch devices, but does that
really need to be on the box?
BlackBerry is this week introducing its second Android handset, the DTEK50, which is being promoted as "the world's most secure smartphone."
I've just gotten to try it out for myself and it has frankly surpassed
my expectations. If BlackBerry could just get out of its own way and
present its devices without trying to inflate pedestrian features, I
think the company might have a pretty good device on its hands.
Then again, the thing to understand with the DTEK50 is that it's
not about the device at all. This is an off-the-shelf reference design
from TCL, which you'll already have seen in the form of the Alcatel Idol 4.
The only BlackBerry difference is the replacement of the Idol's glass
back with a distinctly utilitarian rubber surface. It's highly unusual
for a phone, feeling like something you might use to scrub kitchen
surfaces with, but I guess it conveys the point about this being a
no-nonsense business phone.
BlackBerry's sales pitch with this handset is about security. The
company isn't just securing the bootloader, it's going below that layer
and cryptographically signing the chipset as well. Once you have the
DTEK50 up and running, the titular DTEK app (available only on
BlackBerry phones) lets you monitor and granularly control every app's
access to system resources and information.
BlackBerry also promises to have a zero-day delay on delivering
Google's monthly security patches. When I raised the point about
"zero-day" being a common term to refer to severe software vulnerabilities,
I was met with blank stares. This is what I mean about BlackBerry's
marketing: the company finds awful ways to communicate good things. Most
Android manufacturers struggle or simply refuse (Hello, Moto!)
to keep up with Google's monthly schedule for patches, and BlackBerry's
commitment to deliver them on the same day they become available is
laudable and a real advantage. If BlackBerry can earn people's trust, their dollars will follow
The more I learned about the DTEK50, the more I understood
BlackBerry's premise behind the phone. The hardware is spartan and basic
because it's not what matters anymore. What people want is to have a
sense of being taken care of, the notion of having someone looking out
for their mobile security and wellbeing. Many might scoff at the very
idea of trying to secure Android, but BlackBerry has given me more
reason to trust that it is indeed doing something about this issue than
any other Android OEM. Even if I never use the BlackBerry Hub, I can
appreciate the company's gradual improvements — which in the latest
version include a pinching gesture that instantly filters messages by
either unread status, flags, or markers of importance. There's
definitely maturation and improvement going on with BlackBerry's Android
software, offering at least the potential for a full-fledged,
differentiated BlackBerry experience.
Maybe I'm grasping at straws here. After all, at $299.99, the DTEK50
is cheap only by BlackBerry standards and would struggle to convince
price-sensitive Android shoppers. This year's Moto G
has the same Snapdragon 617 processor and a bigger battery inside,
while offering a larger 1080p display than the DTEK50 at a lower price.
Can the 5.2-inch DTEK50 overcome its hardware limitations with the
promise of a more attentive manufacturer that takes care of the things
that truly matter?
One thing that gives me greater confidence in BlackBerry than Moto is
that the DTEK50 feels more fluid and responsive than the G. Its camera
works faster and, on the evidence of my first few tries, doesn't appear
to be terrible. I like the simplicity of this phone's design, even if
BlackBerry's only involvement was to downgrade it with that rubbery back
cover. And I also like the clarity of the display. It just feels like a
really decent phone.
Having endured BlackBerry's painfully corporate and stilted
presentation for the DTEK50 yesterday, I was preparing my jokes about an
out-of-touch company delivering out-of-touch products. The weird thing
is that I actually like the DTEK50 and I see room for it out in the
world. If BlackBerry's promises of superior security and fast and
regular updates prove legitimate over the coming weeks and months, this
might turn out to indeed be a respectable business phone. Let's just
keep its most basic specs off the pretty box, shall we, BlackBerry?
