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Raj Kapoor, the legend of Indian cinema, created a body of work that remains iconic with films that hold a special place in the hearts of audiences even today. As the country celebrates the birth centenary of the filmmaker-actor on Saturday, here is a look at some of his most celebrated films. *«Neel Kamal» (1947): Raj Kapoor debuted as a male lead in «Neel Kamal», where he portrayed a stone craft artist caught in a love triangle with two exiled princesses, played by Begum Para and Madhubala. The film was a moderate success at the box office. It came 12 years after the actor started his career as a child artist, first appearing in his father Prithviraj Kapoor's film «Inquilab».

Kapoor family has contributed more legends to Indian cinema than any other film dynasty. From acting and directing to writing, members of this illustrious clan have excelled in nearly every aspect of filmmaking—except academics. Over a century of cinematic history, the Kapoors have produced over a dozen superstars, but only one graduate. Aditya Raj Kapoor, the son of Shammi Kapoor, is the only member of the Kapoor family to complete higher education. Remarkably, he achieved this milestone at the age of 67. In 2023, Aditya became one of India’s oldest graduates by earning a Philosophy degree through correspondence from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Taking his academic pursuits further, he began a teaching career in August 2024, delivering his first lecture on the synthesis of Eastern and Western virtue ethics, as reported by ETimes. Born in 1956 to Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali, Aditya is among the few Kapoor men who didn’t have a successful film career. Educated at Lawrence School, Sanawar, he started as an assistant to his uncle Raj Kapoor on Bobby and later worked on Dharam Karam and Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Moving away from films to focus on business, Aditya eventually returned to acting in 2010 with films like Chase and debuted on television in 2014 with Everest. However, just before the pandemic, he shifted his focus to academics, completing his graduation.

Sunil Gavaskar has called out the double standards of the Australian cricket pundits for their criticism of Mohammed Siraj's aggressive send-off to Travis Head in the Day/Night Test in Adelaide. Siraj and Head were at loggerheads after the Indian pacer got the Australian centurion bowled and gave him a send-off. While Head said that Siraj's reaction was uncalled for, the Indian pacer on his part countered that the southpaw never said «well bowled» which he claimed to have told the media. ICC warned Head and Siraj was fined 20 percent of his match fee but what has irked Gavaskar is the holier than thou attitude of some former Australian players. «Siraj is getting the stick from all the „saints“ in Australian cricket who, of course, were known for their impeccable behaviour on the field. It may have incensed Australian fans that Siraj's fiery send-off was directed at Head, who scored a magnificent century and was also the local boy,» Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.

Indian Military Academy’s Passing Out Parade was filled with the echoes of marching boots and the cheers of proud families. Among the newly commissioned officers stood Lt Kabilan V, a 23-year-old from a small village near Madurai, whose story touched every heart in attendance. Beside him, his father, Vetriselvam P, watched from a wheelchair, his hands bearing the scars of years as a daily wage labourer. Paralysed by a stroke three months ago, Vetriselvam could only silently witness his son's triumph, accompanied by a photograph of Kabilan’s late mother, Panmaiyammal, who passed away three years ago due to cancer and Covid-19.

Mohammed Siraj was the in the centre of all the action on the Day 2 of the third Test against Australia at GAABA, Brisbane on Sunday, not for his bowling but for the on-field attacks. In the second session, Travis Head defended a ball into the offside and took off for a quick single. Siraj sprinted, collected the ball, and threw it recklessly towards the non-striker's end, hoping to run out Head. However, the ball went over the batter and Jadeja had to jump to collect it and hurt his fingers in the process.

Russian crude oil dropped in November to its lowest level since June 2022 but the Kremlin continues to be the biggest source of oil for India, according to a monthly tracker report of a European think tank. India became the second biggest buyer of Russian crude oil since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with purchases rising from less than one per cent of the total oil imported to almost 40 per cent of the country's total oil purchases. The rise was primarily because the Russian crude oil was available at a discount to other internationally traded oil due to the price cap and the European nations shunning purchases from Moscow. «India's imports of Russian crude oil dropped by a massive 55 per cent in November — the lowest figure since June 2022,» the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said its latest report.

Visuals showed waterlogging in areas including Postal Telegram Colony, Rajiv Nagar, Rajagopal Nagar, Bharati Nagar, Amuda Nagar, KVK Nagar and Asoke Nagar of Thoothukudi. Earlier on Friday, Thoothukudi and other districts received moderate to heavy rainfall, while Trichy received incessant rain.

Steve Smith registered his 33rd Test century in the third Test against India at GABBA, Brisbane on Sunday. It was his 10th Test ton against India in just 41 innings, the joint most with Joe Root. This was the 35-year-old's first three figure score since June 2023, between which he had played 23 innings, the most number of innings he had gone without a hundred.

Indian tourism sector is expected to double in size to USD 523 billion in the next 10 years, according to World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) President and CEO Julia Simpson. WTTC works with governments on issues of the travel and tourism industry, and is the global authority on the economic and social contribution of the sector. «The travel and tourism sector employs 45 million people in India, and is going to double in its value. In 10 years, the sector is going to be worth USD 523 billion in India, more than double the present size of USD 256 billion,» Simpson told PTI in an interview. «In 10 years, the tourism sector in India will be providing jobs to 63 million people,» she said.

Jasprit Bumrah was at his best with the second new ball in the third Test against Australia at GABBA, Brisbane on Sunday. The pacer got his 12th five-wicket haul as he dismissed the Australian top order. At the start of the day, Bumrah got rid of opener Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney in quick time to reduce Australia to 38/2. However, a partnership of 241 between Travis Head and Steve Smith meant that India were staring at a massive total. Bumrah, on the other hand, had other plans and picked up three wickets in four overs with the second new ball to reduce Australia for 327/6.

India vs Pakistan women's U19 T20 Asia Cup LIVE Score: The India U-19 women's team will be facing Pakistan U-19 women's team for the first time when they face off in the T20 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. This is the first time an U-19 women's Asia Cup is being played. A total of six teams are taking part in the competition.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In speculative fiction writer China Mieville’s novel The City and The City (2009), a police inspector in the fictional East European city-state of Besźel investigates the murder of a student involved in political turmoil between his nation and its "twin city", Ul Qoma—two separate social, cultural and political entities that exist parallelly, often occupying the same geographical space, but divided by harsh, unbreachable laws that ask residents of both cities to ‘unsee’ the other.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Leisure travellers are usually in two kinds of mood when planning a trip to Europe—one is sticking to tried and tested classics and the other is the compulsive desire to go off the beaten path, wind down the road less travelled. Well, we are on the verge of striding into 2025 in a world under the influence of reels and videos on TikTok and Instagram, so the “road less travelled", in a true sense of the phrase, doesn’t really exist anymore.

Music concerts are the latest craze, with many travelling overseas to watch their favourite performers. In India, stellar responses to Coldplay, Bryan Adams, Ed Sheeran and Diljit Dosanjh concerts signal that such large shows in India are likely to continue. Rising disposable incomes are spurring several others to fly to Southeast and West Asia, or even Europe, especially to watch artistes who don’t have an India stopover during international tours.

Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government’s policies and decisions were aimed at boosting India’s strength and unity in line with the Constitution, while the opposition Congress had “tasted blood” by repeatedly wounding it. Replying to a two-day debate in the Lok Sabha on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, he called for taking 11 resolutions, including zero tolerance towards corruption and ensuring every section of society gets the benefits of development. The Prime Minister said this would ensure true secularism and social justice. He also said the government is working on a uniform civil code, calling it a “secular civil code.”

manufacturing of various products, including mobile and information technology hardware, helped India achieve scale in the final assembly of electronics products. Experts believe that as India harbours ambitions to establish itself as the electronics manufacturing hub of the world, the country's next step is to go deeper into the supply chain and work on increasing the domestic value addition. The percentage of local value addition should increase from 18-20% to 40% within the next five years, they added. Another crucial step, most experts and industry groups believe, is to have a scheme which will help develop from scratch the near-absent domestic electronic component supply base in India.

Bentley Systems, the Nasdaq-listed infrastructure engineering software company, does not see any slowdown in India's infrastructure spending which will help its India business grow faster than the average of the company, said a senior company official. Bentley Systems develops, sells, and supports software for the design, construction, and operation of infrastructure. Their software is used in the building, plant, civil, and geospatial markets. «Even though a lot of infrastructure work is done by engineering firms and private companies, it is tied to public funding, and there's no slowdown in public funding for infrastructure. Infrastructure investments are going to be needed, to stimulate the economy,» Nicholas Cumins, CEO, of Bentley Systems, told ET.

Sarbananda Sonowal. Lothal, a vibrant township during the Indus Valley civilisation, has been excavated and offers a deep insight into the Harappan times. It was a trade centre in ancient times with businesses spanning West Asia and Africa. Sonowal told ET on the sidelines of the two-day India Maritime Heritage Conclave that more than ₹4,000 crore is being invested in developing the National Maritime Heritage Complex Museum with 14 galleries, a lighthouse museum, coastal state pavilions, recreated Lothal city and four theme-based parks, including those based on monuments, navy and climate change, along with an amusement park and nature conservation park.

Corporate India has a new obsession: pickleball. What is it? Here's what I think it is. Several middle-aged men and women, too afraid of tennis, too busy for golf, decide they want to hit something that gives the illusion of running around without having to do so. It's the best answer to a 40-something's existential crisis, diverting thoughts of violence, divorce, and forcing an IB school on your second-born — probably named Amaiyrraah, with a silent h — onto your Bangalore housing society's newly constructed court, which was previously a 'Designated EV Charging Area to Come'. We won't delve into the armtwisting in the society group, where die-hard players posted YouTube videos showcasing how the sport was conquering America, thereby succeeding in the impossible: silencing the society chairman uncle who couldn't comprehend the passion, this 'non-sport' sport, and, by default, this India. The game is designed so cleverly that it is beyond embarrassment. Just the right amount of hip movement without needing an orthopaedic on standby. Across the boundary from childishness, but not quite, as an athlete would define it, sport.

This was the tableau that transfixed fans over three weeks in the just concluded world chess championship match between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh. Liren wears a white shirt and nervously covers his mouth with his hand. Gukesh, dressed nattily in a powderblue suit, sports the results of a teenager’s first, brash attempt at growing a beard. He closes his eyes and leans back as if for a power nap, but in reality, a contemplation of the position in the movie theatre of the mind’s eye.

Shuchi Talati's Girls Will Be Girls shook me up. When I got to an unnerving scene of extreme intimidation in Talati's debut feature, I was suddenly not a journalist watching an award-winning film, but a woman who had once been a teenaged girl, minding my own business, walking up a deserted flight of stairs in an unfamiliar school where I was attending an inter-school contest, when two older boys materialised from the opposite direction, crowded me towards the banister, casually groped me, and walked away with grins on their faces without pausing for a moment, as though it was all in a day's work for them. It was neither the first nor the last time I was molested. And I cannot quite tell why this particular scene in this particular film brought up that particular memory. I guess it was because here, too, there was a teenaged girl, there was a school, and there were boys who got away with it.