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Friday, February 14, 2020

'Demo Piece' review: An outdated comedy that belongs to the '90s

Review
The film yet again proves that Kannada directors don’t think beyond the stereotypical script, even in the case of comedy movies.
It’s been over a month since the beginning of 2020 and the Kannada film industry is yet to announce its existence with a big release. While other industries have marched way ahead, Sandalwood is still struggling to kickstart the year with a blockbuster. In the last two weeks, more than 20 movies have hit the screens and this week’s release Demo Piece, a no-brainer, too fails to impress. Harsha (Bharath Bhopanna) is a spoilt brat and a happy-go-lucky student, who wants to live the rich way. After finding out about his spending habits, Harsha’s dad cuts down his pocket money. So, to make some quick bucks, he takes up a part-time job. It doesn’t work out and he gets into cricket betting. He loses a lot of money and drowns himself in loans. In college too, girls reject him for his careless attitude. He sets his eyes on Adya (Sonal Monteiro), but she also rejects his proposal. Eventually, he dies where the gods decide that he deserves another chance. So, they send him back to earth as a 'Demo Piece' with a Midas touch. What happens once Harsha returns to Earth blessed by the gods comprises the second half of the movie. Demo Piece yet again proves that Kannada directors don’t think beyond the stereotypical script, even in the case of comedy movies. Several hit movies featuring superstars with similar plot lines have been produced in Kannada. Demo Piece is nowhere near any of them in terms of the making or comedy. The filmmaker demonstrates that he is yet to overcome the mentality of insulting the LGBTQ+ community to evoke ‘laughter’. Abuse and insults are showered on the hero’s friend, an LGBTQ member, which is not only distasteful but also proves that Sandalwood still lags behind when it comes to making contemporary films. Harsha’s antics can really get on the audience’s nerves. In the college campus, he takes out a pair of scissors from his geometry box (beat that!) and ‘converts jeans into shorts’ and asks women to dress the same every day so that men can be motivated to come to college. This is just one of the instances of glaring sexism and misogyny in the film. The movie is full of errors too, especially the Yamaloka scenes. Also, Harsha, a B.Com student, is shown preparing for exams with a Physics textbook! Picking out errors in this movie is more entertaining than watching it. Demo Piece seems like a film that should have been made three decades ago. Lead actor Bharath Bhopanna’s small screen stint gives him enough confidence to face the camera. But, to prove his heroism, he does it all – acting, fighting, romance, dance, gambling and even death in his first film. You name it, and he has done it but has excelled in none. Demo Piece is a poor debut for Bharath, who should stick to the small screen where he is popular. Sonal’s role is more like an extended cameo. There is hardly any scope for acting. All she does is strut around and show attitude when Harsha approaches her. There’s a lot of stalking too! Veteran actor Sparsha Rekha, who plays the hero’s mother, and is also the co-producer, juggles between a supporting actor and ‘almost-lead’ roles. Mother-son dialogues are a big bore and are way too outdated for 2020. Supporting actors Rupesh and Chakravarthy have played their parts well. The dialogues are crass, and so is Arjun Ramu’s music. Director Vivek A, who is also the co-producer, makes no attempt to present an entertainer. He seems to have borrowed storylines from all the '90 movies and presented it for the audience who want to watch an average '90s movie – and that's nobody! Demo Piece, with the mindless plot, is a painful watch. Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.
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After public outcry, parking fees for two-wheelers at Bengaluru KSR station halved

Civic Issues
However, there has been no revision of monthly fees which stands at Rs 1,000.
REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE/ RSRIKANTH05 VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In response to public pressure, the authorities at the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station (Majestic) in Bengaluru have reduced the parking fees partially. The parking fee will now be half of what the two-wheelers were asked to pay in the new fee structure. The fee structure was first revised on January 25. The new fee structure had meant that passengers had to pay Rs 232 to park their two-wheelers for a whole day, compared to the earlier fee of Rs 70, for parking for 24 hours. This amount of Rs 232 was reached following the structure that the fee for the first two hours was Rs 12 and every additional hour cost Rs 10 per hour. Now, in the revised structure released by the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC), which looks after the parking facility at the station, the initial first two hours will be charged Rs 12 and every next 2 hours will be charged Rs 10, making the full day charge Rs 115. However, there has been no revision of monthly fees which stands at Rs 1,000. No changes have been made for four-wheelers’ parking fees either. Reacting to the change, Karnataka Rail Users, a rail users forum thanked the railway authority for considering the parking fee revision. The reduction in the parking fee was expected as the IRSDC had earlier released a statement saying that they have taken cognisance of the public outcry. Even experts had slammed the steep hike in the parking fees. They even pointed out how the train ticket fares for nearby destinations, like Mysuru, would have been cheaper than the parking fees. Some suggested that this would even hurt the Railways more as people might find other means to park their vehicles or use private facilities or even the nearby KSRTC/ BMTC bus stations if that offers more competitive pricing.
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Services on green line of Bengaluru Metro to be disrupted on Sunday: Details

Metro
The electrical works taken up is for powering the extended stretch of the metro.
Rail services on the Bengaluru metro's green line will be disrupted on Sunday as the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) is taking up maintenance work. Metro rail services will be unavailable between Yelachenahalli and RV Road metro stations on Sunday.  In a statement, BMRCL PRO Yashavanth Chavan said, "BMRCL is taking up the work of drawing of 33KV power cables from the Yelachenahalli Receiving substation to Yelachenahalli station and beyond, for powering the Reach-4 line front Yelachenahalli to Anjanapura station. For this work. metro train services between RV. Road and Yelachenahaßi metro stations on green line will remain suspended on 16/022020 (Sunday)." The electrical works taken up is for powering the extended stretch of the metro. The electrical switch yard for the metro line is located next to the Yelachenahalli Metro station.On Sunday, metro services will be available only between Nagasandra and RM Road stations on the green line on Sunday. Metro services on the purple line of the metro running from Baiyappanahalli to Mysuru Road will be unaffected during this time.  The metro services on the green line will be fully operational from 5 am on Monday. The green line of the Bengaluru metro runs from Nagasandra to Yelachenahalli and crosses Kempegowda station or Majestic where it connects with the purple line. In January, the number of six-coach trains running on the green line was increased to 18.  The six-car train can accommodate as many as 2,000 passengers and by adding more six-coach trains on the green line, a long-pending demand of metro users in the city was fulfilled. In the six-coach train, the first coach is reserved for  women.     
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Pic of minister R Ashoka’s son emerges even as cops deny his involvement in car crash

Controversy
In the picture that has now gone viral, an injured Sharath’s right hand is placed on the side of the grey pickup.
Karnataka Revenue Minister and BJP leader R Ashoka’s ambiguous statement about whether or not his son Sharath was in the Mercedes Benz that killed two people in Karnataka’s Ballari district has raised several questions. Even as the Ballari police repeatedly denied that Sharath was not in the car, a picture of an injured Sharath, sitting in a dark grey pickup vehicle has raised questions on whether the police were helping cover up his alleged involvement in the accident.  In addition to the picture, the pathologist at the Ballari Government General Hospital, Dr Mahantesh has stated that he was asked to perform the autopsy on Sachin, one of the passengers of the car who had been killed in the accident, and informed that the deceased was someone close to R Ashoka. In the picture that has now gone viral, an injured Sharath’s right hand is placed on the side of the grey pickup. His wrist is injured with blood covering his palms. However, TNM was not able to confirm whether the picture was taken on February 10, the day the accident occurred. On February 10, a red Mercedes Benz car that was travelling on the national highway at around 2.45 pm on Monday rammed into a tea stall in Karnataka’s Ballari district. The car dragged along with it an 18-year-old man named Ravi Nayaka, who was drinking tea at the stall in Mariyammanahalli village when the accident happened. Ravi was killed instantly while Sachin, a passenger sitting in the front seat of the car later succumbed to his injuries.  “The PSI (referring to the sub inspector of Mariyammanahalli Police Station) asked me to perform the autopsy as soon as possible.  He said that Sachin, the person who was brought dead, was associated with minister R Ashoka. He did not say if Sachin was a relative but he said that the case is on priority. We don’t generally perform autopsies at 1.30 am but on humanitarian grounds I did it,” Dr Mahantesh said.  Did the Ballari Police deliberately omit Revenue Minister R Ashoka's son's name from the FIR in the accident case? The doctor from the govt hospital says that he was made to perform the autopsy early in the morning after cops told him that Sachin was associated with the minister. pic.twitter.com/ewxuQ4TwHG — Theja Ram (@thejaram92) February 13, 2020 When TNM contacted Ballari SP CK Babu and asked him about the picture and the doctor’s testimony, he only said that the matter is under investigation.  Although road accidents on national highways are not uncommon instances, this case in particular has gathered attention as there are several allegations of the police omitting the name of one person in the FIR -- that of Sharath, son of Karnataka Revenue Minister and BJP MLA from Padmanabhanagar -- R Ashoka.  According to the FIR, Rahul, a 29-year-old resident of Bengaluru’s Jalahalli was behind the wheel. The impact of the accident has grievously injured fellow passengers Shivakumar, Rakesh and Varun- all of whom have been named in the FIR. Eyewitness accounts to the media, however, have alleged that Sharath was in the car when the accident occurred. The car is registered to National Public School in Bengaluru according to vehicle registration records.  “The car tried to maneuver around a lorry that was parked on the side of the road but the driver lost control and rammed into Ravi. It dragged him for some distance and also toppled a board. An ambulance came later and took Ravi’s body. The car passenger’s (Sachin) body was taken by a new SUV that came to the scene later,” an eyewitness told Public TV.  However, the Ballari Police on Thursday said that Sharath was not in the car and only four people were in it including Shivakumar, Rakesh and Varun, who were in the car with Sachin.  Minister R Ashoka was unavailable for comment at the time of writing the article.  Read: Karnataka minister R Ashoka’s son was allegedly in car that mowed down a man  
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'Every Indian should know Hindi': Commentators’ remarks in Ranji match trigger row

Controversy
The comments were made during a Ranji Trophy match between Karnataka and Baroda in Bengaluru.
Photo by Likhith NP/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC 3.0
An exchange between two commentators turned into a controversy during the Ranji Trophy match between Karnataka and Baroda at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday. Broadcasters Rajinder Amarnath and Sushil Doshi were commentating for Hotstar when they stated that everyone in India should know Hindi, reported Sportstar. The duo were discussing Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar's work as a Hindi commentator when Rajinder, who is a former Harayana cricketer and the brother of former Indian all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath, said, "In India, every Indian should know Hindi. It's our mother tongue; for us, there is no greater language than this." Sushil Doshi, who is a veteran commentator, went on to say that a player shouldn't be proud of speaking in Hindi since "you live in India, you will obviously speak the language of India". The comments, however, outraged social media users, who were quick to call it ‘Hindi imposition’. Sitting in Bengaluru and commentating on a match between Karnataka and Gujarat, who swear by Kannada and Gujarati respectively, these commentators try to impose Hindi. https://t.co/8Ggcw6fvJP — Madhu Jawali (@MadhuJawali) February 13, 2020 Did this lunatic commentator just say “Every Indian should know Hindi” ? What on earth do you think you’re ⁦@BCCI⁩ ? Stop imposing Hindi and disseminating wrong messages. Kindly atone. Every Indian need not know Hindi #StopHindiImposition #RanjiTrophy #KARvBRD pic.twitter.com/thS57yyWJx — Ramachandra.M/ ರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ.ಎಮ್ (@nanuramu) February 13, 2020 Hindi is our rashtrabasha and Humara mathrubhasha??!! Really .. using sport as a tool to impose language.. what’s happening @BCCI ? #RanjiTrophy https://t.co/gAJ2jpkgMK — Manuja (@manujaveerappa) February 13, 2020 Rajinder later apologised on air stating that he deeply regretted the statement and that he did not intend to impose a language. "The intention was never to enforce a language. All the languages of the country are a part of the country. Everybody loves to speak his language. My intention was not to hurt anyone," he said as per Sportstar.  The comments were made during the second day of play and in the seventh over of Baroda's second innings. It comes just days after a light-hearted incident in India's tour of New Zealand in which KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, batting at the crease, were heard talking in Kannada. Their conversation which had words like "Odi Odi Ba" (come running), "Bartheera" (will you come), "Beda Beda" (no no) and "Ba ba" (come) must have pleased the cricket buffs in Karnataka as it was clearly audible on the stump mic. With IANS inputs
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IAS officer Munish Moudgil transferred after survey reforms in Karnataka

Bureaucracy
The decision to transfer Munish was taken after he implemented an interim measure to tackle the problem of clearing pending property survey requests.
IAS officer Munish Moudgil, who was recognised by the Central government last week with the national award for e-governance, was transferred out as Commissioner of Survey, Settlement and Land Records on Thursday. Munish was posted as Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms. KV Trilok Chandra, who was previously Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps will replace him.  As per reports, the decision to transfer Munish was taken after he implemented an interim measure to tackle the problem of clearing pending property survey requests. With 1.31 lakh survey requests pending for years and just 1,937 surveyors to work with, Munish deputed 97 surveyors to work for three months in different districts where the number of cases were higher. Sixty of them were sent to neighboring districts while others were posted in districts that were far from their homes and this appears to have made the government employees' association unhappy, Deccan Herald reported. Munish was looking for a solution to ease the waiting time for citizens to get their land records surveyed. Typically, a surveyor is handed 23 cases in a month. But if cases are pending, new applicants have to wait through a system in which a waiting queue number is generated. Currently at Hangal in Haveri, the waiting queue number is 1279 and in Athani it is 1064. In and around Bengaluru, the number is between 221-532. However, the IAS officer's solution to deputise personnel for three months in areas where waiting queue numbers are higher did not go down well with the state's government employees association. CS Shadakshari, President of the State Government Employee Association, met the Chief Minister to appeal for Moudgil’s transfer, Times of India reported. Munish was honoured just last week with the national award for e-governance for his over-the-counter issuance system for caste, income and residence certificates. He served in the post for four-and-a-half years.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020

Bengaluru witnesses protest demanding more jobs for Kannadigas

Protest
The group had called for a bandh across Karnataka to support the bandh, however, only a few unions responded to the call.
Taxi drivers and members of various Kannada groups came together for a protest rally from the Bengaluru City Railway station to Freedom Park on Thursday. This was part of the 12-hour Karnataka bandh, called for by a coalition of pro-Kannada organisations demanding the implementation of the Sarojini Mahishi report. The report recommends job reservations for Kannadigas in the state. Initially, the police said that they had not granted any permission for the rally, however, the people began gathering at the City railway station. When enough numbers had gathered, the rally began at around 11.30 am towards Freedom park. The people walked all the way, shouting slogans, waving the Karnataka flag. Also among the crowd was a group of traditional Karnataka drummers, Dolu Kunitha. They played drums and danced to the beat as others joined in with the dancing. When the rally finally reached the Freedom park, they began speaking about their demand for the reservations, and played music. Speaking to TNM, Salim, a B.Com graduate who runs a water treatment plant in the city, says “I recently went to a private bank in the city, and they can’t speak Kannada and asked me to speak in English. I can’t speak English. What is the meaning of this? I don’t understand. I can’t use the services of the bank in my own language, in the capital city of my state? This just shows how other state people have taken jobs in the city. Whether it is Muslims, Dalits or others, Kannadigas are not getting jobs in Bengaluru. We demand that the jobs in the city are reserved for Kannadigas, or else where will we go for jobs? This is our hometown,” he adds. “I am a cab driver, and the people who take my cab  are 90% people who cannot even speak Kannada. This means that people from other places are coming here to work, and not picking up the language. There needs to be more Kannadigas working here, and we can only get that through reservations,” said Raghavendra, a driver who didn’t take any passengers and instead joined in the protest.
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