Monthly Archives: September 2021

When Premchand wrote on CRICKET and its malpractices

The legendary writer and author Munshi Premchand is known for his path-breaking stories that show the mirror to the society. Through his novels, short stories and writings, he brought various social evils to light.

But it would come as a surprise to many to know that Premchand not only took interest in cricket but also wrote extensively about it. The late artiste used to write editorials in the newspaper Jagran back then and some of them were about cricket.

Premchand was born in 1880 and passed away in 1934. Hence, he wrote on cricket at a time when the game was in its infantry stage in India. This makes it all the more pleasantly surprising to know about his passion for the game back then.

This facet about the writer is brought to light by author Ramachandra Guha in his acclaimed book A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport. But I came to know about this through the Instagram user Debjit Lahiri on his famous cricket page @forgottencricketmemories.

Guha’s book tells us that Premchand also wrote on India’s famous tour of England in 1932. The team was led by the Maharaja of Porbandar and it had some talented players, including CK Nayudu. But one needs to understand that these were very early days for the Indian team and one couldn’t expect them to perform like a strong team.

Premchand cricket — Photo by **Patrick Case** from **Pexels**

As per an excerpt from the book produced by Scroll.in, Premchand wrote, “The Indian cricket team returned home. Although it did not achieve such spectacular success, it showed England that India cannot be neglected even in the field of play. The truth is that the people of India can beat the world if they get opportunities in every sphere of life. The people of England take pride in cricket. This pride must have received a big shock this time. It is a matter of joy that the Viceroy honoured the Indian team and introduced himself as a gentleman.”

But Premchand was largely known for fearlessly jotting down issues that harmed the country. Hence, in his cricket columns, he also criticized the idea of spending a large amount on the sport when the country was reeling with economic issues.

He wrote, as reproduced by Scroll.in, “For the cricket matches, railways gave concessions, express trains were put into service, entertainers are moving to Kolkata with their luggage in tow. And here it is being said that there is recession and lethargy to reduce wages, to cut the salary of servants but there is always a boom in such occasions (cricket matches).”

Also read: When South Africa won 2 WORLD titles in less than 2 months

In one of the columns, Premchand compared the situation with the French revolution. He wrote, “It is said that before the French Revolution, people used to die of hunger and their rulers and zamindars and mahajans would enjoy drama and dance. We are witnessing the same scene in India today. There is an outcry in the countryside. In the cities, they are having a ball. In the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) extravaganza, there are aeroplane exhibitions on display and money is being spent with great cruelty.”

In one of the matches in Varanasi, Rs 25 thousand was collected from five thousand tickets sold. Questioning the flow of money at such a time, Premchand wrote, “At least twenty-five thousand rupees were collected from tickets. And where did all this money come from? It came from the same babus and rich people who might not offer a dime for any national work.”

Also read: He took a hattrick and never played again…

But that’s not all. Premchand also criticized the inclusion of influential people in the Indian team just because of their rich background, rather than merit. This instantly brings to mind the nepotism debate going on among the Hindi film lovers since recent years.

He wrote, “Any player the administrators like is the one who finds himself in the XI. The only player certain of a place in the XI is the one who is nominated by the officials. On behalf of India, the Viceroy sends the congratulations. The representation of India is in the hands of these officials. So why shouldn’t the power to select players be in their hands too?”

Interestingly, Premchand also wrote fiction pieces on cricket in his novel Vardan and the short story titled Cricket Match.

Note: Scroll.in’s article on Premchand’s written works on cricket was based on an article from the Hindi website Satyagrah. To read the article, click HERE.

When Milind Soman played an EVIL politician who orchestrated riots

Actor Asif Basra’s suicide in 2020 never triggered an uproar

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It has been three days since the unfortunate passing away of actor Sidharth Shukla due to sudden heart attack. The last three days have witnessed countless posts on social media bidding emotional goodbyes to him.

But along with that, the internet is also full of conspiracy theories regarding Shukla’s death. Despite the actor’s family members admitting that there is no foul play, thousands of his fans are thinking otherwise.

From someone giving him false medicines at night before he passed away to the actor doing drugs, everything is being attributed to his passing away except heart attack. But the one that takes the cake are claims of the actor being murdered.

In fact, a group has been formed on Facebook with the name ‘Justice for Sidharth Shukla’ where some members are asking for a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) intervention in the matter.

These theories aren’t new. Ever since Sushant Singh Rajput passed away due to suicide in June 2020 till today, conspiracy theories regarding his alleged murder are still doing rounds despite the CBI not finding any murder angle in his death ever since they took up the case since a year.

Looking at all this, it might seem that majority of people get too affected emotionally if an actor dies unexpectedly. It becomes like a personal loss for them. However, this is not the case for every actor.

Let’s go back to that fateful evening in November last year, five months after SSR passed away, when news of actor Asif Basra ending his life by hanging was broken. I was shocked and it affected me as much as SSR’s death did.

However, there was no uproar on social media. Basra ended his life in the same way as Sushant did. But nobody found anything suspicious in his death. Nobody cried murder and brought up those unthinkable theories. Like SSR, Basra too was an ‘outsider’ but nobody slammed the so-called nepotism gang of Bollywood.

News channels never felt like making an issue out of it and they never trended #JusticeForAsifBasra.

But come September 2021 and the social media erupts with countless posts on suspicious death and murder when Shukla’s own family has confirmed that it’s a natural death.

This easily gives an idea that people get affected on social media in large numbers only if the actor is young, conventionally good-looking and, most importantly, someone who fits in the image of a ‘hero.’ Supporting actors or character artistes aren’t precious enough to get such reactions.

Basra has appeared in a list of prominent projects including, Black Friday, Parzania, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, Kai Po Che, Krrish 3, The Tashkent Files, Paatal Lok, Hostages (both seasons), The Family Man (season 2), etc. They might not have known him by his name but his face is sure to make you feel you have seen him at least few times on screen.

One might still argue that people might not know who Basra was since he wasn’t that famous. But after reading or watching news about his death, people did know about him.

And they also came to know the cause of his death.

Also read:

#JusticeForSSR now has NO place on news channels. Who gained? Who lost?

Rann keeps getting more relevant and that’s not a good sign

What will happen to Sooryavanshi and 83?

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Circa March 2020. The trailer of Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi promised an out-and-out cop entertainer. The film was set to release later that month. In the following month, Kabir Khan’s keenly-awaited 83 was due for release. The makers were getting ready with its teaser and trailer. Hindi film fans felt they are in for a treat.

However, a villain in the form of COVID-19 attacked India and theatres were shut for an indefinite period. Both Sooryavanshi and 83 were forced to abandon their releases and wait for the menace to end in India.

Today, after one and a half years, there is still no clarity on the release of both films.

Theatres did re-open at the end of last year which saw the release of few new Hindi films like Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari, Indoo Ki Jawani, Madam Chief Minister, etc. Although only 50% occupancy was allowed, it was still good news to see cinemas back. There was hope for the occupancy to increase in the coming months.

In January and February this year, few other films released and it felt the occupancy would increase soon. However, the second COVID-19 wave hit the nation and it turned out to be deadlier than the first one. Needless to say, theatres were shut again from April onwards and there was lockdown once again in the country.

Just when it felt Sooryavanshi and 83 would finally see the light of day, things became worse again. For those not in the know, both the films are produced by Reliance Entertainment. The former stars Akshay Kumar in the lead while the latter has Ranveer Singh.

Theatres have been re-opened in various major states in India recently. But Maharashtra, the biggest hub of Hindi cinema, still has its cinemas shut. So, you can’t expect too many big films to release in such situation. Of course, mainstream movies like Bell Bottom and Chehre did release recently. But their business hasn’t been encouraging.

In fact, even if they had released in Maharashtra, it still wouldn’t have made any difference to their box office performance. Somehow, not many people from the Hindi film audience are turning up for these films. Right now, only 50% occupancy is allowed in theatres. But both new films have not attracted even that much audience per show.

It won’t be right to say that people are scared to visit theatres due to the COVID-19 due to various reasons. The biggest being that new Punjabi movies Puaada and Chal Mera Putt 2 have been doing impressive business. The same happened with the Tamil movie Master earlier this year, not just in south but also in places like Mumbai. Plus, people are happy to gather in large numbers at markets and devotional places.

Hence, going by the current Hindi film performance at the box office, it doesn’t look the producers of Sooryavanshi and 83 would be willing to release their films now, even if theatres open up in Mumbai.

One important point here is that both the films are big budgeted and would need to earn huge at the box office in order to become successful. And to achieve that, they would need shows to go full even at 100% capacity.

We should also realize that both films have been in the waiting since a year and a half. This also increases the film’s cost because it increases the interest rate they would need to repay the banks. Naturally, in one and a half years, the rates would have gone significantly high.

Unfortunately, the threat of the third COVID-19 wave is also looming large as various experts have predicted its arrival later this year. So this raises a question whether it would be right for both films to wait for few months from now on.

In other words, neither they can wait nor they can release the films right now.