SC quashes cases against Khushboo

In a relief for free speech and expression,the Supreme Court recently quashed 22 criminal cases against Tamil actress Khushboo for statements made in media interviews,allegedly endorsing pre-marital sex and live-in relationships.
A Bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan observed that Khusboo was exercising her constitutional right to express her personal views on the subjects in interviews done in 2005,and no criminal action could be taken against her for that.
The ruling was on the basis of a petition filed by Khushboo challenging the 2008 ruling of the Madras High Court,which had dismissed her plea to scrap the criminal cases lodged by private complainants.
The Bench had on March 24 reserved its ruling on the issue,saying that “when two adults want to live together,what is the offence? Does it amount to an offence? Living together is not an offence. It cannot be an offence.”
Even then the court had said that her views were indeed “personal”.
The court had even asked the complainants to produce evidence to show if any girls had eloped from their family after Khushboo made her statement.

Malayalam film industry needs new blood: Sibi Malayil
The crisis-ridden Malayalam Film Industry needs new blood in various fields,including acting and direction,well-known film director Sibi Malayil said on April 21 in Kochi.
‘There is need for new directors,technicians and actors’ in Malayalam cinema. New promising directors,who venture into the field,are not being given enough encouragement,” said Malayil.
In Malayalam,there are very few good artistes,unlike in Tamil,Telugu and Hindi. They have 10-20 good actors to choose from,he said,asking the media to promote enterprising directors and young actors.
Malayil,said that T D Dasan STD VI B,by debutant director Mohan Raghavan,was different from routine films,which should be encouraged. Very few Malayalam films are becoming a hit now. This is a film which is different and has received positive response from the audience,he said.
The Malayalam film industry needs these type of films to survive,he said adding the film had a unique screenplay and a different treatment. Actor Biju Menon,who has essayed a role in the film,said this was a small-budget film. More producers should be encouraged to invest in such different films.
Describing his film as ‘simple’,director Mohan Raghavan said it had been released in about 10 centres and he was hoping that the audience would give him encouragement.
Jagathy Sreekumar,Jagadeesh,Suresh Krishna and Swetha Menon are essaying various roles in the film. The film is about a letter written by a 11 year-old boy Dasan from a remote Palakkad village to his father whom he has never met.

Rajkumar’s sons pledge bodies for scientific research
Karnataka film icon Rajkumar’s three sons on April 23 privileged their bodies for scientific research after their deaths to mark the 82nd birthday of the late actor.
Raghavendra Rajkumar,Shivaraj Kumar and Puneet Rajkumar handed over the donation forms at a function held in Bengaluru in memory of the late actor,saying that they were inspired to do so after their father had pledged his eyes.
Several fans and members of the film industry,apart from the cine star’s family,also offered prayers and flowers at the grave of Rajkumar. Various programmes were held in the city to mark the birthday of Rajkumar,the first Kannada actor to win the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the only Kannada actor to be conferred the Padma Bhushan. Rajkumar,who died in 2006,acted in over 200 films and bagged nine state awards,besides two state awards for singing.