PREDICTIONS FOR FEB 2017

BY NANCY JADE ALTHEA

LIBRA Sept 23 - Oct 22

This month you willbe wanting to travel and get some matters of finance sorted out.You are trying to get your financial affairs and will in order.There will be some complications regarding taxation that you will need to deal with and pay. Do not let these matters go unattended. Romantically, you will be feeling a little less enthusiastic with your partner as you are just feeling quite tired and worn out. Take some time for yourself and recharge.

SCORPIO Oct 23 - Nov 21

You will want to make some movement with regard to matters of the heart this month. You are feeling as though there are things that need to be discussed and dealt.Valentine's Day stirs your emotions. Financially, you are looking at your investments andwanting to make some changes with regard to your property. Children will need your attentionthis month and you will needto paysome outstanding bills. You will be thinking of booking a holiday.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22 - Dec 21

This month you willbe travelling with work and dealing with some difficult clients. You can handle them with your charm and diplomacy.There will be some extra work on your shoulders as there seem to be a number of colleagues leaving your workplace. Try to maintain your routine.Your partner will be in the mood to travel andstart planning your summer holidays. Financially you are saving, but allow yourself to splurge a little when it comes to relaxation.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 19

You will need to make sure you get proper rest and relaxation this month as you will be working long hours. There is a lot going on. You will be thinking of buying another property, as you are now looking at an extra income.You willalso be looking at possible renovations. Travel plans and meeting old friends will be on your agenda. Romance is not on the cards as of now, but this may change in the near future.

AQUARIUS Jan 20 - Feb 18

This month you willbe busy.You will need to find afine balance as you do not have enough time for yourself. Home life will be happy and cordial.You are planning to meet a relative you have not seen for a while andthis will be quite nerve racking for you.There may be some matters relating to property that you will be helping your parents with. A sibling is also going to be needing your help.

PISCES Feb 19 - March 20

You will have a calendar full of activities this month, in line with your desire to achieve a lot more this year.You have set out some goals and you will be making plans to buy yourself a new car. There will be some news relating to a possible job opportunity.You will be feeling quite energetic, taking on tasks and getting things done. Make sure you get those tests done, you will be fine and are panicking for no reason.

KAABIL

STARRING: Hrithik Roshan,Yami Gautam, Suresh Menon, NarendraJha, RonitRoy, Rohit Roy

DIRECTOR: SanjayGupta I ,..-; ' ,.,

Loosely inspired from the 2013 Korean film Broken, which was based on a novel written by the Japanese writer

Keigo Higashino, Kaabil is a morality I tale wrapped in a fascinating revenge drama.

Rohit Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan) is a blind dubbing artist, whose newly-wed wife, Supriya (Yami Gautam) a pianist, who is also blind, is raped by Amit Shetlar (Rohit Roy), the youngerbrother of local MLA Madhav Rao Shellar (Ronit Roy) and his friend Wasim, the son of a

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butcher.

When the couple approach police to file a complaint, they are rebuked and turned away. Disappointed, they return home only to realise that the perpetrators of the crime, are emboldened to repeatthe crime. Soon, Supriya takes the drastic step of ending her life.

With no hope left for justice, Rohit considers vengeance as his only recourse, and so he throws an open challenge to Inspector Amol Chaube (Narendra Jha) and his assistant that he would take revenge for his wife's death by executing the perpetrators. He tells them that his ingeniously planned execution would neither be detected nor solved. In other words, he would commit a perfect crime. How he goes about keeping his word, forms the crux of the narrative.

A three-way game of cat and mouse chase ensues between Rohit, as he hunts the culprits, and the police hunting him.The drama and action that blurs the line between the victim and the perpetrators of crime, is exciting. But the script lacks the chutzpah of an engrossing, nail-biting thriller.

With a blend of romance and thrill designed to suit the Indian audience, the story adapted by Vijay Kumar Mishra, is engrossing. But unfortunately, the pace of the story telling is its undoing. Also, the tell-and-show technique used for the plot progression, robs the audience of its thrill factor.

On the directorial front, the frst hour focuses on the romance in a perfunctory manner and makes the inciting moment seem forced. From the very word go you are compelled to anticipate trouble from Amit and his friend Wasim. Also most of the hero's journey is dealt superficially. The complex issues are smoothened with cinematic liberties.

The second hour can't sustain the initial energy, as the story focus becomes diffused and an excessive flashbacks andtime jumps cause some narrative confusion.

On the performance front, while Yami and Hrithik are charming, their portrayal of a blind couple, with unblinking eyes and robotic movements is far from natural, making the characters seem unconvincing.

Ronit Roy in his introductory scene tries to emulate Nana Patekar as the Marathi-speaking MLA, but he soon runs out of steam. Rohit Roy playing his brash younger brother is effortless.

NarendraJha as Inspector Chaube and his assistant have their moments to shine.

The music is nothing extraordinary and the item number 'Haseeno Ka Deewana', a remix of the yesteryear song from the 1981 film Yaarana, is just run-of-the-mill.

The action sequences are wellchoreographed.

Overall, the film does not offer any tension nor a gripping portrait of a grieving husband. It is a mediocre fare at its best. TroyRibeiro

RAEES

STARRING: Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Sidd.iqui and Mahira Khan

DIRECTOR: Rahul Dholakia

It's the same old wine - hooch wine - in a not-so-new battle, and I do mean battle.

Prohibition in Gujarat is the playground for this pulsating saga of twisted morality. As the goodpoliceman Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) wages an all-out war against hooch seller Raees Khan (Shah Rukh Khan). What emerges from the smoke, fire and ashes is a kitschy 1980s-style potboiler that tells the story of a gangster'sprotege who grows into a Robin Hoodlum, the do-gooder whose Ammi (Sheeba Chadha, so brilliant and yet such a fugitive figure in the screenplay) teaches him that no job is too small or petty. Taking that maternal advice a bit too seriously (probably uttered by the short-lived Ammi-jaan in an unguarded moment after she may have heard it being said by Alok Nath), Raees spends the next 40 years of his life and two hours of ours, selling illicit liquor and killing opponents with an impunity that defines death by Dawoodian ideology.

A hai-haifor a hai and bomb for a bomb.

There is plenty of gratuitous action, rapidfire movement andswift reflexive responses to violent impulses. But Raees never succeeds in getting its act all together. It's all too hazy, scattered andsketchy, except when Nawazuddin walks in as the ·good cop' who vows he willget Raees by hook or crook.

Nawaz's Majmudar is funny without trying to be. Habituated to being transferred on his job, he insists on his seniors giving their orders in writing, and when he realises that the sweets he is savouring have come from his arch-enemy, he continues to nibble on them while reiterating his vow to get the bootlegger.This is a man who probably laughs twice a year and that too because his wife expects him to.

While Nawazuddin makessure his character is coherently defined, Shah Rukh's Raees remains surprisingly hazy, and we are not talking about his moral values alone. It's the way he plays Raees, as though he doesn't really like the man for his immoral acts. But what to do? He must do the job to the best of his ability.

At many points in the plot, Shah Rukh's Raees falters as he attempts to come to terms with the rapid changes in his fortunes. Failing to fnd a feasible centre to his character's doddering ethics, Shah Rukh plays Raees with an arrogant indifference.

In his defence, the material provided by the writers (Rahul Dholakia, Harit

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Mehta, Ashish Vashi, Neeraj Shukla) is at best derivative. We have seen the same story about the rise and fall of the 'Gangster With The Bloodied Gun· in scores offilms by Ram GopalVarma and Anurag Kashyap.

There is nothing even remotely novel in the shootouts and the other shindigs (the latter includes a sudden sunny swing of Sunny Leone's 'Laila' kind into an item song). Even the tender relationship that Raees shares with his coy wife Asiya (Mahira Khan, assuming the Mere mehboob persona all pert, pouty and silky) has been done so much more effectively by Manoj Bajpayee and Shefali Shah in Ram Gopal Varma s Satya.

Such considerations are perhaps unwarranted in Raees. Director Rahul Dholakia attempts to assemble an inherently messy saga of gangsterism set in the 1980s, told in the way films were narrated in that era. There is even an action sequence in a drive-in theatre where an Amitabh Bachchan film plays while Raees intimidates a builder.

Deliberately stagey and selfconsciously 'retro', Raees gathers its strength from the voluptuous resources of drama in the protagonist's life and the power of the narrative to make cliches come alive by their defiant reiteration. The director knows his material is weather-beaten and he doesn't pretend it is any other way. The shoot-outsfilled with bombast and bravado, are from an era when such violence was considered macho.

At the end, when Raees's world falls apart with a close encounter of the 'thud' kind, there is no surprise left in the plot. It isn't only Raees who has nowhere to run to.

SubhashK.Jha

Land taxsurchargeforforeign persons

The 2016 NSW Budget introduced a 0.75 per cent surcharge land tax to be paid byforeign persons whoown any residential land in NSW, including theirprincipalplace of residence. The surcharge is in addition to any land tax which may be payable.

Aforeign person may be a person, corporation, trustee, beneficiary or government, among others. This includes people who do not usually live in Australia. Australian citizens are not foreign persons.

Foreign persons will receive assessment notices from March 2017.

To find out more, visit www.osr.nsw.gov.au/surcharge