30 Established 1961 Thursday, January 25, 2018 Lifestyle Music & Movies Indian police detain dozens protesting against controversial movie

ight-wing Hindu groups in India stepped up carried sticks and caused minor injuries to 14 peo- properties in Gujarat and Rajasthan,” Deepak protests yesterday against the release of a ple, said B.S. Sandhu, a senior police official, Asher, director of Inox multiplexes, India’s second Rcontroversial Bollywood film, as several adding that police had detained 15 protesters. “We largest theatre chain, told Reuters, referring to the states boosted police patrols a day after the will not tolerate any violence in the name of two states hit by the worst protests. Supreme Court refused to allow bans on the protests against a movie,” Sandhu added. “Our primary concern is the security of our movie. Groups critical of the film, set to be “Sporadic rioting did take place but no one will be employees and audiences. I think this is a decision released today, have accused its director, Sanjay allowed to protest now.” that almost every theatre owner in these two states Leela Bhansali, of distorting history by portraying Indian films that touch upon the historical rela- has taken,” he added. In the central state of a Muslim ruler as the “lover” of the Hindu Queen tionships of Hindus, India’s majority religion, and Chhattisgarh, dozens of members of the Rajput Padmavati of the Rajput warrior clan. The filmmak- Muslim leaders are often controversial. In the community staged protests and burned an effigy ers deny the accusation. financial capital of Mumbai, police have boosted of Bhansali on Tuesday, Rakesh Singh Bais of the Violence over the film, “Padmaavat”, reached security at all theatres screening the film, and community group Sarwa Kshatriya Mahasabha the outskirtsof India’s capital just as New Delhi detained more than 100 members of protest told Reuters. Police in northwestern Rajasthan began to receive southeast Asian leaders for a groups, such as the conservative Sri Rajput Karni have enforced tight security for protests planned major summit yesterday, to be followed the next Sena, as a precaution, a senior police official said. by the Karni Sena and other Rajput groups, its day by a parade and celebrations of India’s Police are also closely monitoring social media, he police chief, O. P. Galhotra, said. Republic Day. Security for the parade showcasing added. Police had to open fire to disperse crowds “We have been talking to the leaders of the India’s military might, which is to be attended by on Tuesday nightas protests against the film turned Karni Sena and they don’t want to end their “We will not allow the movie to be released,” he ten leaders from the Association of Southeast increasingly violent, with vandalism around multi- protest,” Galhotra added. “We have decided to Indian Bollywood actress said. “Queen Padmini is like our goddess, no one Asian Nations, has been tightened more than in plexes in the western state of Gujarat and dozens allow them to hold small protests, and have made Deepika Padukone, lead of will be allowed to insult our goddess and our previous years. of motorcycles being set on fire. adequate arrangements to maintain law and the film “Padmaavat”, Hindu pride.”— Reuters Television broadcast images of gangs of young Police have arrested 20 men involved, said order.” Anyone trying to depict history as fiction arrives at the Hindu men, their faces concealed by swathes of cloth, Kalpesh Patel, a police officer in the state’s key will have to pay a price for their mistake, said Siddhivinayak Temple ahead throwing stones in the streets of Gurgaon, 30 km industrial city of Ahmedabad. The protests are Rajvansh Singh, an official of the Karni Sena in the of the film’s release in (19 miles) from New Delhi, while the hollowed-out expected to continue around the country. “We city of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, who called him- Mumbai yesterday. — AFP shell of a bus smouldered nearby. The protesters have decided not to play the movie in any of our- self the custodian of respect for Rajput women.

British pop musician John to quit touring, Daily Mirror says

ritish pop musician Elton John is to quit touring after nearly 50 years, the Daily BMirror newspaper reported. The 70-year- old star is calling time on the road after one last world tour, the newspaper said. The newspaper said the singer would make an announcement soon. A spokeswoman could not be reached for comment on the report. With a penchant for fan- cy costumes and an ear for piano rockers and This file photo shows (from left) Guitarist , bassist/singer and guitarist of performing at This file photo shows Symphony Orchestra Music ballads that made music history, John has domi- The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in , Nevada. — AFP Director Robert Spano speaking during the 34th Annual nated the pop industry for five decades. Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards Concert and Show in Atlanta. — AFP Elton John Macabre metal masters Spano to leave Atlanta orchestra Slayer call it quits layer, whose lugubrious, occult-infused music which the band denied, for its song “Angel of Death” after key two decades helped create the genre of , on Tuesday about human experiments in a concentration camp. It Sannounced that the group was retiring after a final also came under fire for its 2006 song “Jihad,” which tour. The metal band, whose founding member and key related the September 11 attacks from the viewpoint of onductor Robert Spano, who made the Atlanta songwriter died in 2013, said it was retir- the Al-Qaeda assailants and quoted plot leader Symphony Orchestra a major force as he champi- ing after nearly 37 years of making “the most brutal, Mohammed Atta. Coned contemporary composers, said Tuesday he breathtakingly aggressive, all-hell’s-a-breaking-loose Slayer released its 12th and apparently final in would step down after two decades. One of the longest- music ever created.” “The age of Slayer, one of the great- 2015, “.” The album was its first without gui- serving music directors in US classical music, where est thrash/metal/punk bands of this or any age, is coming tarist Hanneman, who died from a flesh-eating bacteria Once a hard-partying tearaway with a vora- turnover is expected and encouraged, Spano said he to an end,” the group immodestly wrote on Instagram. after he was bitten by a spider while taking a bath. The cious appetite for cocaine and alcohol, John has would end his tenure in June 2021 at the close of his 20th The band said it would start its farewell tour on May 10 group more recently raised eyebrows when its frontman, achieved a long-lasting fame among British acts season. “Twenty years is a good benchmark to balance in , playing across the and Chilean-born Tom Araya, posted a picture of President matched only by , the Rolling Stones the long-term commitment I have made to the ASO with before a final date on June 20 in Austin, Texas. , although he said the gesture was a provo- and David Bowie. Raised in a modest family, he the necessity of looking towards its future as well as my Emerging in in the early 1980s, Slayer cation rather than a statement of support. Slayer is con- started playing the piano when he was just three. own,” the 56-year-old said in a statement. wrote ferocious metal songs driven by minor keys, sidered one of the four founding bands of thrash metal, A magazine advert in 1967 put him in touch with “I believe that together, many shared goals and intense bursts of speed and gloomy guitar riffs. Yet the subgenre marked by dark aggression. The others are English lyricist Bernie Taupin and together they dreams have been achieved,” he said. Spano helped build Slayer distinguished itself for the extent to which it Anthrax-which will join Slayer on the final tour-as well as wrote some of the best-loved songs of all time - the orchestra based in the unofficial capital of the US embraced the dark side, with lyrics that evoked and , which has been by far the most transforming shy Reg Dwight of suburban north South into a major player, leading 49 world premieres so Satanism and stages decked out with upside-down cru- commercially successful. — AFP into global star Elton John. Mixing bal- far under his tenure as he welcomed living composers. cifixes under blood-red lights. Slayer frequently raised lads like “Candle in the Wind”, “Your Song” and The orchestra won Grammys for recordings that featured controversy and faced allegations of Nazi sympathies, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with pounding the works of rising US composers Jennifer Higdon and rockers “Crocodile Rock” and “Bennie and the Christopher Theofanidis as well as ’s Osvaldo Jets” proved to be a winning formula: he has sold Golijov, whose opera “Ainadamar” won awards in two more than 300 million records. —Reuters categories in 2007. Fulfilling a key role in the current economic climate for orchestras, Spano also led a funding campaign that raised $27 million. — AFP Chloe Grace Moretz lifts lid on gay conversion therapy

t sounds like it ought to be a relic of 17th-century dent , these centers offer counseling, puritanism, but gay conversion therapy is alive and support groups and, in extreme cases, drugs, hypnosis Pallbearers carry the coffin of Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan during her funeral at well across the modern United States. From Seattle and even surgery. File photo shows Cranberries I Saint Ailbe’s Church, Ballybricken, Ireland yesterday. — AP singer Dolores O’Riordan. to southern Florida, schools offering to help young- It is a practice which has gone under the radar to sters “pray the gay away” have resisted attempts at some extent, but a new movie on the issue starring prohibition, forcing youngsters to disavow their Chloe Grace Moretz has been shocking audiences and Dolores homosexuality. Opposed by authorities from the delighting critics at the Sundance Film Festival. “The Cranberries singer American Psychological Association to former presi- (Trump) administration actually completely believes in conversion therapy,” Moretz told AFP on the red car- O’Riordan laid to rest in home town pet for Monday’s world premiere of “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” at the annual event in ranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan was laid mourners. “The numbers she rescued from the darkness Park City, Utah. “(Vice President) Mike Pence tried to to rest at a private funeralin her home town of depression are impossible to count.” Candles lit the get it state-funded when he was senator, so it is a very CMonday, remembered as someone who rescued streets of Ballybricken late on Monday, as her coffin was real problem.” people from “the darkness of depression”. O’Riordan, 46, brought to the church where McNamara said she once Moretz puts in what some reviewers are calling a whose distinctive and powerful Irish voice helped fuel sang and played keyboard in the local choir. career-best performance as the titular character-a The Cranberries’ rapid rise in the early 1990s, was found The mass began with a recording of Ave Maria sung teenage girl who is caught having a sexual encounter dead in a London hotel last week during a recording trip by O’Riordan and Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti. A with the prom queen in the mid-1990s. “You know, 45 ahead of a planned tour. No cause of death has yet been guitar and a platinum disc award - symbols from a musi- out of our 50 states in this country have it to be legal established. Her mother, three children and bandmates cal career that saw The Cranberries sell over 40 million to practice gay conversion therapy,” Moretz added. Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler attended the records, second only to U2 among Irish acts - were “And actually two weeks ago New Hampshire voted service at Saint Ailbe’s Church in the small rural County brought to the alter. O’Riordan, whose hits with The against banning it in their state.” In the movie, Limerick town of Ballybricken in the south-west of Cranberries such as “Linger” and “Zombie” catapulted Cameron is forced into a therapy center by her con- Ireland. her to fame as a shy 22-year-old, was the “voice of her Chloe Grace Moretz speaks onstage during the 2018 servative aunt and uncle, her legal guardians since her “No words are adequate to describe Dolores or to generation,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said last Spotlight Initiative Awards Gala Dinner at Kia Supper Suite parents perished in a car crash.—AFP accurately state the influence for good she has been over week. — Reuters in Park City, Utah. — AFP the years,” Canon Liam McNamara, a family friend who first met O’Riordan when she was a teenager, told the