Tue, 23 Sep 2025, 10:03 am
Opinion

Bangabandhu, Bangladesh and Bangali Emancipation

The genesis of Bangladesh as an independent entity stretches back to at least 6th century, when Sasanka had established the independent kingdom of Gaur in 594 A.D. , by repudiating

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A Bereaved Daughter Seeking Answers

Every year when the month of August comes the Father of the Nation’s one of the two surviving daughter the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in meetings organized

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The Dangers of Chinese Company’s Control over Smart Devices

The Chinese firm Tuya Inc. of Hangzhou is behind making most of the consumer products “smart”. Unfortunately, this fact is known by few and carries potential dangers along with it.

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The Dangers of Chinese Company’s Control over Smart Devices

The Chinese firm Tuya Inc. of Hangzhou is behind making most of the consumer products “smart”. Unfortunately, this fact is known by few and carries potential dangers along with it.

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Terrible Drug Crystal Meth: Ensure Stern Action against Traffickers

Terrible drugs have engulfed the youth and now another monster drug called crystal methamphetamine (Ice) is starting anew. The horrific drug shipment from Myanmar is entering the country and spreading

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Minar-e-Pakistan Assault Confirms “Yes, All Men”

Despite countless protests and petitions sent to the authorities for basic women rights and justice, all attempts have fallen in vain. Yet again, we have witnessed a woman facing the

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Punitive Measures to Stop Ferry Crash into Padma Bridge

In the last three months, several ferries have crashed onto different pillars of the Padma Bridge. Due to the rising water level in the Padma during the monsoon season and

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Media Friendly Bangabandhu

Bangabandhu was born in a remote river-shaded village of Tungipara in Gopalganj. He was the main attraction of the Bengali nation since 1947. The history of the liberation of the

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August 21 Grenade Attack: BNP’s Plot to Erase Bangabandhu’s Legacy

Bangabandhu’s worthy daughter Sheikh Hasina during her premiership from 1996 to 2001 was leading the country towards peaceful socio-economic prosperity by a supreme submission of her leadership, just at that

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Return of Taliban and Holy Month of Muharram

Even as we enter the eve of 10th day of Muharram, colloquially known as Ashura, the day that commemorates martyrdom of Imam Hussain (RA) in the battle of Karbala, another

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The megastar plays a philosophy professor shaken by a student’s sexual assault allegation against a colleague in Luca Guadagnino’s new film – and she’s easily the best thing about it. Julia Roberts doesn’t make many films these days. She was in Leave the World Behind in 2023; in 2022, there was her tropical romantic comedy with George Clooney, Ticket to Paradise; and then we have to jump all the way back to 2018 for her previous turn in Ben Is Back. But you can see why she chose to star in After the Hunt, a contentious campus drama directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers). Roberts is on screen for almost every one of its 139 minutes, and she is the monumental centre around which its chaos and controversy swirl. It’s the kind of heavyweight role that gets awards nominations if it goes to the right person – and Roberts is definitely the right person. Her character is Alma, a philosophy professor at Yale University. Striding regally around its leafy quadrangles in a chic white suit that matches her blonde hair, this combatively intelligent alpha female is adored by everyone who knows her. Her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is resigned to the fact that he loves her more than she loves him, and is willing to make whimsical jokes about the imbalance; Hank (Andrew Garfield), a would-be rebellious friend and colleague, is even more flirtatious with her than he is with everyone else; and her favourite PhD student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), worships her – which could explain why she is Alma’s favourite PhD student. It seems as if the status quo might soon be upset, though, as either Alma or Hank – or perhaps both – is expected to be granted permanent tenure. But then something far more drastic happens. The day after a boozy party in Alma and Frederik’s book-lined flat, Maggie tells Alma that Hank walked her home and then “crossed a line”. Alma is sympathetic – but only up to a point. There is no evidence of assault, so she isn’t sure whether to trust the word of a new friend over an old one, especially at such a critical moment in her career. And maybe, her thinking goes, lines were crossed at the party anyway, considering that teachers and students were hugging each other while knocking back expensive wine. “Roberts’ Alma is a coiled spring: her steely stillness makes her ferocity all the more powerful” It’s refreshing to see a grown-up Hollywood film that takes on contemporary issues: feminism, cancel culture, identity politics, and the generation gap. But After the Hunt is more of an admirable project than an engaging drama, because it never stops reminding you of how clever it wants to be. Guadagnino keeps showing off his quirky camera angles and intrusive music choices. The screenplay, by Nora Garrett, squeezes too much philosophical jargon into the dialogue, and too many tangential scenes and subplots into the structure. You might think that the alleged assault would be a big enough deal for any film, but Alma is given mysterious abdominal pains and guilty secrets, and Maggie is overloaded with significance as a queer, black, plagiarism-prone young woman with a non-binary partner and rich parents who are major donors to the university. In theory, viewers of After the Hunt should leave the cinema arguing about its subject matter. In practice, they’re more likely to be asking each other what was going on and what it meant. It’s all a bit much, basically. Garfield, miscast as a denim-clad dude who is, it is implied, roughly the same age as Roberts’ character, shouts and swears and waves his arms with a quantity-over-quality approach to acting. Stuhlbarg’s flouncing and sing-song delivery are presumably meant to be irritating, but perhaps not as irritating as they actually are. At the heart of it all, though, Roberts is a different matter. She understands that less can be more. Her Alma is a coiled spring: her steely stillness makes her ferocity all the more powerful and her pain all the more intense. Her muttering is scarier than Garfield’s yelling, and when she glares at someone, they stay glared at. It’s an expertly controlled performance which demonstrates why Roberts has been a Hollywood icon for so long, and why she could well be in line for her second Oscar, 25 years after Erin Brockovich. After the Hunt would have been better if everyone else involved had had some of that control, too.

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