Wed, 24 Sep 2025, 09:28 am
Opinion

Bangabandhu: The World Leader Who Spoke for the Oppressed

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Bengali nation, did not speak only for his own people in any international forum, but also raised his unequivocal voice for the

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Deviance and Disservice

Vice Chancellors are the chief executives in universities. They are supposed to play the role models for the university people and beyond. They are expected to lead the universities academically,

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It Is India’s Time to Reach Out

Time and again it has been said that Bangladesh is India’s only strategic ally when it comes to its neighbours and India gains more if the relationship between the two

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If a horse befriends the grass

THERE is talk of peace between India and Pakistan, which should be welcomed with a tight embrace by both sides and by the world at large. If true, the move

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Golden Decade of Development

The year 2021 carries particular importance in Bangladesh’s history as the nation is set to celebrate the birth centenary of its Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and

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His passion for a prosperous Bangladesh and challenges

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a frank, straightforward and compassionate leader. He carried a dream for Bangladesh from his student life, of creating ‘Shonar Bangla’ (‘golden Bengal’). And he held

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In-Depth Analysis Of Bangabandhu’s 7 March Speech – Concluding Part

Dr. Syed Anwar Husain: On 5 April 1971, the world-renowned American periodical Newsweek ran a cover-story titled “Civil War in Pakistan,” wherein occurred the epithet “poet of politics” given to

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Changing Face of Bangladesh

On 26th of March next, Bangladesh will be celebrating its 50th year of existence as an independent nation and its golden jubilee celebration year is already full of many success

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Contents of the Speech

The 7 March speech, as delivered, had five items. First, the recounting of the historical circumstances leading upto the speech. Second, the four preconditions for resolution of the political stand-off.

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Necessity of Publicising Government’s Attainments

The Bangladesh Awami League has been administering the country for the last decade under the leadership of its party president, Sheikh Hasina. Since taking over the state power in 2009,

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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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