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The second of nine films made by director Jess Franco and writer-producer Harry Alan Towers over the course of only two years, The Girl from Rio is their jazzy, featherweight riff on the spy-fi genre, a heady blend of international intrigue and semi-science-fictional elements, popular (especially in Europe) in the wake of the James Bond films. It’s also a sequel of sorts to Towers’s earlier film The Million Eyes of Sumuru, directed by Lindsay Shonteff, based on the exploits of the Sax Rohmer super-villainess. Though in this film, for some inexplicable reason, the character is regularly referred to as Sunanda (obviously and not very convincingly dubbed in post) and listed in the credits as Sumitra. Blame it on Rio!

Like many a Franco film, The Girl from Rio opens with a protracted erotic dance routine: Clad only in a webbed body stocking, Yana (Beni Cardoso) does her number for a recumbent man,...

Mumbai, Jan 17 (Ians) La Liga club Villarreal Cf have reached a collaboration agreement with Bengaluru’s Alchemy International Football Academy, making it the official affiliate academy of the Spanish club as part of their international expansion project.

Alchemy International Football Academy will work hand-in-hand with Villarreal Cf to implement Yellow Submarine’s innovative methodology for the development of its players and coaches. Selected players from Alchemy International Football Academy will have the chance to visit Villarreal Cf in Spain to take part in the Player Training Week and Team Playing Experience programmes in which they train with or play against Villarreal’s youth teams.

The Bangalore-based football academy was founded in 2013 and provides different programmes for players from 12 to 21 years of age.

Ahead of the collaboration announcement, Alchemy International Football Academy director Sunanda Das said, “We are regarded as the pioneer of professional training in grassroots football in India. We...

CinemaFeaturing an ensemble cast of Mohanlal, Mammootty, Seema and Shobhana, the 1985 Malayalam film is a commentary on parenting, caste hypocrisies and more. Neelima MenonYouTube /Movie ReelsThe setting is quintessentially Mt — in the backdrop of a nondescript village/town in central Kerala, where men, women and children speak in a prominent Valluvanadan dialect. They live inside massive nalukettus, or unassuming square-shaped homes with spacious front yards and verandahs. Kitchens have black oxidised floors, stained smoke walls, pantries made of stone slabs and large wood-fired stoves. Houses are snugly lined next to each other with just a bamboo fence separating them. Children play all day, and are rarely shut inside their homes. Written by Mt Vasudevan Nair and directed by IV Sasi, the two leading characters in Anubandham (1985) are neighbours — Sunanda (Seema), who is a widow and has a son, and Vijayalakshmi (Shobhana), who lives with her husband Bhaskaran (Mohanlal) and son.