CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ COIMBATORE l tuesday l november 25, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION Dharmendra: 8 December 1935 - 24 November 2025 A life lived king-size N a m r ata J o s h i @ Mumbai D harmendra made a soft landing in Hindi cinema singing Mukesh’s “Mujhko is raat ki tanhai mein awaaz na do” in Arjun Hingorani’s Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere (1960), a sad, star-crossed love story about the poor and disempowered in Mumbai, who are una- bl e t o r i s e ab ove t h e i r circumstances. The film also showcased a facet of Dharmendra’s personality that he came to be identified with for the rest of his life—his unquestionable handsomeness. The audience could not take its eyes off the chaste good looks and trim body he sported as a young street salesman-turned-boxer. A few years down the line, the screen caught fire, metaphorically in O P Ral, han’s Phool Aur Patthar (1966) when Garam-Dharam, as he later came to be called, loomed over a sleeping Meena Kumari and took his shirt off to thoughtfully shield her from the cold. At a time when fitness was not quite the characteristic of a Hindi film hero, Dharmendra rang in a new paradigm of robustness. A legacy carried for- sumit kumar singh IN a sharp message to the bureaucracy the Prime Minister’s , Office has ordered all ministries to stop working in silos, drop blame games and prepare only “high-quality” cabinet notes that match Indian policies and projects with global standards. The strongly worded directive, issued last week, asks secretaries to shed “routine bureaucratic mindset” and focus on “value addition” while drafting or commenting on cabinet notes. The PMO has also warned secretaries against the tendency to push official files with narrow departmental views, and to keep in mind the overall public and national interest while conceptualising a policy proposal. derness, overwhelming romance and playful humour. Dharmendra remained impervious to the superstardom of his contemporaries, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, but didn’t get celebrated as much for his own. Despite the diversity of roles in over 300 films and 65 years in the film industry, dotted with innumerable hits, being the HeMan ended up defining Dhar- mendra and confining him as well. But for every action entertainer like Raj Khosla’s Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), and Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), there was Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s hilarious Chupke Chupke, and the same filmmaker’s poignant Satyakam. And of course, there was Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay. Through the 80s, 90s and To take call on surrender, Maoists seeks halt to ops Level up: PMO to babus on cabinet notes @ New Delhi ward by the likes of Vinod Khanna and Salman Khan, and practically every single contemporary male star. However, there has been a significant difference: Dharmendra’s was not about sculpted, gym-toned, six-pack abs but a rugged, healthy male ideal. His masculinity before getting taken over by the action and stunts and loudness in the 80s was also underlined with a quiet ten- The mangled remains of the buses involved in the collision in Tenkasi | express Seven die in TN bus accident, 70 injured E X P R E SS N E W S S E R V I C E @ Tenkasi Seven passengers, including six women, were killed and around 70 others sustained injuries when two private buses collided head-on at Duraisamiyapuram village, around 15 km from Tenkasi, on Monday morning. According to the Elathur police, a private bus heading from Tenkasi to Kadayanallur and another proceeding in the opposite direction from Madurai towards Tenkasi rammed into each other near Duraisamiyapuram on Thirumangalam-Shengottai NH, killing six passengers on the spot. Police said one of the buses tried to overtake a vehicle and ended up colliding with the other one on the two-lane road. The injured have been admitted to the Tenkasi District Government Headquarters Hospital and Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.  P5 Letter to CMs of MP, C’garh and Maha requests time till February 15 E J A Z KAIS E R @ Raipur Plea to Play message on radio to reach cadre THE Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Special Zonal Committee of the banned CPI (Maoist) has sought time until February 15, 2026, to arrive at a collective decision on surrendering arms and accepting the government’s rehabilitation package. The MMC committee operates in the dense trijunction forest region of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — a strategically vital corridor used by Maoist cadres to move between different areas of the Dandakaranya Special Zone. In a signed press release issued in the name of Anant, Maoist leader Anant requested that his message be run on radio to ensure it reaches cadres soon. “Allow us to meet representatives and journalists, so that we can declare a date on laying down arms spokesperson of the MMC Special Zonal Committee, the outfit addressed Chief Ministers of the three states — Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh), and Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) — requesting a temporary halt to antiMaoist operations. The release claimed that the proposal has the approval of Politburo member Sonu Dada and Central Committee members Satish and Chandranna, all of whom have reportedly re- nounced armed struggle and surrendered. Reacting to the development, Bastar Range Inspector General of Police P Sundarraj said, “The remaining Maoist cadres and their depleted leadership now have no option except to shun violence and join the social mainstream. Such a press note has emerged when the organisation has crumbled... They are now leaderless, directionless and demoralised. Troops are committed to bring an end to the left-wing extremism as early as possible.” 2000s, his career began sliding, and his own children and nephew—Sunny Bobby Esha , , and Abhay Deol—took to showbiz. He later retired to his farmhouse in Lonavala. It took Sriram Raghavan to celebrate the Garam-Dharam magic in Johnny Gaddar (2007). And, ironically it’s Ra, ghavan’s Ikkis, a few weeks away from release, that’d perhaps be his last, and posthumous, performance. From a martyr in Haqeeqat to the father of one in the Raghavan film, hopefully, it would be the fitting finale for the multilayered person and actor Dharmendra was.  P8 express read Masinagudi Tiger mauls tribal woman to death Coimbatore: A 65-year-old tribal woman was killed by a tiger near Masinagudi along the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on Monday afternoon. The deceased, B Nagiyammal, was grazing goats when she was attacked. Four patrolling teams with 25 members have begun efforts to locate the tiger | P2 hill temple row HC impleads Waqf Board, HR&CE Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday made the HR&CE department and Tamil Nadu Waqf Board as parties to a batch of petitions against the location chosen for lighting Karthigai Deepam on the Thiruparankundram hill | P4