title: Click consonant

text: The above clicks sound like affricates, in that they involve a lot of friction. The next two families of clicks are more abrupt sounds that do not have this friction.


title: Click consonant

text: Technically, the IPA letter transcribes only the forward closure and release of the click, not the entire consonant. As the "Handbook" states, "since any click involves a velar or uvular closure [as well], it is possible to symbolize factors such as voicelessness, voicing or nasality of the click by combining the click symbol with the appropriate velar or uvular symbol: , ." Thus technically is not a consonant, but only part of one, and one can speak of "ǂ-clicks", meaning any of the various click consonants that share the place of articulation. In practice, however, the simple letter has long been used as an abbreviation for , and in that role it is sometimes seen combined with diacritics for voicing (e.g. for ), nasalization (e.g. for ), etc. These differing transcription conventions may reflect differing theoretical analyses of the nature of click consonants, or attempts to address common misunderstandings of clicks.


title: Click consonant

text: Clicks occur in all three Khoisan language families of southern Africa, where they may be the most numerous consonants. To a lesser extent they occur in three neighbouring groups of Bantu languages—which borrowed them, directly or indirectly, from Khoisan. In the southeast, in eastern South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and southern Mozambique, they were adopted from a Tuu language (or languages) by the languages of the Nguni cluster (especially Zulu, Xhosa and Phuthi, but also to a lesser extent Swazi and Ndebele), and spread from them in a reduced fashion to the Zulu-based pidgin Fanagalo, Sesotho, Tsonga, Ronga, the Mzimba dialect of Tumbuka and more recently to Ndau and urban varieties of Pedi, where the spread of clicks continues. The second point of transfer was near the Caprivi Strip and the Okavango River where, apparently, the Yeyi language borrowed the clicks from a West Kalahari Khoe language; a separate development led to a smaller click inventory in the neighbouring Mbukushu, Kwangali, Gciriku, Kuhane and Fwe languages in Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. These sounds occur not only in borrowed vocabulary, but have spread to native Bantu words as well, in the case of Nguni at least partially due to a type of word taboo called hlonipha. Some creolised varieties of Afrikaans, such as Oorlams, retain clicks in Khoekhoe words.


title: Click consonant

text: Three languages in East Africa use clicks: Sandawe and Hadza of Tanzania, and Dahalo, an endangered South Cushitic language of Kenya that has clicks in only a few dozen words. It is thought the latter may remain from an episode of language shift.


title: Click consonant

text: The only non-African language known to have clicks as regular speech sounds is Damin, a ritual code once used by speakers of Lardil in Australia. In addition, one consonant in Damin is the egressive equivalent of a click, using the tongue to compress the air in the mouth for an outward (egressive) "spurt".


title: Click consonant

text: Once clicks are borrowed into a language as regular speech sounds, they may spread to native words, as has happened due to "hlonipa" word-taboo in the Nguni languages. In Gciriku, for example, the European loanword "tomate" (tomato) appears as "cumáte" with a click , though it begins with a "t" in all neighbouring languages.


title: Click consonant

text: Scattered clicks are found in ideophones and mimesis in other languages, such as Kongo , Mijikenda and Hadza (Hadza does not otherwise have labial clicks). Ideophones often use phonemic distinctions not found in normal vocabulary.


title: Click consonant

text: English and many other languages may use bare click releases in interjections, without an accompanying rear release or transition into a vowel, such as the dental "tsk-tsk" sound used to express disapproval, or the lateral "tchick" used with horses. In a number of languages ranging from the central Mediterranean to Iran, a bare dental click release accompanied by tipping the head upwards signifies "no". Libyan Arabic apparently has three such sounds.


title: Click consonant

text: Clicks occasionally turn up elsewhere, as in the special registers twins sometimes develop with each other. In West Africa, clicks have been reported allophonically, and similarly in French and German, faint clicks have been recorded in rapid speech where consonants such as and overlap between words. In Rwanda, the sequence may be pronounced either with an epenthetic vowel, , or with a light bilabial click, —often by the same speaker.


title: Click consonant

text: Speakers of Gan Chinese from Ningdu county, as well as speakers of Mandarin from Beijing and Jilin and presumably people from other parts of the country, produce flapped nasal clicks in nursery rhymes with varying degrees of competence, in the words for 'goose' and 'duck', both of which begin with in Gan and until recently began with in Mandarin as well. In Gan, the nursery rhyme is,


title: Click consonant

text: Occasionally other languages are claimed to have click sounds in general vocabulary. This is usually a misnomer for ejective consonants, which are found across much of the world.


title: Click consonant

text: For the most part, the Southern African Khoisan languages only use root-initial clicks. Hadza, Sandawe and several Bantu languages also allow syllable-initial clicks within roots. In no language does a click close a syllable or end a word, but since the languages of the world that happen to have clicks consist mostly of CV syllables and allow at most only a limited set of consonants (such as a nasal or a glottal stop) to close a syllable or end a word, "most" consonants share the distribution of clicks in these languages.


title: Click consonant

text: Most languages of the Khoesan families (Tuu, Kxʼa and Khoe) have four click types: } or variants thereof, though a few have three or five, the last supplemented with either bilabial } or retroflex } (""). Hadza and Sandawe in Tanzania have three, }. Yeyi is the only Bantu language with four, }, while Xhosa and Zulu have three, }, and most other Bantu languages with clicks have fewer.


title: Click consonant

text: Like other consonants, clicks can be described using four parameters: place of articulation, manner of articulation, phonation (including glottalisation) and airstream mechanism. As noted above, clicks necessarily involve at least two closures, which in some cases operate partially independently: an anterior articulation traditionally represented by the special click symbol in the IPA—and a posterior articulation traditionally transcribed for convenience as oral or nasal, voiced or voiceless, though such features actually apply to the entire consonant. The literature also describes a contrast between velar and uvular rear articulations for some languages.


title: Click consonant

text: In some languages that have been reported to make this distinction, such as Nǁng, all clicks have a uvular rear closure, and the clicks explicitly described as uvular are in fact cases where the uvular closure is independently audible: contours of a click into a pulmonic or ejective component, in which the click has two release bursts, the forward (click-type) and then the rearward (uvular) component. "Velar" clicks in these languages have only a single release burst, that of the forward release, and the release of the rear articulation isn't audible. However, in other languages all clicks are velar, and a few languages, such as Taa, have a true velar–uvular distinction that depends on the place rather than the timing of rear articulation and is audible in the quality of the vowel.


title: Click consonant

text: Regardless, in most of the literature the stated place of the click is the anterior articulation (called the "release" or "influx)," whereas the manner is ascribed to the posterior articulation (called the "accompaniment" or "efflux)." The anterior articulation defines the "click type" and is written with the IPA letter for the click (dental , alveolar , etc.), whereas the traditional term 'accompaniment' conflates the categories of manner (nasal, affricated), phonation (voiced, aspirated, breathy voiced, glottalised), as well as any change in the airstream with the release of the posterior articulation (pulmonic, ejective), all of which are transcribed with additional letters or diacritics, as in the "nasal alveolar click", or or—to take an extreme example—the "voiced (uvular) ejective alveolar click", .


title: Click consonant

text: The size of click inventories ranges from as few as three (in Sesotho) or four (in Dahalo), to dozens in the Kxʼa and Tuu (Northern and Southern Khoisan) languages. Taa, the last vibrant language in the latter family, has 45 to 115 click phonemes, depending on analysis (clusters vs. contours), and over 70% of words in the dictionary of this language begin with a click.


title: Click consonant

text: Clicks appear more stop-like (sharp/abrupt) or affricate-like (noisy) depending on their place of articulation: In southern Africa, clicks involving an apical alveolar or laminal postalveolar closure are acoustically abrupt and sharp, like stops, whereas labial, dental and lateral clicks typically have longer and acoustically noisier click types that are superficially more like affricates. In East Africa, however, the alveolar clicks tend to be flapped, whereas the lateral clicks tend to be more sharp.


title: Click consonant

text: The five click places of articulation with dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are labial , dental , palatal ("palato-alveolar") , (post)alveolar ("retroflex") and lateral . In most languages, the alveolar and palatal types are abrupt; that is, they are sharp popping sounds with little frication (turbulent airflow). The labial, dental and lateral types, on the other hand, are typically noisy: they are longer, lip- or tooth-sucking sounds with turbulent airflow, and are sometimes called affricates. (This applies to the forward articulation; both may also have either an affricate or non-affricate rear articulation as well.) The apical places, and , are sometimes called "grave", because their pitch is dominated by low frequencies; whereas the laminal places, and , are sometimes called "acute", because they are dominated by high frequencies. (At least in the Nǁng language and Juǀʼhoan, this is associated with a difference in the placement of the rear articulation: "grave" clicks are uvular, whereas "acute" clicks are pharyngeal.) Thus the alveolar click sounds something like a cork pulled from a bottle (a low-pitch pop), at least in Xhosa; whereas the dental click is like English "tsk! tsk!," a high-pitched sucking on the incisors. The lateral clicks are pronounced by sucking on the molars of one or both sides. The labial click is different from what many people associate with a kiss: the lips are pressed more-or-less flat together, as they are for a or an , not rounded as they are for a .


title: Click consonant

text: The most populous languages with clicks, Zulu and Xhosa, use the letters "c, q, x," by themselves and in digraphs, to write click consonants. Most Khoisan languages, on the other hand (with the notable exceptions of Naro and Sandawe), use a more iconic system based on the pipe . (The exclamation point for the "retroflex" click was originally a pipe with a subscript dot, along the lines of "ṭ, ḍ, ṇ" used to transcribe the retroflex consonants of India.) There are also two main conventions for the second letter of the digraph as well: voicing may be written with "g" and uvular affrication with "x", or voicing with "d" and affrication with "g" (a convention of Afrikaans). In two orthographies of Juǀʼhoan, for example, voiced is written "g!" or "dq", and "!x" or "qg". In languages without , such as Zulu, may be written "gq".


title: Click consonant

text: There are a few less-well-attested articulations. A reported subapical retroflex articulation in Grootfontein !Kung turns out to be alveolar with lateral release, ; Ekoka !Kung has a fricated alveolar click with an s-like release, provisionally transcribed ; and Sandawe has a "slapped" alveolar click, provisionally transcribed (in turn, the lateral clicks in Sandawe are more abrupt and less noisy than in southern Africa). However, the Khoisan languages are poorly attested, and it is quite possible that, as they become better described, more click articulations will be found.


title: Click consonant

text: Formerly when a click consonant was transcribed, two symbols were used, one for each articulation, and connected with a tie bar. This is because a click such as was analysed as a nasal velar rear articulation pronounced simultaneously with the forward ingressive release . The symbols may be written in either order, depending on the analysis: or . However, a tie bar was not often used in practice, and when the manner is tenuis (a simple ), it was often omitted as well. That is, = = = = . Regardless, elements that do not overlap with the forward release are usually written according to their temporal order: Prenasalisation is always written first ( = = ), and the non-lingual part of a contour is always written second ( = = ).


title: Click consonant

text: However, it is common to analyse clicks as simplex segments, despite the fact that the front and rear articulations are independent, and to use diacritics to indicate the rear articulation and the accompaniment. At first this tended to be for , based on the belief that the rear articulation was velar; but as it has become clear that the rear articulation is often uvular or even pharyngeal even when there is no velar–uvular contrast, voicing and nasalisation diacritics more in keeping with the IPA have started to appear: for .


title: Click consonant

text: In practical orthography, the voicing or nasalisation is sometimes given the anterior place of articulation: "dc" for and "mʘ" for , for example.


title: Click consonant

text: Places of articulation are often called click "types, releases," or "influxes," though 'release' is also used for the accompaniment/efflux. There are seven or eight known places of articulation, not counting slapped or egressive clicks. These are "(bi)labial affricated" , or "bilabial"; "laminal denti-alveolar affricated" , or "dental"; "apical (post)alveolar plosive" , or "alveolar"; "laminal palatal plosive" , or "palatal"; "laminal palatal affricated" (known only from Ekoka !Kung); "subapical postalveolar" , or "retroflex" (only known from Central !Kung and possibly Damin); and "apical (post)alveolar lateral" , or "lateral".


title: Click consonant

text: Languages illustrating each of these articulations are listed below. Given the poor state of documentation of Khoisan languages, it is quite possible that additional places of articulation will turn up. No language is known to contrast more than five.


title: Click consonant

text: Extra-linguistically, Coatlán Zapotec of Mexico uses a linguolabial click, , as mimesis for a pig drinking water, and several languages, such as Wolof, use a velar click , long judged to be physically impossible, for backchanneling and to express approval. An extended dental click with lip pursing or compression ("sucking-teeth"), variable in sound and sometimes described as intermediate between and , is found across West Africa, the Caribbean and into the United States.


title: Click consonant

text: The exact place of the alveolar clicks varies between languages. The lateral, for example, is alveolar in Khoekhoe but postalveolar or even palatal in Sandawe; the central is alveolar in Nǀuu but postalveolar in Juǀʼhoan.


title: Click consonant

text: The terms for the click types were originally developed by Bleek in 1862. Since then there has been some conflicting variation. However, apart from "cerebral" (retroflex), which was found to be an inaccurate label when true retroflex clicks were discovered, Bleek's terms are still considered normative today. Here are the terms used in some of the main references.


title: Click consonant

text: The dental, lateral and bilabial clicks are rarely confused, but the palatal and alveolar clicks frequently have conflicting names in older literature, and non-standard terminology is fossilized in Unicode. However, since Ladefoged & Traill (1984) clarified the places of articulation, the terms listed under Vosser (2013) in the table above have become standard, apart from such details as whether in a particular language and are alveolar or postalveolar, or whether the rear articulation is velar, uvular or pharyngeal, which again varies between languages (or may even be contrastive within a language).


title: Click consonant

text: In several languages, including Nama and Juǀʼhoan, the alveolar click types and only occur, or preferentially occur, before back vowels, whereas the dental and palatal clicks occur before any vowel. The effect is most noticeable with the high front vowel . In Nama, for example, the diphthong is common but is rare after alveolar clicks, whereas the opposite is true after dental and palatal clicks. This is a common effect of uvular or uvularised consonants on vowels in both click and non-click languages. In Taa, for example, the back-vowel constraint is triggered by both alveolar clicks and uvular stops, but not by palatal clicks or velar stops: sequences such as and are rare to non-existent, whereas sequences such as and are common. It is also triggered by labial clicks, though not by labial stops. Clicks subject to this constraint involve a sharp retraction of the tongue during release.


title: Click consonant

text: Miller and colleagues (2003) used ultrasound imaging to show that the rear articulation of the alveolar clicks () in Nama is substantially different from that of palatal and dental clicks. Specifically, the shape of the body of the tongue in palatal clicks is very similar to that of the vowel , and involves the same tongue muscles, so that sequences such as involved a simple and quick transition. The rear articulation of the alveolar clicks, however, is several centimetres further back, and involves a different set of muscles in the uvular region. The part of the tongue required to approach the palate for the vowel is deeply retracted in , as it lies at the bottom of the air pocket used to create the vacuum required for click airstream. This makes the transition required for much more complex and the timing more difficult than the shallower and more forward tongue position of the palatal clicks. Consequently, takes 50 ms longer to pronounce than , the same amount of time required to pronounce .


title: Click consonant

text: Languages do not all behave alike. In Nǀuu, the simple clicks trigger the and allophones of and , whereas do not. All of the affricated contour clicks, such as , do as well, as do the uvular stops . However, the occlusive contour clicks pattern like the simple clicks, and does not trigger the back-vowel constraint. This is because they involve tongue-root raising rather than tongue-root retraction in the uvular-pharyngeal region. However, in Gǀwi, which is otherwise largely similar, both and trigger the back-vowel constraint (Miller 2009).


title: Click consonant

text: Click manners are often called click "accompaniments" or "effluxes", but both terms have met with objections on theoretical grounds.


title: Click consonant

text: There is a great variety of click manners, both simplex and complex, the latter variously analysed as consonant clusters or contours. With so few click languages, and so little study of them, it is also unclear to what extent clicks in different languages are equivalent. For example, the of Khoekhoe, of Sandawe and of Hadza may be essentially the same phone; no language distinguishes them, and the differences in transcription may have more to do with the approach of the linguist than with actual differences in the sounds. Such suspected allophones/allographs are listed on a common row in the table below.


title: Click consonant

text: Some Khoisan languages are typologically unusual in allowing mixed voicing in non-click consonant clusters/contours, such as , so it is not surprising that they would allow mixed voicing in clicks as well. This may be an effect of epiglottalised voiced consonants, because voicing is incompatible with epiglottalisation.


title: Click consonant

text: As do other consonants, clicks vary in phonation. Oral clicks are attested with four phonations: tenuis, aspirated, voiced and breathy voiced (murmured). Nasal clicks may also vary, with plain voiced, breathy voiced / murmured nasal, aspirated and unaspirated voiceless clicks attested (the last only in Taa). The aspirated nasal clicks are often said to have 'delayed aspiration'; there is nasal airflow throughout the click, which may become voiced between vowels, though the aspiration itself is voiceless. A few languages also have pre-glottalised nasal clicks, which have very brief prenasalisation but have not been phonetically analysed to the extent that other types of clicks have.


title: Click consonant

text: All languages have nasal clicks, and all but Dahalo and Damin also have oral clicks. All languages but Damin have at least one phonation contrast as well.


title: Click consonant

text: Clicks may be pronounced with a third place of articulation, glottal. A glottal stop is made during the hold of the click; the (necessarily voiceless) click is released, and then the glottal hold is released into the vowel. Glottalised clicks are very common, and they are generally nasalised as well. The nasalisation cannot be heard during the click release, as there is no pulmonic airflow, and generally not at all when the click occurs at the beginning of an utterance, but it has the effect of nasalising preceding vowels, to the extent that the glottalised clicks of Sandawe and Hadza are often described as prenasalised when in medial position. Two languages, Gǀwi and Yeyi, contrast plain and nasal glottalised clicks, but in languages without such a contrast, the glottalised click is nasal. Miller (2011) analyses the glottalisation as phonation, and so considers these to be simple clicks.


title: Click consonant

text: Various languages also have prenasalised clicks, which may be analysed as consonant sequences. Sotho, for example, allows a syllabic nasal before its three clicks, as in "nnqane" 'the other side' (prenasalised nasal) and "seqhenqha" 'hunk'.


title: Click consonant

text: There is ongoing discussion as to how the distinction between what were historically described as 'velar' and 'uvular' clicks is best described. The 'uvular' clicks are only found in some languages, and have an extended pronunciation that suggests that they are more complex than the simple ('velar') clicks, which are found in all. Nakagawa (1996) describes the extended clicks in Gǀwi as consonant clusters, sequences equivalent to English "st" or "pl", whereas Miller (2011) analyses similar sounds in several languages as click–non-click contours, where a click transitions into a pulmonic or ejective articulation within a single segment, analogous to how English "ch" and "j" transition from occlusive to fricative but still behave as unitary sounds. With ejective clicks, for example, Miller finds that although the ejective release follows the click release, it is the rear closure of the click that is ejective, not an independently articulated consonant. That is, in a simple click, the release of the rear articulation is not audible, whereas in a contour click, the rear (uvular) articulation is audibly released after the front (click) articulation, resulting in a double release.


title: Click consonant

text: These contour clicks may be "linguo-pulmonic", that is, they may transition from a click (lingual) articulation to a normal pulmonic consonant like (e.g. ); or "linguo-glottalic" and transition from lingual to an ejective consonant like (e.g. ): that is, a sequence of ingressive (lingual) release + egressive (pulmonic or glottalic) release. In some cases there is a shift in place of articulation as well, and instead of a uvular release, the uvular click transitions to a velar or epigottal release (depending on the description, or ). Although homorganic does not contrast with heterorganic in any known language, they are phonetically quite distinct (Miller 2011).


title: Click consonant

text: Implosive clicks, e.g. velar and uvular are not only possible but easier to produced than modally voiced clicks. However, they are not attested in any language.


title: Click consonant

text: Apart from Dahalo, Damin and many of the Bantu languages (Yeyi and Xhosa being exceptions), 'click' languages have glottalized nasal clicks. Contour clicks are restricted to southern Africa, but are very common there: they are found in all members of the Tuu, Kxʼa and Khoe families, as well as in the Bantu language Yeyi.


title: Click consonant

text: In a comparative study of clicks across various languages, using her own field work as well as phonetic descriptions and data by other field researchers, Miller (2011) posits 21 types of clicks that contrast in manner or airstream. The homorganic and heterorganic affricated ejective clicks do not contrast in any known language, but are judged dissimilar enough to keep separate. Miller's conclusions differ from those of the primary researcher of a language; see the individual languages for details.


title: Click consonant

text: (all spoken primarily in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana; Khoekhoe is similar to Korana except it has lost ejective )


title: Click consonant

text: Each language below is illustrated with Ʞ as a placeholder for the different click types. Under each language are the orthography (in italics, with old forms in parentheses), the researchers' transcription (in ), or allophonic variation (in [brackets]). Some languages also have labialised or prenasalised clicks as well as those listed below.


title: Click consonant

text: A DoBeS (2008) study of the Western ǃXoo dialect of Taa found several new manners: creaky voiced (the voiced equivalent of glottalised oral), breathy-voiced nasal, prenasalised glottalised (the voiced equivalent of glottalised) and a (pre)voiced ejective. These extra voiced clicks reflect Western ǃXoo morphology, where many nouns form their plural by voicing their initial consonant. DoBeS analyses most Taa clicks as clusters, leaving nine basic manners (marked with asterisks in the table). This comes close to Miller's distinction between simple and contour clicks, shaded light and medium grey in the table.


title: Click consonant

text: Languages of the southern African Khoisan families only permit clicks at the beginning of a word root. However, they also restrict other classes of consonant, such as ejectives and affricates, to root-initial position. The Bantu languages, Hadza and Sandawe allow clicks within roots.


title: Click consonant

text: In some languages, all click consonants within known roots are the same phoneme, as in Hadza "cikiringcingca" 'pinkie finger', which has three tenuis dental clicks. Other languages are known to have the occasional root with different clicks, as in Xhosa "ugqwanxa" 'black ironwood', which has a slack-voiced alveolar click and a nasal lateral click.


title: Click consonant

text: No natural language allows clicks at the ends of syllables or words, but then no languages with clicks allows many consonants at all in those positions. Similarly, clicks are not found in underlying consonant clusters apart from /Cw/ (and, depending on the analysis, /Cχ/), as languages with clicks do not have other consonant clusters than that. Due to vowel elision, however, there are cases where clicks are pronounced in cross-linguistically common types of consonant clusters, such as Xhosa "Snqobile", from "Sinqobile" (a name), and "isXhosa", from "isiXhosa" (the Xhosa language).


title: Click consonant

text: Like other articulatorily complex consonants, clicks tend to be found in lexical words rather than in grammatical words, but this is only a tendency. In Nǁng, for example, there are two sets of personal pronouns, a full one without clicks and a partial set with clicks ("ńg" 'I', "á" 'thou', "í" 'we all', "ú" 'you', vs. "nǀǹg" 'I', "gǀà" 'thou', "gǀì" 'we all', "gǀù" 'you'), as well as other grammatical words with clicks such as "ǁu" 'not' and "nǀa" 'with, and'.


title: Click consonant

text: One genetic study concluded that clicks, which occur in the languages of the genetically divergent populations Hadza and !Kung, may be an ancient element of human language. However, this conclusion relies on several dubious assumptions (see Hadza language), and most linguists assume that clicks, being quite complex consonants, arose relatively late in human history. How they arose is not known, but it is generally assumed that they developed from sequences of non-click consonants, as they are found allophonically for doubly articulated consonants in West Africa, for sequences that overlap at word boundaries in German, and for the sequence in Ndau and Tonga. Such developments have also been posited in historical reconstruction. For example, the Sandawe word for 'horn', , with a lateral affricate, may be a cognate with the root found throughout the Khoe family, which has a lateral click. This and other words suggests that at least some Khoe clicks may have formed from consonant clusters when the first vowel of a word was lost; in this instance * > * > .


title: Click consonant

text: On the other side of the equation, several non-endangered languages in vigorous use demonstrate click loss. For example, the East Kalahari languages have lost clicks from a large percentage of their vocabulary, presumably due to Bantu influence. As a rule, a click is replaced by a consonant with close to the manner of articulation of the click and the place of articulation of the forward release: alveolar click releases (the family) tend to mutate into a velar stop or affricate, such as ; palatal clicks ( "etc.") tend to mutate into a palatal stop such as , or a post-alveolar affricate ; and dental clicks ( "etc.") tend to mutate into an alveolar affricate .


title: Click consonant

text: Clicks are often presented as difficult sounds to articulate within words. However, children acquire them readily; a two-year-old, for example, may be able to pronounce a word with a lateral click with no problem, but still be unable to pronounce . Lucy Lloyd reported that after long contact with the Khoi and San, it was difficult for her to refrain from using clicks when speaking English.


title: Rural development

text: Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.


title: Rural development

text: Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. However, changes in global production networks and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas. Increasingly rural tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers. The need for rural communities to approach development from a wider perspective has created more focus on a broad range of development goals rather than merely creating incentive for agricultural or resource-based businesses.


title: Rural development

text: Education, entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and social infrastructure all play an important role in developing rural regions. Rural development is also characterized by its emphasis on locally produced economic development strategies. In contrast to urban regions, which have many similarities, rural areas are highly distinctive from one another. For this reason there are a large variety of rural development approaches used globally.


title: Rural development

text: Rural development actions are intended to further the social and economic development of rural communities.


title: Rural development

text: Rural development programs were historically top-down approaches from local or regional authorities, regional development agencies, NGOs, national governments or international development organizations. However, a critical 'organization gap' identified during the late 1960s, reflecting on the disjunction between national organizations and rural communities led to a great focus on community participation in rural development agendas. Oftentimes this was achieved through political decentralization policies in developing countries, particularly popular among African countries, or policies that shift the power of socio-politico-economic decision-making and the election of representatives and leadership from centralized governments to local governments. As a result, local populations can also bring about endogenous initiatives for development. The term rural development is not limited to issues of developing countries. In fact many developed countries have very active rural development programs.


title: Rural development

text: Rural development aims at finding ways to improve rural lives with the participation of rural people themselves, so as to meet the required needs of rural communities. The outsider may not understand the setting, culture, language and other things prevalent in the local area. As such, rural people themselves have to participate in their sustainable rural development. In developing countries like Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, integrated development approaches are being followed up. In this context, many approaches and ideas have been developed and implemented, for instance, bottom-up approaches, PRA- Participatory Rural Appraisal, RRA- Rapid Rural Appraisal, Working With People (WWP), etc. The New Rural Reconstruction Movement in China has been actively promoting rural development through their ecological farming projects.


title: Rural development

text: Because decentralization policies made development problems the responsibility of local governments, it also opened the door for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), nonprofits, and other foreign actors to become more involved in the approach to these issues. For example, the elimination of statist approaches to development caused an exponential increase in the number of NGOs active in Africa, and additionally caused them to take on increasingly important roles. Consequently, nonprofits and NGOs are also greatly involved in the provisioning of needs in developing countries and they play an increasingly large role in supporting rural development.


title: Rural development

text: These organizations are often criticized for taking over responsibilities that are traditionally carried out by the state, causing governments to become ineffective in handling these responsibilities over time. Within Africa, NGOs carry out the majority of sustainable building and construction through donor-funded, low-income housing projects. Furthermore, they are often faulted for being easily controlled by donor money and oriented to serve the needs of local elites above the rest of the population. As a result of this critique, many NGOs have started to include strategies in their projects that promote community participation.


title: Rural development

text: Many scholars argue that NGOs are an insufficient solution to a lack of development leadership as a result of decentralization policies. Human rights expert Susan Dicklitch points to the historical context of colonialism, organization-specific limitations, and regime restraints as hindrances to the promises of NGOs. She notes that “NGOs are increasingly relegated to service provision and gap-filling activities as by the retreating state, but those supportive functions are not matched with increased political efficacy”.


title: Rural development

text: In Uganda specifically, several mid-century centrist administrations, particularly the regimes of Idi Amin (1971-1979) and Milton Obote (1981-1986), described as brutal and ineffective led to a sharp drop in responsiveness to citizen’s needs between 1966 and 1986. As a result of these administrations, several constraints were placed on local governments that prevented effective development initiatives: every single employee in local governments had to be appointed by the president, all local budgets and bylaws had to be approved by the Minister of Local Government, and this Minister could dissolve any local government council.


title: Rural development

text: Because of the several shortcomings of the dictatorial government in promoting the participation of citizens in local development efforts, a decentralization campaign was officially launched in Uganda in 1992, with its legislative culmination occurring in 1997 with the passing of the Local Governments Act. This act led to the transfer of power to local governments in an attempt to encourage citizen participation and further rural development. Regarding funding under the decentralization structure, local governments receive a majority of their funds in block grants from the national government, mostly as conditional grants but with some unconditional and equalization grants administered as well. Furthermore, local governments were given the power to collect taxes from their constituents, however, this usually only accounts for less than 10 percent of the local government’s budget.


title: Rural development

text: Some scholars express concern that decentralization efforts in Uganda may not actually be leading to an increase in participation and development. For example, despite increases over the years in local councils and civil society organizations (CSOs) in rural Uganda, efforts are consistently undermined by a lacking socio-economic structure leading to high rates of illiteracy, poor agricultural techniques, market access, and transportation systems. These shortcomings are often a result of taxes and payments imposed by local authorities and administration agents that inhibit farmers' access to larger markets. Furthermore, the overall financial strength of local governments is considerably weaker than that of the national government, which adversely affects their responsiveness to the needs of their citizens and success in increasing participation in community development initiatives. Finally, civil society organizations are often ineffective in practice at mobilizing for the community’s interests. Dr. Umar Kakumba, a scholar at Makerere University in Uganda, notes of CSOs:The CSOs’ inability to effectively mobilize for and represent the local community’s interests is linked to the disabling regulatory environment with cumbersome and elaborate procedures for registration and restrictions on what constitutes allowable advocacy activities; their desire to complement the work of government rather than questioning it; the difficulties in raising adequate resources from their membership; the inability to exercise internal democracy and accountability; the urban/elite orientation of most NGOs; and the donor funding that encourages a number of CSOs to emerge in order to clinch a share of the donor monies.


title: Rural development

text: In many countries, the national and subnational government delegates rural development to agencies and support centers.


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 1993 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match between French club Marseille and Italian club Milan, played on 26 May 1993 at the Olympiastadion in Munich.


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The final, which followed the second-ever UEFA Champions League group stage, saw Ivorian-born Marseille defender Basile Boli score the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute with a header to give "l'OM" their first European Cup title. It was the first time a French team had won the European Cup. No other French side – apart from Monaco-based AS Monaco, who play in the French league system – would reach the final until Paris Saint-Germain in 2020.


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Marseille and their club president Bernard Tapie would later be found to have been involved in a match-fixing scandal during the 1992–93 season (in which Marseille allegedly paid Valenciennes to lose a match), which saw them relegated to Division 2 and banned from participation in European football for the following season. As the scandal affected only French league matches, Marseille's status as 1993 European champion was not affected.


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The first Champions League final turned out to be the last game of Milan's highly accomplished but injury-prone Dutch forward Marco van Basten, who was 28 at the time; having been subbed off in the 86th minute due to fatigue and yet another ankle injury, he would spend the next two years in recovery before announcing his retirement in August 1995.


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: "In the following table, finals until 1992 were in the European Cup era, since 1993 were in the UEFA Champions League era."


title: 1993 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Marseille's triumph remains controversial due to accusations of doping alleged by Marcel Desailly, Jean-Jacques Eydelie, Chris Waddle and Tony Cascarino. According to Eydelie, "all (of them) took a series of injections" in the 1993 Champions League Final, except Rudi Völler. Desailly and Cascarino claimed that club president Bernard Tapie distributed pills and injections himself. In an interview with French magazine "Le Point", Jean-Pierre de Mondenard said Marseille had a blackboard in their team locker room that read "injections for everyone". Tapie only admitted that some players took captagon.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a 2009 American crime film released as a non-canon spin-off and theatrical tie-in to "Street Fighter IV". It follows the quest of "Street Fighter" character Chun-Li, who is portrayed by Kristin Kreuk. Its story is before the events of the original "Street Fighter" as it follows Chun-Li's personal history and her journey for justice. The film co-stars Neal McDonough as M. Bison, Chris Klein as Charlie, Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, and Black Eyed Peas member Taboo as Vega. "The Legend of Chun-Li" was produced by Capcom and Hyde Park Entertainment and was released on February 27, 2009 by 20th Century Fox to mostly negative reviews and poor box office numbers.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Chun-Li moves from San Francisco to Hong Kong with her family. While practicing to be a concert pianist, she learns wushu from her father, businessman Xiang. The family lives a normal life until they are attacked one night by thugs working for the criminal organization Shadaloo, with Xiang being abducted in front of Chun-Li. Chun-Li grows up and becomes a talented pianist. At the end of her concert, she receives a mysterious scroll written in ancient Chinese text. Shortly after, she loses her mother to cancer. Meanwhile, at Shadaloo headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, crime boss M.Bison announces his complete control of the organization before he has the other shareholders executed by one of his henchmen, Vega. It is also revealed that Xiang is still alive and working for him.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: The next day, Royal Thai Police detective Maya Sunee meets Interpol agent Charlie Nash, when both are called to investigate the murder of several crime syndicate families in Bangkok, with Nash determining Shadaloo perpetrated these crimes. In Hong Kong, an elderly woman translates Chun-Li's scroll and tells her to travel to Bangkok and find a man named Gen. Chun-Li then leaves her home and travels to Bangkok, living homeless and searching for Gen for several days. A fight with local gangsters one night leaves her unconscious, and Gen appears and takes her to his home. Gen tells Chun-Li that he was once a comrade of Bison, and knows how to find her father. For the next few days, he teaches her his style of martial arts. Chun-Li also learns more about Bison, who is operating Shadaloo publicly, and is holding the families of property owners hostage in order to force them to sign their property over to him. While spying on Bison's henchman Balrog, she overhears a property owner being asked to hand over the rights to a docking harbor, allowing the shipment of the "White Rose".


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Later that night, Chun-Li confronts Cantana, one of Bison's secretaries, in a nightclub. She obtains information on the location of the White Rose before escaping from Shadaloo's thugs and Nash and Maya. As a result of this incident, Cantana is murdered the next morning by Bison. During lunch, Gen reveals more of Bison's past; he was born in Bangkok to Irish missionaries but abandoned as an infant, grew up an orphan and lived his life as a thief. He killed his pregnant wife and transferred his conscience into their prematurely born daughter. After telling Chun-Li to go and fetch some food, Gen is attacked by Shadaloo troops and Balrog blows up his house. Chun-Li runs off when she is attacked by Vega, whom she defeats and leaves hanging by the side of a building.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Chun-Li interrogates a harbor employee who tells her the arrival time of the White Rose. She returns to the shipping yard that night, but is captured by Bison and his soldiers. Tied up and taken into an undisclosed house, she is reunited with Xiang, only for Bison to murder him. After Bison and Balrog leave the house, Chun-Li uses her skills to defeat the guards and escape, during which she is shot in the arm while trying to protect a child. Angered Thai locals then pelt Balrog and other Shadaloo henchmen with fruits, food, and other merchandise. Chun-Li is reunited with Gen, who heals her wounds and continues with her training.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Despite being taken off the assignment, Nash is secretly asked by Chun-Li to back her up in taking down Bison. Nash and Chun-Li, along with Maya and her SWAT team, arrive at the shipping yard, where they engage in a shootout with Shadaloo forces. Chun-Li enters a ship and meets a Russian-speaking girl who asks for her father before leaving her to continue her search for Bison. In another part of the ship Gen faces off against Balrog, ultimately impaling him with a liquid nitrogen pipe. Bison takes the girl, who is revealed to be his daughter Rose, and flees the scene by helicopter. Chun-Li, Gen, Nash and a SWAT officer arrive at Bison's headquarters, where Nash and the officer take Rose out to safety while Chun-Li and Gen face Bison. After a long battle, Chun-Li hits Bison with a bamboo pole and drops sandbags on him, stunning him. She then charges up a "Kikoken" and shoots it at him, knocking him off the scaffolding before she jumps and twists his neck with her legs. Nash tells Chun-Li to leave the scene as Thai police arrive.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Chun-Li returns to her home in Hong Kong and settles down, then Gen pays her a visit. He shows her a newspaper advert for an upcoming Street Fighter tournament, telling her that a Japanese fighter named Ryu might be a recruit for their cause. She declines the offer, telling him she is home for now.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: In 2006, Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom announced its intention to produce a film adaptation of the game series in a joint venture under the 20th Century Fox banner, with the storyline to focus on a "Street Fighter" origin story starting with one of its characters Chun-Li with screenwriter Justin Marks to write a script for the adaptation. In 2007, Hype Park has chosen Andrzej Bartkowiak to helm as film director. That same year, it was announced that Kristin Kreuk was cast as Chun-Li.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: In 2008, Michael Clarke Duncan, Chris Klein, Taboo, Rick Yune and Neal McDonough were cast as characters Balrog, Charlie Nash, Vega, Gen and M. Bison with Moon Bloodgood, Edmund Chen, Josie Ho and Cheng Pei-pei were also cast in roles as well. In the interview with MTV, Jean-Claude Van Damme who played Guile in "the 1994 film" revealed that he was offered to reprise his role but turned down the movie. Before shooting began Yune left the film for unknown reason but was replaced by Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang, the lead character in the "Mortal Kombat" films as Gen.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Filming took place between March and April 2008. Shooting locations included Hong Kong, China; Bangkok, Thailand; Vancouver, Canada; and Reno, Nevada and Herlong, California, United States.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Originally it was slated to be released to theatres sometime in Fall 2008 release, but because of the ongoing writers strike at the time and because of more time with filming, the film was released in theatres in the United States on February 27, 2009. In Australia, the film did not receive a theatrical release, but a straight-to-DVD release instead on January 14, 2010.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: The film opened theatrically on its opening weekend on February 27, 2009 alongside "" and "Madea Goes to Jail" (the latter on its second weekend). The film opened at #9 on its opening weekend at over $1.5 million. The film flopped at the box office, grossing $12.8 million worldwide against its $50 million budget.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: The film was released on home media on DVD and Blu-ray on June 30, 2009. with a Unrated/PG-13 version. The special First Run release included a bonus DVD of the Udon Street Fighter Comic Series: "Round One FIGHT."


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: The film performed at #9 at the American DVD sales chart, selling 92,830 units in the first weekend. About 258,000 DVD units have been sold so far in the United States, bringing in revenue of $4.7m. This figure does not include DVD rentals/Blu-ray sales. The film opened at #9 at the American DVD sales chart, selling 92,830 units in the first weekend. About 258,000 DVD units have been sold so far in the United States, bringing in revenue of $4.7m. This figure does not include DVD rentals/Blu-ray sales.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li", like the previous live-action film "Street Fighter", received mostly negative reviews and was not pre-screened for critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of based on reviews. It was ranked 44th in Rotten Tomatoes' 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with the critical consensus "The combination of a shallow plot and miscast performers renders "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li" a perfectly forgettable video game adaptation." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 17, based on 11 reviews.


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Film historian Leonard Maltin seemed to agree, stating that "The 1994 picture was one of the worst movies ever inspired by a video game; even Jean-Claude Van Damme fans couldn't rationalize this turkey, which should have been titled "Four Hundred Funerals and No Sex". Yet "this" pointless and inept action vehicle makes its predecessor seem like "Gone with the Wind"...Hopelessly contrived, with lamely-choreographed fight sequences; highlight is Chris Klein's cry of 'Bomb! Get out, now!' Our sentiments exactly."


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Among the film's more positive reviews, Rob Nelson of "Variety" wrote: "Neither the best nor the worst of movies derived from video games, "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" at least gives action fans plenty to ogle besides the titular heroine (Kristin Kreuk)." Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" wrote that the film was "reveling in the vivid Bangkok locations, Geoff Boyle's photography is crisp and bright, and Dion Lam's action choreography unusually witty."


title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

text: Negative reviews focused on the screenplay and fight scenes. Frank Scheck of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that "other than a few reasonably well-staged fight sequences, the proceedings are dull and visually uninspired. Justin Marks' solemn screenplay lacks any trace of wit."Jeremy Wheeler of "TV Guide" wrote: "Fight scenes, while admirable for shaking off the shaky-cam aesthetic of their big-screen brethren, neither inspire nor find a good balance between martial arts and FX-laden power punches." Jim Vejvoda of IGN gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, writing: "There's better staged and more enjoyable brawls between Peter and The Chicken on "Family Guy"." Ryan Davis of Giant Bomb described it as "a re-envisioning [of the source material] by people who can't see."


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The Wave () is a 2015 Norwegian disaster film directed by Roar Uthaug. It was Norway's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but failed to be nominated. The movie depicts the Åkerneset crevice collapsing in Møre og Romsdal, creating an avalanche resulting in an tall tsunami that destroys everything in its path. A sequel titled "The Quake" (), directed by John Andreas Andersen, was released on 31 August 2018. The third installment "The Burning Sea" was released 25 February 2022.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Geologist Kristian Eikjord is working his final day in the Norwegian tourist destination Geiranger before moving to Stavanger with his family, when sensors on the mountain indicate groundwater has disappeared. Later, waiting for the ferry with his children while his wife Idun works a few more days at the hotel, Kristian has an epiphany and rushes back to the geology center, leaving his children Sondre and Julia in the car. He and Jacob find the sensor wires have snapped due to the movements inside the mountain. Kristian's former boss Arvid agrees to enter a higher state of alert, but not to sound the evacuation alarm due to being mid tourist season.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Kristian finds the children have gone to the hotel. Julia wants to say goodbye to their house so Kristian drives with her to stay there one last night. Sondre heads down to the basement of the hotel with headphones to skateboard.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Arvid and Jacob check instrument readings and find them accurate, not a malfunction. Kristian reviews old documents suggesting the readings of contractions in the mountain do indicate the upcoming avalanche. He calls the station and orders the immediate evacuation of Arvid and Jacob from the crevice, and to sound the tsunami alarms for the residents of Geiranger. Moments later the avalanche happens. Arvid sacrifices himself when Jacob's foot becomes trapped, linking Jacob to their zip-line and falling to his death shortly after. The rockslide crashes into the fjord creating a gigantic tsunami high roaring towards Geiranger.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: With ten minutes until the tsunami hits Geiranger, Idun and her colleague Vibeke evacuate the hotel guests onto a bus but Sondre is nowhere to be found. Idun refuses to leave him. Danish tourists Maria and Philip Poulsen help her search. Kristian and Julia, stuck in traffic, realize their altitude is dangerously low. They abandon their car to run uphill on foot, shouting for others to do the same. Their neighbor Anna has her leg trapped by a car. Kristian sends Julia up the mountain with Anna's husband Thomas and daughter Teresa, and seats himself and Anna in a van. The tsunami engulfs the vehicle. Idun finds Sondre but too late to escape the tsunami which hits as they rush back downstairs to the basement's bomb shelter. Maria is washed away and Idun and Sondre forcefully close the shelter door.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Kristian survives but finds Anna next to him dead, impaled by debris. Finding Julia alive, he leaves her with Thomas and Teresa while he heads back to Geiranger to find his wife and son. The town is devastated, and the destroyed evacuation bus full of dead passengers including Vibeke but not Idun and Sondre. Down in the bomb shelter, the water level rises, deforming the door which is blocked by heavy debris. Philip, panicking to breathe, pushes Sondre underwater. Idun drowns him to save Sondre.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Kristian finds his son's backpack and furiously bangs on some pipes. Idun and Sondre respond in kind. As Kristian finds them and dives, further water floods the refuge. Removing the debris he reunites with Idun but runs out of air as he returns with Sondre. Idun heads back in a desperate attempt to revive him, but then accepts he has drowned. Sondre gives one last effort which pays off. The family is reunited at Ørnesvingen, and the film closes saying the events are likely to occur in the future, but the date is unpredictable.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: Norway is a rockslide prone area (created by the Caledonian orogeny) and "The Wave" is based on a rock-slide tsunami incident which destroyed the village of Tafjord on 7 April 1934, killing 40 people. Prior to that, a similar incident in 1905 triggered a tsunami killing 60 people, and 31 years later, another 74 lost their lives. Uthaug has always been a fan of Hollywood disaster films such as "Twister" and "Armageddon" and had long wanted to make a disaster film in Norway. According to him the challenge was to combine the elements of the American genre film with the reality of the situation in Norway.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: All the actors performed their own stunts, something the director said was "utterly nerve-racking." And for a climactic scene, in which Joner tries to rescue his family from a flooded hotel, he trained with free-diving instructors to be able to hold his breath for three minutes underwater.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: "The Wave" had its international premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September 2015.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The film sold around 800,000 tickets in Norway, and grossed a total of US$8.2 million at the Norwegian box office becoming the highest-grossing film of 2015 in Norway.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: At the 2016 Amanda Awards, "The Wave" received the award for Best Norwegian Film in Theatrical Release, as well as the awards for Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film was also nominated in the categories of Best Norwegian Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Music.


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: At the Kanon Awards for 2016, "The Wave" won for Best Male Actor in a Leading Role (Kristoffer Joner), Best Producer, Best Editing, and Best Production Design (Lina Nordqvist).


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise aimed at the performances of the cast (mostly the two protagonists), cinematography, score and visual effects. Deborah Young of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "an exotic edge-of-seater [that] plays on the beauty and terror of nature" and "a thrilling ride", while chief international film critic Peter Debruge of "Variety" described it as "an equally impressive tsunami-peril thriller."


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 6.64/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Well-acted and blessed with a refreshingly humanistic focus, "The Wave" is a disaster film that makes uncommonly smart use of disaster film clichés." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The special effects were lauded by critics, receiving favorable comparison with those of Hollywood. Deborah Young of "The Hollywood Reporter" called them "convincingly terrifying and involving." Collider reviewed, "...a major technical achievement that will hopefully make Hollywood reconsider the tendency to go bigger and bigger to the point of excess."


title: The Wave (2015 film)

text: The English-language audio dub, however, was panned by critics. Kelli Marchman of HorrorFuel.com wrote "the voice-over was horrid. The timing was off, and the character's voices were emotionless. It sounded like the lines were being read off of a script by a robot, with no concern of how the characters came across" before recommending the movie only in its original Norwegian.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headquarters of the Kumbakonam taluk of Thanjavur district. It is the second largest city in the district after Thanjavur. The city is bounded by two rivers, the Kaveri River to the north and Arasalar River to the south. Kumbakonam is known as a "Temple town" due to the prevalence of a number of temples here and is noted for its Mahamaham festival, which happens once in 12 years, attracting people from all over the country.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam dates back to the Sangam period and was ruled by the Early Cholas, Pallavas, Mutharaiyar dynasty, Medieval Cholas, Later Cholas, Pandyas, the Vijayanagara Empire, Madurai Nayaks, Thanjavur Nayaks and the Thanjavur Marathas. It rose to be a prominent town between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, when it served as a capital of the Medieval Cholas. The city reached the zenith of its prosperity during the British Raj when it was a prominent centre of European education and Hindu culture; and it acquired the cultural name, the "Cambridge of South India". In 1866, Kumbakonam was officially constituted as a municipal corporation, which today comprises 48 wards, making it the largest municipal corporation and second largest local civil body in Thanjavur district. It is announced as municipal corporation on 24 August 2021 by the government of Tamil Nadu.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The name "Kumbakonam", roughly translated in English as the "Pot's Corner", is believed to be an allusion to the mythical pot ("kumbha") of the Hindu god Brahma that contained the seed of all living beings on earth. The "kumbha" is believed to have been displaced by a "pralaya" (dissolution of the universe) and ultimately came to rest at the spot where the town of Kumbakonam now stands. This event is now commemorated in the Mahamaham festival held every 12 years. Kumbakonam is also known as Baskarashetram and Kumbam from time immemorial and as Kudanthai in ancient times. Kumbakonam is also spelt as Coombaconum in the records of British India. Kumbakonam was also formerly known by the Tamil name of Kudamukku. Kumbakonam is also identified with the Sangam age settlement of Kudavayil.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The region around Kumbakonam was inhabited as early as the Sangam Age (third century BC to third century AD). The present-day Kumbakonam is believed to be the site of the ancient town of Kudavayil where the Early Chola king Karikala held his court. Some scholars identify Kumbakonam as the site of the fabled prison of Kudavayir-kottam where the Chera king Kanaikkal Irumporai was imprisoned by the Early Chola king Kocengannan. Kumbakonam is identified with the town of Malaikūrram which had served as the Chola capital as early as the seventh century and with the town of Solamaligai which had also served as a Chola capital. According to the Sinnamanur plates, Kumbakonam was the site of a battle between the Pallava king Sri Vallabha and the then Pandya king in 859 and between the Pandya king Srimara Pandya and a confederacy of the Cholas and Gangas.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam came into the limelight during the rule of the Medieval Cholas who ruled from the ninth century to the twelfth century. The town of Pazhaiyaarai, from Kumbakonam was the capital of the Chola Empire in the ninth century.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Following the demise of the Pandya kingdom in the 14th century, Kumbakonam was conquered by the Vijayanagar Empire. Krishnadevaraya (1509–29), the emperor of Vijayanagara visited the town in 1524 and is believed to have bathed in the famous Mahamaham tank during the Mahamaham festival. Kumbakonam was ruled by the Madurai Nayaks and the Thanjavur Nayaks from 1535 to 1673 when it fell to the Marathas. Each of these dynasties had a considerable impact on the demographics and culture of the region. When the Vijayanagar Empire fell in 1565, there was a mass influx of poets, musicians and cultural artists from the kingdom.


title: Kumbakonam

text: According to the chronicles of the Hindu monastic institution, the Kanchi matha, the "matha" was temporarily transferred to Kumbakonam in the 1780s following an invasion of Kanchipuram by Hyder Ali of Mysore. When Tipu Sultan invaded the east coast of South India in 1784, Kumbakonam bore the brunt of his invasion. The produce fell sharply and the economy collapsed. Kumbakonam did not recover from the calamity until the beginning of the 19th century.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam was eventually ceded to the British East India Company in 1799 by the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Serfoji II (1777–1832) and reached the zenith of its prosperity in the late 19th and early 20th century when it emerged as an important center of Brahminism, Hindu religion and European education in the Madras Presidency. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 fostered trade contacts with the United Kingdom. In 1877, railway lines were completed linking Kumbakonam with the ports of Madras, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam. The Tanjore district court was established in Kumbakonam in 1806 and functioned from 1806 to 1863.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam continued to grow even after India's independence though it fell behind the nearby town of Thanjavur in terms of population and administrative importance. The population growth rate began to fall sharply after 1981. This decline has been attributed to limited land area and lack of industrial potential. However the peripheral areas of Kumbakonam population increased as evident from the successive census data. During the Mahamaham festival of 1992, there was a major stampede in which 48 people were killed and 74 were injured. On 16 July 2004, a devastating fire accident in the Sri Krishna school killed 94 children.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam is located at . It is situated south of Chennai, east of Tiruchirappalli, and about north-east of Thanjavur. It lies in the region called the "Old delta" which comprises the north-western taluks of Thanjavur district that have been naturally irrigated by the waters of the Cauvery and its tributaries for centuries in contrast to the "New Delta" comprising the southern taluks that were brought under irrigation by the construction of the Grand Anicut canal and the Vadavar canal in 1934. It has an average elevation of 26 metres (85 ft). The town is bounded by two rivers, the Cauvery River on the north and Arasalar River on the south.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Although the Cauvery delta is usually hot, the climate of Kumbakonam and other surrounding towns is generally healthy and moderate. Kumbakonam is cooler than Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. The maximum temperature in summer is about while the minimum temperature is about . Kumbakonam receives an annual rainfall of every year. The region is covered with mainly alluvial or black soil which is conducive for rice cultivation. Other crops grown in Kumbakonam include mulberry, cereals and sugarcane.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The town of Kumbakonam is surrounded by extensive paddy fields. Methods of irrigation were considerably improved following the opening of the Mettur Dam in 1934. The fauna of the Cauvery Delta is limited to cattle and goats. The town is situated at the western flank of the Kumbakonam-Shiyali ridge which runs along the Kollidam river basin separating the Ariyalur-Puducherry depression from the Nagapattinam depression. This granular ridge projects further eastwards penetrating the Puducherry depression and forms a hard layer of cretaceous rock underneath the sedimentary top soil.


title: Kumbakonam

text: According to 2011 census, Kumbakonam had a population of 140,156 with a sex-ratio of 1,021 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 12,791 were under the age of six, constituting 6,495 males and 6,296 females. The average literacy of the town was 83.21%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. There were a total of 9,519 workers, comprising 32 cultivators, 83 main agricultural labourers, 1,206 in house hold industries, 7,169 other workers, 1,029 marginal workers, 24 marginal cultivators, 45 marginal agricultural labourers, 212 marginal workers in household industries and 0 other marginal workers.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam has a strong Hindu majority; but it also has sizeable Muslim and Christian populations. Among Hindus, Vanniyars, Kallars, Brahmins and Dalits are the numerically dominant Tamil-speaking groups. Brahmins are more numerous and affluent in Kumbakonam than in other parts of Tamil Nadu. There are also large populations of Moopanars, Konars and Nadars. Amongst Muslims, the Sunnis are dominant. However, there is also a significant Shia minority. Most of the Muslims are Marakkayars or Labbays. The majority of Muslims in Kumbakonam are involved in commerce or maritime trade. Kumbakonam also has a large population of Protestant Christians largely due to the efforts of the German missionary Christian Friedrich Schwarz. The Catholics in Kumbakonam are mainly affiliated to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kumbakonam which was separated from the Archdiocese of Pondicherry in 1899.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The population of Kumbakonam is predominantly Tamil-speaking. The commonly used dialects is the Central Tamil dialect. There are significant minorities speaking Thanjavur Marathi, Telugu, Kannada and Saurashtra as their mother tongue.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Residential areas make up 32.09% of the town's total area while commercial enterprises and industrial units make up 2.75% and 1.21%, respectively. The non-urban portion of the town constitutes about 44.72% of the total area. Kumbakonam has a total of 45 slums with a population of 49,117.


title: Kumbakonam

text: As per the religious census of 2011, Kumbakonam had 86.07% Hindus, 9.57% Muslims, 3.99% Christians, 0.% Sikhs, 0.% Buddhists, 0.23% Jains, 0.13% following other religions and 0.% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The Kumbakonam municipality was officially constituted in the year 1866. Initially, the municipality exercised its jurisdiction over an area of and its affairs were administered by a town-level committee or municipal committee. Later it was constituted special-grade municipality and currently, exercises its authority over an area of out of the town's total area of . It comprises 48 wards and is the biggest municipality in Thanjavur district. The town was upgraded to Municipal Corporation on 24 August 2021, with administration authority area of .


title: Kumbakonam

text: The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: General, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, Town planning and the Computer Wing. All these departments are under the control of a Municipal Commissioner who is the supreme executive head. The legislative powers are vested in a body of 48 members, one each from each of the 48 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected chairperson who is assisted by a deputy chairperson.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam is a part of the Kumbakonam Legislative Assembly constituency and elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years. Despite being a hub of militant Communism in the 1950s, Kumbakonam voted for the Indian National Congress in the first five state elections held between 1952 and 1977. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won the elections in 1977 and between 1977 and 1989, the seat was alternatively held by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or the Indian National Congress. Since 1989, barring an interregnum of five years between 1991 and 1996, the seat has been held by Ko. Si. Mani of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Kumbakonam was a part of the Kumbakonam Lok Sabha constituency from 1952 until 1977, when the constituency was disbanded. The assembly segments in the erstwhile Kumbakonam Lok Sabha constituency were included in the Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha constituency and have remained so ever since.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Law and order in Kumbakonam in maintained by the Thanjavur sub division of the Tamil Nadu Police headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). There are four police stations in the town, one of them being an all-women police station. There are special units like prohibition enforcement, district crime, social justice and human rights, district crime records and special branch that operate at the district level police division headed by a Superintendent of Police (SP). Suburban localities are under the jurisdiction of Swamimalai, Patteswarm, Nachiyarkovil, Tiruvidamarudhur, Thiruneelakudi police stations. Recently government has established one police station at Cholapuram by reorganizing kumbakonam Taluk, Swamimali and Thirupanandal Police station


title: Kumbakonam

text: The important products of Kumbakonam include brass, bronze, copper and pewter vessels, silk and cotton cloths, sugar, indigo and pottery. Kumbakonam is considered to be the chief commercial centre for the Thanjavur region. In 1991, around 30% of the population was engaged in economic activity. Rice production is an important activity in Kumbakonam. Of 194 industrial units in Kumbakonam, 57 are rice and flour mills. Kumbakonam is also a leading producer of betel leaves and nuts; the betel leaves produced in Kumbakonam are ranked amongst the best in the world in terms of quality. The A. R. R. Agencies, a leading manufacturer of arecanut slices has its factory in Kumbakonam. The main administrative offices of T. S. R. & Co., a cosmetic company, are also based in Kumbakonam. Kumbakonam is also famous for its metal works. The Tamil Nadu Handicraft Development Corporation had been established in the nearby town of Swamimalai in order to train bronze artisans. Kumbakonam is an important silk-weaving centre and more than 5,000 families were employed either directly or indirectly in silk weaving. Silk weaved in Kumbakonam is regarded as one of the finest in the subcontinent. They are largely used in the manufacture of Thirubuvanam silk sarees. Kumbakonam was also an important salt-manufacturing area during British rule. The town lends its name to the Kumbakonam Degree Coffee, a blend of coffee prepared using undiluted pure milk. In recent times, Kumbakonam has emerged as an important manufacturer of fertilizers.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Apart from its manufactures, tourism is also a major source of income for the town. Many Lodges and resorts from budget to high end category are functioning in kumbakonam. The Hindu temples and colonial-era buildings have been recognised for their tourism potential. The 12th-century Airavatesvara Temple in the town of Darasuram near Kumbakonam is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kumbakonam is also frequented by art collectors interested in handloom cloth and other curios. Banks such as the Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, State Bank of India, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, ICICI Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank and Vijaya Bank have their branches in Kumbakonam. The City Union Bank was founded in Kumbakonam in 1904 as the Kumbakonam Bank Limited and it is headquartered in the town.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Electricity supply to Kumbakonam is regulated and distributed by the Kumbakonam circle of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). Power Substations are existing viz. Kumabakonam Urban 33/11 kV SS at Rajan Thottam, Kumbakonam Township (Nagariyam) 110 kV at Needamangalm Road, 110 kV SS at Sakottai and Patteswaram 230/110 kV. Water supply is provided by the Kumbakonam municipality from Cauvery river and Coleroon river; the distribution is managed through head works located at Valayapettai and Kudithangi, supplying of water to the town. About of solid waste is collected from the town everyday; 53% domestic wastes and 32% commercial wastes. The collected wastes are dumped in yards outside the town and segregated to produce organic manure. Kumbakonam municipality has partial underground drainage connectivity and the municipality is implementing the underground drainage to the uncovered areas. The major sewerage system for disposal of sullage is through septic tanks and public conveniences. Roadside drains carry untreated sewage out of the town to let out raw into the sea or accumulate in a low-lying area.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam comes under the Cauvery River Delta Area (CRDA) of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India's state-owned telecom and internet services provider. Apart from telecom, BSNL also provides broadband internet service. Kumbakonam hosts the district headquarters hospital, Thanjavur District at Kumbakonam and Coronation municipal hospital, Melakaveri Urban Primary health centre, 34 private hospitals & clinics and numerous medical shops catering to the healthcare need of the town.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam is known for its temples and "matha"s (monasteries). There are around 188 Hindu temples within the municipal limits of Kumbakonam. Apart from these, there several thousand temples around the town thereby giving the town the sobriquets "Temple Town" and "City of temples".


title: Kumbakonam

text: Adi Kumbeswarar Temple is considered to be the oldest Shaiva (the sect of the god Shiva) shrine in the town, believed to be constructed by the Cholas in the seventh century. The Nageswaraswamy Temple has a separate shrine for the Sun god Surya who is believed to have worshipped Shiva at this place. Adi Kumbeswarar temple, Nageswaraswamy temple and Kasi Viswanathar temple are Shiva temples in the town revered in the "Tevaram", a Tamil Shaiva canonical work of the seventh to eighth century. Kumbakonam has one of the few temples dedicated to the god Brahma.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Sarangapani temple is the largest Vaishnava (the sect of the god Vishnu) shrine present in Kumbakonam. The present structure of the temple having a twelve storey high tower was constructed by Nayak kings in the 15th century. It is one of the "Divya Desams", the 108 temples of Vishnu revered by the 12 Alvar saint-poets. The Ramaswamy temple, which has scenes from the Hindu epic "Ramayana" depicted on its walls, was constructed by Govinda Dikshitar, the minister of successive Nayak rulers, Achuthappa Nayak (1560–1614) and Raghunatha Nayak (1600–34). He added a commercial corridor between the temple and the older Chakrapani temple, which in modern times is called Chinna Kadai Veethi, a commercial street in the town. Pilgrims from all parts of India take a holy dip once every 12 years during the Mahamaham festival in the Mahamaham tank. Over 40 lakh pilgrims participated in the festival during the 2016 event which is also known as the Southern Kumbha mela. Govinda Dikshitar constructed the sixteen mandapams (shrines) and stone steps around this tank.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam also has a number of "matha"s. The Sri Sankara matha of Kanchipuram was moved to Kumbakonam during the reign of Pratap Singh (1739–63) and remained in Kumbakonam until the 1960s. There are also two Vellalar mathas in the nearby towns of Dharmapuram and Thiruppanandal and a Raghavendra matha in Kumbakonam. There is also a branch of the Vaishnava Ahobila mutt in Kumbakonam.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The Thenupuriswarar Temple at Patteeswaram, the Oppiliappan Kovil and the Swamimalai Murugan temple are located in the vicinity of Kumbakonam. The Airavatesvara Temple in Darasuram locality of Kumbakonam built by Rajaraja Chola II (1146–73) during 12th century is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur and the Gangaikondacholisvaram Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram that are collectively referred as the Great Living Chola Temples.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam is connected by road and rail. The National highway NH-36 connects Vikravandi - Manamadurai, passes through this town. The nearest international airport is at Tiruchirapalli, which is from Kumbakonam. The nearest seaport is located at Nagapattinam which is about away. The town has around of roads, 544 municipal roads making up . There are also around of state highways running through Kumbakonam. Over 87% of the municipal roads are paved. There are regular government and private bus services to Chennai, Thanjavur, Mannargudi, Tiruchirapalli, Chidambaram, Thiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Palani, Thoothukudi, Rameswaram, Tiruchendur, Salem, Edapaddi, Vellore, Kumuli, Cumbum, Karaikudi, Pudukkottai, Neyveli, Madurai, Sivagangai, Thiruthuraipoondi, Pattukkottai, Muthupet, Puducherry, and Tirunelveli. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (Tamil Nadu)(SETC) operates daily services from Bengaluru and mysuru to Kumbakonam. On 1 March 1972, the Cholan Roadways Corporation was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu with its headquarters in Kumbakonam in order to improve transportation facilities in the districts of central Tamil Nadu. The organisation acquired the fleets of buses earlier owned by private operators – Sri Ramavilas Service, Raman and Raman Limited and Sathi Vilas. On 1 July 1997, the organization was renamed Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Kumbakonam and presently forms division no. 1 of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation. The corporation runs a reconditioning unit and a tyre re-threading unit in Kumbakonam.


title: Kumbakonam

text: Kumbakonam is connected by rail with towns and cities in South India. The Mysuru- Mayiladuthurai Express connects Kumbakonam with Mysuru and Bengaluru. There are regular express trains that connect Kumbakonam with major cities in the state like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchirapalli. There are passenger trains that connect Kumbakonam with Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli, Chidambaram and Mayiladuthurai. The upgrading of NH-36 from two-lane to four-line is under progress, which upon completion will greatly reduce to time of travel to Thanjavur and Chennai.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The traditional modes of transportation are bullock carts. It is recorded that as late as the 1950s, landlords and rich farmers travelled mostly by bullock carts with the exception of rare long journeys which they undertook by buses or motor vehicles. Kumbakonam has an efficient local bus transportation system. The town bus stand is located situated just opposite to the moffusil Bus Station Kumbakonam|Arignar Anna Bus Stand where the long-distance buses are stationed. There are occasional ferries that transport people and goods across the Cauvery. Till the beginning of the 20th century, students of the Government Arts College used to cross the Cauvery on coracle ferries in order to attend college. Since the construction of a bridge in 1944, the practice of transporting men and goods by coracles has greatly diminished.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The Raja Veda Padasala, established by Govinda Dikshitar during 1542 in Kumbakonam, teaches Sanskrit vedic scriptures in specialised fields of Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, "Agamas" and "Sastras". Kumbakonam emerged as an important centre of education in the late 19th century and was known as the "Cambridge of South India". The Government Arts College, established in Kumbakonam in 1867, is one of the oldest educational institutions in the Madras Presidency. It began as a provincial school on 19 October 1854, before being upgraded to a government college in 1867. It was affiliated to the Madras University in 1877. One of the early principals of the college was William Archer Porter, a Cambridge Wrangler, who, along with T. Gopala Rao, was instrumental in its elevation to a government college. He is also credited with framing the college's acclaimed educational policy. In 1881, it became a full-fledged college and high school courses ceased to be taught. Notable faculty members included U. V. Swaminatha Iyer (1855–1942) while the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) who studied from 1904 until 1906 when he dropped out and V. S. Srinivasa Sastri (1869–1946), an Indian politician and administrator, are its notable alumni. The Government Arts College for Women was started in 1963 and had a total strength of 2,597 pupils in February 2006. The college offers various undergraduate courses and one post-graduate course and is affiliated to the Bharathidasan University. Other colleges in Kumbakonam include Idhya Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Annai College of Arts and Sciences, Annai Engineering College, Mass College, Sankara Arts college, PRIST University Kumbakonam Campus, Government College Of Fine Arts and Arasu Engineering College, KSK Engineering college, As Slam Engineering college at nearby Thirumanglakudi. The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy has a satellite campus based in Kumbakonam where all disciplines of Engineering, arts and sciences are taught.


title: Kumbakonam

text: The Native High School, founded in 1876, and the Town Higher Secondary School, one of whose students was Srinivasa Ramanujan, were some of the oldest schools in the Madras Presidency. At present, there a total of 36 government and private schools in Kumbakonam.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Mulk (; ) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language legal drama film written, produced and directed by Anubhav Sinha. The film is set against the backdrop of a Muslim family and was distributed by Zee Studios. Filmed across in Varanasi and Lucknow, "Mulk" stars Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The story centers around the life of a Muslim family, who tries to reclaim its lost honor after its patriarch Murad Ali Mohammed (Kapoor) gets involved in terrorism. The supporting cast of the film includes Rajat Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Prateik Babbar, Ashutosh Rana, Neena Gupta, Prachee Shah Paandya and Indraneil Sengupta.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Initially slated to open in cinemas on 13 July 2018, "Mulk" eventually released in theatres on 3 August 2018. Though failed commercially to recoup its budget, "Mulk" earned universal widespread acclaim for its story, screenplay, execution and cast portrayals and has been a recipient of several awards such as the Best Story and Best Film at Filmfare Awards.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Based on a real-life story, Mulk revolves around the struggles of a Muslim joint family from a town in India, who fight to reclaim their honor after a member of their family takes to terrorism.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor), a lawyer by profession lives amiably with his family in a densely-populated diverse locality of Varanasi. His daily routine includes Namaz at a nearby mosque followed by some chit-chat over a cup of tea from a tea stall managed and owned by one of his close Hindu neighbors. His close-knit family consists of his wife Tabassum (Neena Gupta), brother Bilaal (Manoj Pahwa) who owns a mobile phone shop, brother's wife Chhoti-Tabassum (Prachee Shah Pandya), nephew Shahid (Prateik Babbar) and niece Aayat (Eshita Singh, credited as Vartika Singh). Murad's son Aftab (Indraneil Sengupta) stays abroad with his wife Aarti (Taapsee Pannu), who is a lawyer and is estranged from the family.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The story begins on the day of Murad's 65th birthday, when Aarti comes to visit them. The family enjoys a lovely night with the neighbors and friends. Another story is shown in parallel, where it is revealed that Shahid has joined hands with a terrorist organization headed by the wanted Mehfooz Alam (Sumit Kaul) who assigns Shahid with the task of a bomb blast. After the night of the anniversary celebrations, Shahid leaves early morning for Allahabad and executes the attack as planned with two other acquaintances. A lot of innocent people get killed and SSP Danish Javed (Rajat Kapoor) is assigned with the task to investigate the crime. He tracks down everyone involved with the attack, corners Shahid and finally shoots him dead as he tries to escape instead of surrendering.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Soon, police arrives at Murad's house and starts interrogating the family members. They turn the place upside down to gather evidence. As the news spreads across, people starts to flock outside Murad's house. Police takes Bilaal into custody for further interrogation. Aarti steps up as the defense lawyer for Bilaal and escorts him to police station. Danish interrogates Bilaal for over 17 hours but gets no useful information.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Within a matter of hours, the situation around Murad's neighborhood changes drastically. Everyone whom Murad had known for decades starts looking at him as a terrorist. His life's reputation and goodwill gets shattered in a day. Bilaal is taken to court for hearing and the judge Harish Madhok (Kumud Mishra) denies his bail and grants police custody of him for 7 days for further interrogation. After postmortem, police brings Shahid's body to hand it over to Murad, but he refuses to accept. Despite him strongly condemning Shahid's act, situation worsens around Murad's neighborhood where people tag his entire family as terrorists trying to shame them in every possible way. Stones get pelted inside the house and "Go back to Pakistan" gets written on their boundary wall. On the other hand, some of the Muslims with extremist mindset approach Murad and try to convince him that Shahid has sacrificed his life in the name of Jihad. He is a true martyr and all the Muslims should appreciate his act and rise up against Hindu dominant society which Murad strongly opposes. Despite everything, the family maintains their compose and relies on legal procedures to get their names cleared.


title: Mulk (film)

text: As the legal proceedings begin after 7 days, public prosecutor Santosh Anand (Ashutosh Rana) tries to convince the court that this act of Shahid is not a standalone incident but an eye opener about how Muslims are breeders of terrorists. He argues that every single member of Murad's family was aware and supportive of Shahid's action and his home was the den of terrorist operations. As evidence, he presents Shahid's laptop which has detail procedure of how to make bombs, a transmitter which was installed at Murad's home to communicate with the terrorists via private frequencies, CCTV footage of Bilaal giving lift to Mefooz Alam and him selling SIM cards to terrorists without asking for any valid documents. Based on all these facts, he requests the judge to consider Murad also as a person of interest in this case and remove him as Bilaal's defense lawyer. The court agrees, Murad has to step down and Aarti takes his place as the main lawyer for this case.


title: Mulk (film)

text: With things turning against him at court, Bilaal, who is already tired, ashamed, confused, saddened, tortured and humiliated, suffers a massive heart attack and passes away on his way to the hospital. Murad's family again suffers another setback and now everything comes down to Aarti to get her father-in-law and his family acquitted of all the charges that were laid upon them on the basis of mere prejudice.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Aarti tries to justify in court that there is no evidence against any of the family members except Shahid that they were involved with terrorism. Shahid was the only person who knew how to operate a laptop and the transmitter was installed by him under the excuse to boost cable TV signal. Since he had access to Bilaal's mobile shop he only took those SIM cards without any document and used those to communicate with the terrorists. Bilaal had no idea who Mehfooz Alam was and so when he came to meet Shahid, he assumed him to be his friend and offered him a drop at the railway station since he was also heading in the same direction. Aarti also argues that it has become a mindset of people to consider all Muslims as terrorists and someone just by growing a beard or practicing Islam becomes a terrorist in public eye. Just because of this established taboo about Muslims, Murad and his family is going through this horrible trauma and humiliation which even claimed Bilaal's life.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Public prosecutor Santosh Anand fails to produce any further evidence and the court concludes that all evidences against Murad and his family are circumstantial thereby dropping all charges against them. Judge Harish Madhok dismisses the case stating that the main problem is with people's mentality and everyone irrespective of their religion should fight against it to bring a change.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The movie ends with giving it's viewers the moral that we should change our way of thinking from "Us and Them" to "We".


title: Mulk (film)

text: A newspaper report read by Anubhav Sinha became the point of origin of Mulk and prompted him to develop an idea which he shared with his friends for their feedback. After receiving a positive response from his friends he began scripting the film. After writing 13-14 drafts of the film, Anubhav began narrating the story to his friends in the film industry, one of them being director Shoojit Sircar. Shoojit found the story to be one of the best-written works of Anubhav and requested him to not reconsider this project and instead go ahead with it.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The actors were given a preparation time of three months to get familiar with the roles they were playing. Prateik Babbar, who was to play the role of a Muslim terrorist was asked to watch the documentary Among the Believers and read extensively about David Headley, who is an American terrorist of Pakistani origin. For an appropriate portrayal of courtroom proceedings, Tapsee Pannu and Ashutosh Rana who play defence lawyer and public prosecutor respectively in the film were provided guidance by retired High Court Judge Nadeem Siddiqi from Lucknow for their courtroom sequences. A religious Muslim scholar from Malihabad was called in to supervise the Muslim rituals involving Rishi Kapoor in the film. Mulk was made at a production budget of . Jashoda Madhavji supervised the film's public relations.


title: Mulk (film)

text: In July 2017, it was reported that Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu and Prateik Babbar had been signed by Anubhav Sinha for his next film called Mulk. In September 2017, Neena Gupta was cast as the wife of Murad Ali. In August 2017, Neena Gupta had put up a post on her Instagram account saying that she was looking for good quality work, and as a response to that post director Anubhav Sinha got in touch with her and offered her a role in his film Mulk. Twelve actors from the Lucknow theatre industry were signed on to do various roles in the film. Eshita Singh, daughter of AAP leader Sanjay Singh and a member of Asmita Theatre Group, was added to the cast, but was credited as Vartika Singh. On 26 September 2017, it was reported that actor Ashutosh Rana would be working with Anubhav Sinha in his next film Mulk, 25 years after "Shikast" which was the last time the two of them worked together. Initially, Rajat Kapoor was supposed to play the role of Rishi Kapoor's brother and actor Manoj Pahwa was assigned the role of Police Officer Danish Javed but after the arrival of the two actors on set, Anubhav realized that both actors should be playing different roles and not the ones assigned to them, and as a result of that Rajat and Manoj swapped each other's roles.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Principal photography of the film began in October 2017 in Lucknow and continued for the next 27 days. According to the director Anubhav Sinha, Lucknow has been shown as Varanasi in the film while some part of the movie was also shot in Varanasi for two days. The filming process was completed on 9 November 2017.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The background score of the film is composed by Mangesh Dhakde and songs are composed by Prasad Sashte and Anurag Saikia. The lyrics are written by Shakeel Azmi.


title: Mulk (film)

text: The movie was released on 3 August 2018 in 800 cinemas in India. The teaser of the film was out on 28 June, and official trailer was released on 9 July.


title: Mulk (film)

text: After banning the trailer of the movie in Pakistan, the Central Board of Film Censors, Pakistan banned the movie as well on 3 August 2018. Reacting to the decision, director Anubhav Sinha wrote a letter to the citizens of Pakistan.


title: Mulk (film)

text: However, Danyal Gilani, the Chairman of the Central Board of Film Censors, Pakistan said, "Members of the CBFC unanimously decided not to approve the trailer of "Mulk" as its contents flout the Censorship of Film Code, 1980, but the movie hasn't been banned as the film is yet to be submitted to the board for review," as reported by The Express Tribune, Pakistan.


title: Mulk (film)

text: Mulk received highly positive response from critics in India. Taran Adarsh, movie critic and business analyst from "Bollywood Hungama", wrote the following on Twitter about the movie, "#Mulk stands on powerful writing + splendid performances... Rishi Kapoor is in terrific form... Taapsee is fantastic... Supporting cast adds strength... Manoj Pahwa, Ashutosh Rana, Rajat Kapoor, Kumud Mishra, Prateik Babbar and Prachee Shah Paandya, each actor excels." Shekhar Gupta praised the film stating that Mulk breaks that mould and has ordinary Indian Muslims look you in the eye, as 1 out of 7 of Indians is a Muslim.