Robert Redford: The Natural

Hollywood golden boy’s quiet craft and lasting charm

A YOUNG JANE FONDA snuggling up to him in a horse carriage on their way to the honeymoon in Barefoot in the Park (1967). A beautiful Barbra Streisand cradling his face in her hands in the middle of the street in The Way We Were (1973). A luminous Meryl Streep looking up at him while he famously sham­pooed her hair in Out of Africa (1985).

Robert Redford (1936-2025) was the stuff heartthrobs are made of, his blonde good looks masking his emotional unavail­ability, his inability to be fully in love. Which is why when he agreed to play a sleazy billionaire who wants to sleep with Demi Moore for one night in Indecent Proposal (1993), a genera­tion of women recoiled almost physically from it.

But that was typical Redford, forever running away from his good looks, a reluctant pretty boy if ever there was one. His favourite figure was the cowboy, whether the con­man of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid (1969) or the moun­tain man of Jeremiah Johnson (1972) or even the rodeo rider of The Electric Horseman (1979). It suited him, being remote, solitary and ruggedly individual, much like his beloved co-star and friend Paul Newman.

So much so that he physically escaped Hollywood, moving to his beloved Utah where he set up the Sundance Institute and revived a failing film festival, turning it into the springboard for independent cinema from all over the world, attracting film lovers, practitioners, and rising stars who would get used to a familiar figure in jeans walking around the town, stopping by to chat.

Redford, or Bob as he liked to be called, was a man who felt a lot, about people, politics, nature and cinema. Meryl Streep described him as a lion among men, and indeed he was, blonde, beautiful, but also singular and totally aloof. (By Kaveree Bamzai)

Noisemaker
Shahid Afridi: No Ball

Even during his playing career, Shahid Afridi was never known to be particularly bright. He had essentially just one way of playing and the opposition soon figured out his limitations. His comments on Indian politics, Kashmir and now Rahul Gandhi are big no balls. If he thought he was doing the Congress leader a favour, he might have achieved just the opposite.

Ideas
Local Governance

The Supreme Court came down heavily upon the Maharashtra State Election Commission for its delay in holding local body elections, slamming the election body for what the judges called its “inaction and incompetence”. While the court did grant the body another extension—up to January 31—it emphasised that no further extensions would be entertained.

One can see why the court was so incensed. Elections in 27 out of 29 municipal corporations in the state are overdue, not to mention many more zilla parishads and village panchayats. Out of the 27 municipal corporations, five of these came to an end in 2020, 18 in 2022, and the rest in 2023. Even Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections have been due for over three-and-a-half years now. This isn’t however a malaise affecting only Maharashtra. According to some reports, 61 per cent of urban local bodies across 17 states are overdue. Even other major cities like Bengaluru haven’t seen municipal polls for a while.

What state governments have done is when a municipal body’s term comes to an end, instead of feeling the need to push for a new election, they have instead postponed it altogether and run these bodies through their chosen bureaucrats.

That is far from ideal. Bureaucrats cannot replace councillors and corporators. They have no skin in the game, nor any connection with wards and their issues. One only needs to look at the deteriorating quality of our cities and their shoddy facilities, to know why this arrangement isn’t working.

 Money Mantra
The GST Rejig
 It will reshape investor strategy beyond the festive season frenzy

WHEN LOOKING AT stocks in the festive season and in the context of the rationalised GST rates, you can, as an inves­tor, do one of two things. First, chase every headline that screams “beneficiary”. Or second: Quietly build positions in business­es where the transmission from tax cut to demand is clean, the festive skew is historically strong, and management execution is reliable. The clearest transmission usually runs through value-end autos and the tyre ecosystem. When the price of a budget two-wheeler or an entry-level car nudges lower during these very weeks, families plan purchases and bookings swell. Add dealer offers, exchange bonuses, and easier financing,and you have a recipe for volumes that can outlast the holiday mood. If you prefer a steadier hand on the wheel, tyres benefit from both replacement cycles and new-vehicle mo­mentum. These are sectors from which to accumulate leaders, but in tranches. And let the festive season demand do the heavy lifting while you keep an eye on dispatch updates and dealer inventory talk rather than social media buzz.

Consumer durables are the next rung of the ladder. When prices compress even a little, categories such as air-conditioners and pre­mium appliances see a sharper conversion from browsing to buying. Here, pick companies that marry pricing power with distribution depth and after-sales capability.

Now, don’t ignore second-order beneficiaries. Every incremental vehicle or appliance sold tends to pull in a bit more credit, so well-run NBFCs can enjoy a lift in disbursals.

Similarly, omni-channel retailers and quick-commerce platforms often capture the last-minute, top-up baskets that swell through the festive season.

Focus on leaders with healthy RoCE and inventory discipline, do staggered buying, and give yourself room to add on transient noise.

When the festive season fades and the GST reset becomes the new normal, those are the names most likely to hold share—and your gains. (By Ramesh Singh)

Viral
Glitches Mar Meta’S Smart Glasses Launch

For weeks now, and through selective leaks, Meta has been teasing the launch of its new smart glasses. The glasses, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, allow the wearer to see a small display in the right lens, which can stream video, show text messages, enable translation and even interact with an AI model. The day finally arrived, and Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived on stage wearing the glasses. This is the kind of presentation Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs excelled in. What followed instead were several minutes of awkwardness. He had someone video call him, and he tried and he tried, but the device failed to answer it. “I don’t know what to tell you guys,” Zuckerberg said. “The irony of the whole thing is you spend years making technology and the Wi-Fi of the day kind of catches you [out].” The device could very well become the next big thing, but for hours online, it was this failed demo that went viral.

Donald TrumpRobert RedfordShahid AfridiSmart Glasses