Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy took down the iron barricades in front of his official residence minutes after taking charge, fulfilling a key promise of his campaign. Even before the oath-taking ceremony had finished, there was frantic activity at the Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad, the Chief Minister’s official residence.

Several bulldozers, tractors and construction workers were seen outside the residence uprooting the iron rods. During his intense poll campaign, Mr Reddy had said that he would remove the barricades if Congress came to power.

Earlier today, Revanth Reddy replaced K Chandrashekar Rao as the Chief Minister of India’s youngest state. The 54-year-old is only the second chief minister who has been at the helm of Telangana since its birth in 2014. Mr Reddy is known among fellow politicians and party workers for his never-say-die attitude.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at Hyderabad’s LB Stadium, days after the Congress registered a comfortable win in last month’s Assembly election. Eleven of Mr Reddy’s colleagues took their oath with him, including Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, a chief ministerial aspirant who was sworn in as deputy chief minister.

Mr Reddy and his cabinet now face the daunting task of managing the bleak coffers and fulfilling the “six guarantees” that the Congress party made during the run-up to the elections. The Congress’s robust campaign highlighting the six guarantees is said to have been one of the reasons for the party’s victory. However, finding the funds to fulfill them will be a herculean task.

The most attractive among the “six” is free travel for women in Telangana State Road Transport Corporation buses.

India’s envoy to Qatar met eight ex-Navy personnel – sentenced to death in October for reasons still not known – on Sunday, the government said this afternoon. External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “Our Ambassador got consular access to meet all eight in prison on December 3.”

On India’s appeal against the death sentence, Mr Bagchi said, “There have been two hearings so far (these were held on November 23 and November 30). We are closely following the matter and extending all legal and consular assistance. This is a sensitive issue, but we will do whatever we can.”

The next hearing is expected soon, NDTV has learned.

The Ambassador’s meeting with the sailors has been seen as a positive step – one that addresses concerns over consular access to the eight naval personnel, which seems now to have improved.

Also seen as a positive step is that there have been two hearings since India filed its appeal.

#WATCH | MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi says, “You would have seen Prime Minister Modi meet Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, the Amir of Qatar in Dubai on the sidelines of CoP28. They’ve had a good conversation on the overall bilateral relationship as well as in the well-being of the… pic.twitter.com/PfcBKtKvnm

— ANI (@ANI) December 7, 2023

News of the meeting with the eight sailors – arrested in August last year by that country’s intelligence agency, allegedly for spying – is being linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the Qatar ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on the side-lines of CoP28 summit in Dubai.

READ | Qatar Accepts India’s Appeal Against Death Penalty To 8 Navy Veterans

“You would have seen (that) Prime Minister Modi meet Sheikh Tamim nin Hamad, the Emir of Qatar in Dubai on the side-lines of (the) CoP28 (summit). They had a good conversation on the overall bilateral relationship as well as the well-being of the Indian community…” Mr Bagchi said.

The specifics of the PM’s brief meeting with the Emir have not been made public, but it does appear the Prime Minister has now taken up this matter with the Qatari ruler directly.

READ | Qatar Sentences 8 Indian Navy Veterans To Death: A Timeline Of The Case

On November 24 a Qatari court had accepted India’s formal appeal against the death sentence, which the government said had left it “deeply shocked”.

READ | 8 Navy Veterans Get Death In Qatar, “Shocked” India To Contest Order

The arrested naval personnel are Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht and Sailor Ragesh Gopakumar.

The eight ex-Navy officers include decorated individuals who once commanded major Indian warships, and were working for Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services when arrested.

Dahra is a private firm providing training and related services to Qatar’s armed forces.

Sources said some of the sailors were working on a sensitive project – stealth submarines based on Italian technology. Media reports have claimed they have been accused of spying for Israel.

Families of the eight spoke to NDTV and flatly denied the spying allegations.

READ | “Went To Build Qatar’s Security”: Families Of Indian Sailors On Death Row

They were “not engaged in espionage for Israel”, the families said. “They went to build the Qatari Navy and build that nation’s security. They could never spy. There are no proof of allegations…”

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The era is 1964. The setting is a quaint little hill station, teeming with Anglo-Indians, somewhere in North India, called Riverdale. Archie (Agastya Nanda), Betty (Khushi Kapoor), Veronica (Suhana Khan), Jughead (Mihir Ahuja), Reggie (Vedang Raina), Ethel (Dot) and Dilton (Yuvraj Menda) are highschool students in their last year of school. They’re on the cusp of adulthood and like most teenagers, are struggling with the issues that come with this age. Archie and friends, who have their origin in one of the most widely read American comics, find themselves transplanted in India in a unique way. To have them as Anglo-Indians is a nice touch. Let’s not forget the Indian in the community’s name. The people of Riverdale love India and wouldn’t think of living anywhere else. If they listen to The Beatles, then they are also aware of Mohammed Rafi, Shammi Kapoor is as much a sex-symbol for them as Elvis and masala chai feels as refreshing as soda pop.

The Indianisation is superbly done. The essence of the Anglo-Indian community – their love for music, for dance, baking, working in the railways, adaptation of the western style of clothing and hairstyle, as well as their accents is brought to life in great detail.

The film follows the same arc that’s shown in the comics. Archie can’t decide between Veronica and Betty, Jughead loves to eat every minute and Dilton loves to invent quirky things. Betty is shown to be a good baker, Ethel is a great hair-dresser and Reggie wants to be a journalist. Veronica, of course, is too rich to actually understand the concerns of her middle-class friends.

Adulting is hard. While the youngsters are busy with their last year of carless living, they also get to know that their town might be changing, and not for the better it seems. In the name of progress, the old places, like the bookshop of Betty’s father or the town’s favourite cafe, Pop Tate’s, are getting bought over and giving way to glitzy storefronts lacking a soul and there are rumours that their favourite place, Green Park, which lies at the heart of the town and is sacred to the community because of its nostalgic value, too is marked for development. They decide to raise their voice against it and in the process, realise their strengths and weaknesses.

The film’s cinematographer, Nikos Andritsakis, has given Riverdale a picture-postcard quality, filling it with bright colours and warm hues. The production design and the costume design teams too have done a wonderful job. The film has been designed as a musical, with songs replacing dialogue in key scenes. While the songs are catchy and do complement the film, they don’t make an impact outside of the film’s narrative. While the plot is predictable, the writing, especially the portions which revolve around friendship, has been fresh and breezy. They smack of real relationships between a group of teenagers. Another good thing is that while the film does tilt a bit towards Archie, Betty and Veronica, the others too get their moment in the sun. It showcases proper group dynamics, with some being more dominant than the others but at the end, everyone is a friend.

It isn’t just a launch vehicle for starkids like Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor and Suhana Khan but brings the others – Mihir Ahuja, Vedang Raina, Aditi Dot and Yuvraj Menda into the limelight as well. The director must have taken lots of workshops with them because they not only seem like real friends on screen but also come across as seasoned performers, rather than newbies. Suhana grows on you as the film progresses and so does Vedang. Yuvraj has a more layered role to play and does it effortlessly. Dot makes for a fine Ethel as well. Khushi comes across as a natural on screen and so does Agastya. While he can be said to be the find of the film, each of these super confident kids have a great future ahead of them.

Watch the film for the dose of nostalgia that it provides. It makes you yearn for your school/college days and for a life which was simple yet perfect.