College student drives car into well, drowns

A 19-year-old college student drowned in a well when he tried to drive his friend’s car and lost control at a farm in Tiruttani at Tiruvallur town in suburban Chennai last week.Sham Senthil Kumar switched on the ignition of the car which was in neutral gear. As the car moved towards the well he lost control and screamed for help. His three friends who had been bathing in a nearby pond rushed to his rescue but they were too late. Senthil Kumar’s body was pulled out by local villagers and police.In another incident, a policeman and his 8-year-old son drowned in a pool at the Kumbakarai water falls in Theni district about 60km from the temple city of Madurai. The policeman and his family were on their way to Kodaikanal hill resort when they decided to take a detour to bathe in the falls.In a third incident, a teenage boy Syed Abu Tahir drowned in a swimming pool at a private resort at Vayalur in Tiruchi. The resort owner and manager have been arrested for negligence. Also in the same city, Rohit a 12-year-old Sri Lankan refugee boy drowned in a pond in Khajamalai area.Actor, filmmaker Vinu Chakravarthy dies aged 72Veteran actor and filmmaker Vinu Chakravarthy died after a prolonged illness in Saligramam in Chennai on April 27.He was 72 and survived by wife, a son and a daughter. Born in Usilampatti village in Theni district about 65km from the temple city of Madurai, Vinu Chakravarthy graduated from Wesley College in Chennai. He worked as a police inspector and railway station master before debuting in a character role in the 1977 Tamil film Rosapoo Ravikkaikari. Since then he has acted in over 1,000 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada mostly in villain and comedy roles. His memorable Tamil films include Guru Sishyan, Rajathi Raja and Annamalai. His last film was Vaiyai Moodi Pesavum in 2014. Tamil superstar Rajnikanth with whom he has acted in 25 films once admitted that Vinu was his lucky mascot. Vinu is also credited with introducing the famous screen vamp Vijayalakshmi with the moniker Silk Smitha in the Tamil film Vandichakram in 1980. He even sued the producers of her 2011 Hindi biopic Dirty Picture for not mentioning his contribution to her career.Kamal Haasan to host Bigg BossAward winning actor Kamal Haasan is planning to host the Tamil version of the popular television show Bigg Boss soon. “Yes, I am doing Bigg Boss in Tamil on Star Vijay,” he said. “I’ve tried many different roles in various capacities as an entertainer but never as a host on a television show. Reality television is so far not a reality in my career. I want to see what it feels like.”Participants of the show have to live in a specially constructed house with being totally cut off from the outside world and are constantly monitored by a television crew. Boys get kidneys from mothersIn a rare medical feat, two young boys with kidney ailments had successful transplants with organs donated by their mothers at the Kavuery hospital in Chennai last week.P Arul Kumaran, aged 11, suffered from posterior urethral valve, while nine-year-old Mithun was diagnosed with congenitally mal developed kidneys and high blood pressure.Both boys had survived on medicines from birth, until the hospital decided to transplant, because they had reached the dialysis stage. Fortunately their mothers’ kidneys matched the medical parameters, doctors said.The hospital’s paediatric organ transplant programme was started about three years ago.