AUGUST COMPANY
GREETINGS to the lovely Manisha Koirala on her birthday (August 16). She has been slow and steady in the race to the top. Manisha captured the imaginations of filmbuffs with her charming looks and brilliant performances in films like Saudagar, Sanam, 1942-A Love Story, Agnisakshi, Khamoshi, Bombay and Dil Se. Top directors Subhash Ghai and Mani Ratnam have brought out the acting mettle in her. I hope others do, too.
Prashant Mukund
Thalikkavu, Kannoor

TIMELESS KHAN
AS a die-hard Shah Rukh Khan fan, I’m very upset by the article “Time-teller, time-teller...” (Short Takes, SCREEN, August 4). It was said that Hrithik Roshan had overtaken the Khans, especially Shah Rukh Khan by doing an ad with Sachin Tendulkar.

I think the media has created a communal battle between Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan. In fact, almost every other media person is single-mindedly targeting Shah Rukh as if he is a real-life villain.

Shah Rukh will always remain a popular Indian filmstar. This fact was proved at the IIFA ceremony in London, where Shah Rukh was voted the most popular star of India in the last five years, polling 61 per cent votes across the world. So who says no one is timeless? Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan certainly are.
Mitali Swain,
Bhubaneshwar, Orissa

ALL ABOUT JOSH
V Srinivas claims in his letter “All about Josh,” that Josh is no hit. The storyline is quiet different from the usual love masala fare, the screenplay and direction are excellent in the first half, though they lose momentum in the second. But that is compensated for by the suspense-filled climax. As a movie package, Josh is definitely engaging.

As for the box-office collections, all the distributors have done satisfactory business with Josh and are happy enough to accept it as a hit. V Srinivas believes in facts and figures, so let’s deal with his own city — Chennai. Josh was screened for 65 days in Chennai where the Hindi population occupies a very small percentage.
A Haris,
KK Nagar, Chennai

MADHURI, WHERE ARE YOU?
IT is great to know from the “On The Sets” column in SCREEN (August 4), that work on KC Bokadia’s Hum Apake Hai Sanam has resumed. This Madhuri Dixit, Salman, Shah Rukh starrer is eagerly awaited, especially by Madhuri’s fans since it is reported to be a heroine-oriented movie.

Madhuri has restricted her work drastically in the last few years. We got just one film of hers, Wajood (plus a brief special appearance in Bade Miya Chote Miya in 1998, and one film, (Aarzoo) in ’99. It is likely that this year, too, there will be only one Madhuri film (Pukar). We are desperate to see more of Madhuri, so news of her films under production is very keenly awaited. Can SCREEN keep us posted on the progress of the Madhuri-Ajay Devgan starrer, Yeh Raaste Hai Pyar Ki and her Tamil-Hindi bilingual, Engineer?
K Raghunath
St Thomas Mt, Chennai

WELCOME NOSTALGIA
KUDOS to SCREEN for that splendid interview with melody queen, P Susheela (August 4). It took us on a precious trip down memory lane, to the golden age of Tamil and Malayalam film music. Music buffs can never forget that era when the team of P Susheela, Vayalar Ramavarma and music maestro Devarajan gave nothing but soul-stirring music, blended with the magical voice of Susheela which still lingers in our hearts. Similarly in Tamil, the combination of P Susheela-MS Viswanathan and Susheela-Mahadevam gave us innumerable evergreen melodies. We eagerly wait for more from the lady with the golden voice.
M Pradyu
Geeth, Kannoor

NOT IN THE SAME LEAGUE
REFUGEE, the much hyped ‘human story’, fails to live up to expectations, as your reviewer rightly points out. The film drags for ages and ends up being a test on the audience’s nerves. Personally, I found the leading pair to be no great shakes — Abhishek Bachchan can at best be termed average and Kareena Kapoor slightly above that. But above everything else, it is the narration that totally disappoints — Refugee is not even a patch on Dutta’s previous film, Border.
TV Nair
Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram