Star of the millennium

These days, Amitabh Bachchan spends as much time as possible with his parents, the illustrious Harivanshrai and Teji Bachchan. They live in Amitabh’s old bungalow, ‘Prateeksha’, just a stone’s throw away from the mega-star’s other bungalow, ‘Mansa’. Having turned 57, Amitabh looks upon his 58th year with cautious optimism. Finally free of the commercial anxieties that accompany the career graph of a box-office behemoth, today, he looks forward to films like Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein, Rakesh Mehra’s untitled film (for which he has just grown a dapper beard) and Karan Johar’s next, in which he co-stars Shah Rukh Khan.

NANDANA SEN
The tost of the festival circuit

"Cinema is a medium of expression, a very powerful art form. It has a huge reach in terms of audience. The best cinema in my opinion, is the cinema that entertains and moves people, that makes us more aware, that brings to us, a new perspective of our reality,

Chip of the old block

Rahul Sharma’s new album Sweet Romance, which has thematic compositions on the santoor, is an attempt at popularising classical music among the masses, and taking the sweet strains of santoor, till now considered only for the ears of the elite, to the common man.