Short Takes

CALCUTTA BY NIGHT
She begins the evening, invoking the Hindu pantheon with the hymn, Man mera mandir, her distilled, crystal clear voice ringing out for miles. It’s April 23, singer ANURADHA PAUDWAL’s comeback nite on stage at Calcutta’s packed-to-the-gills Sangit Kala Mandir, Science City. The loud applause that greets her on stage becomes a deafening roar when she reminds the throngs she has a stong affinity with Calcutta.

"I feel 23 years younger," she tells them, "for I’m reminded of my first solo performance here, 23 years ago. I still cherish the love you showered on me then. And I’ve been looking forward to coming back."
It’s an unpractised performance as it turns out, what with her having to bow to the demands of the throng. Popular ditties Tujhe apna bananey ki kasam khayi hai (Sadak), Nazar ke samney, jigar ke pas (Aashiqui) and Dil hai ki manta nahin were followed by old Lata favourites before she switched over to bhajans -- Chuti chuti gaiya and Bhakti darshan de gayi hai ek chotttisi kanya among them.

Around the same time that Lata Mangeshkar wows Mumbai at Andheri’s Sports Complex, Anuradha and Babul Supriyo are taking Calcutta by storm. Everything about the evening is loud, right from the cat calls and applause to the accompanying music. And Anuradha even has to tell her musicians on stage to tone down the accompaniment, lest it totally drown out the lyrics. But Anuradha’s in vintage form, and more importantly, the full house returns with satisfied smirks. The kind that comes from knowing they’ve got their money’s worth.

DATE WITH ANURADHA
Give me the best of your thalis and I’ll give you my best ever performance to date," he tells the Calcutta crowd, obviously, a ploy to whip them up to a near frenzy. And Calcutta’s only ready to oblige. It’s BABUL SUPRIYO’s night out, with Anuradha Paudwal for company, as the baying city mobs keep throwing requests for one popular song after another.

And Babul’s working extra hard to show he’s no baby-boomer alongside the proven, versatile Anuradha. It takes a lot of doing. His curtain raiser is Musafir hoon yaaron, the Kishore Kumar ditty. He switches over to popular Hindi film songs such as the Hello Brother track, Hata sawan ki ghata and Kaho na pyar hai, from you know where.

But the vibrant, lively singer, we think, would have done better to develop his own style and originality on stage, instead of seeking refuge in the tried and trusted Kishore Kumar, Kumar Sanu gimmicks. But let’s not forget age’s on his side. He’ll live and learn.

LIMELIGHT SHUNNED
Sharad Kapoor, we’re told, plays one of two principal protagonists in Josh, along with Shah Rukh Khan, of course. So here’s his major chance to salvage a career that hasn’t seemed to be going places, yet. No, neither Aishwarya Rai, nor Chandrachur Singh, who’re in the film, too, has a role to match his. And Sharad could well be hoping the film marks his come-uppance.

Yet, Sharad was conspicuous by his absence at the recent Josh bash in Mumbai, when nearly everybody else even remotely connected with the film was present. Surely, he needs no media manager to tell him he’d have got a great deal of "mileage" at the bash, especially after he’s just played a key role in the film. The free publicity would have done his career no harm. But Sharad wasn’t there to capitalise on the opportunity. Perhaps, he’d rather wait till the film hits theatres, than part with sound bytes to grab headlines too soon. Work, after all, is still the best publicity!

AIRDASH TO THE BIG TIME
So you thought you’d heard the last of her? SHARBANI MUKERJI, indeed, was touted to hit the big time with a splash, as did cousins Kajol and Rani Mukerji. But the rave reviews she got, courtesy her bit role, opposite Sunil Shetty in Border, failed to translate into bigger and better things for Sharbani. The film came and went, cornered a fair bit of glory at the turnstiles, and even swept the major awards including the SCREEN-Videocon. But it fetched her little by way of returns.

Even JP Dutta himself didn’t sign her on for Refugee. And Sharbani had no choice but to appear in the odd music video for time-pass. Or act in a couple of Southie ventures. Now, Sharbani’s not only been signed by Priyadarshan, for a Tamil version of the Marathi movie, Bindhaast. If the grapevine’s to be believed, she’s even been approached by JP for his next movie. So, who knows, she may just fight her way back into the national limelight with this one. Her career down South, notwithstanding, Mumbai, after all, is but a phone call, or an airdash away.

ACES UP HIS SLEEVE
His heroines complain he craves to stand out in every scene. And leaves them next to nothing to do, but shake a leg or wiggle a hip. Comedy or sentiment, action or dance, he hogs the footage all the time, making it all seem so easy. And all the heroines ever get to do, is stand around as decorative props on the set. Yep, it’s GOVINDA, indeed, we’re talking about.

Now, Mr Nice Guy, famous for his colourful costumes and wide, toothy grin, is about to play a baddie in a forthcoming movie. Or so we’re told. Problem is, we suspect his fans may not take to it, too kindly. Especially now, that being a Govinda fan’s becoming quite fashionable, in the wake of the best actor award he won, recently.
But Govinda’s on a high these days. He has several aces up his sleeve, including plans to turn distributor. Has the award had anything to do with it? Your guess is as good as ours. Govinda, for one, is still gushing about the award. "I thought the only award I’ll ever win is for Lifetime Achievement. Like Dharamji!," he laughs.

AWAITING THE STORK
The stork’s about to visit the family, as the whole world knows by now. And SHEKHAR KAPUR’s borrowing on the experience of waiting for the baby, in a great deal of his current conversation.

After Masoom, Mr India, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth, Shekhar’s already on to his next assignments -- Phantom Of The Opera, Air Pirates and of course, Mandela. And Shekhar’s been comparing filmmaking to having a baby. The pains of labour are already weighing on his mind, apparently.

Any chances of seeing Kapur don greasepaint in his forthcoming films? Well, the actor-turned-director was one of the shadows in Elizabeth, and also a truck driver in Bandit Queen. Shekhar’s still undecided about casting himself in his forthcoming films. It’s rather like painters etching self-portraits into their masterpieces, like signatures. But knowing him, we shan’t be surprised if he does.

A PAID JUNKET TO LONDON
Ms World’s on to her next date with the city that launched her into global stardom. London. YUKTA MOOKHEY is all set to anchor the International Indian Film Awards in the city, a US $ 2 million affair, alongside Shah Rukh Khan. The venue? Skyscape, adjacent to the Millennium Dome. And the date? June 24.

A flight’s being chartered to fly down 300 or thereabouts of India’s movie glitterati for the event. And they’re to rub shoulders with Hollywood big guns like Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Goldblum, Sylvester Stallone, Robert de Niro, Richard Gere, Pierce Brosnan and even Kevin Spacey. Literally.

If all goes well, the show, to be stage-managed by Wizcraft, will launch Mumbai’s homegrown stars into the global limelight. And if it doesn’t? Well, at least, it will give our stars a free, all-expenses-met jamboree to London. After all, it’s an offer few can resist, or will.

PRINCE’S WILD OATS
Accuse him of anything else under the hot April sun but this. MANOJ BAJPAI is yet to repeat himself on screen. Having first caught the eye as the cool as cucumber underworld don in Satya, he then played a righteous police officer in his next outing, and a salesman thereafter. Guess what he’s playing in Shyam Benegal’s soon-to-release Zubeida? A philandering prince.

The offer took Manoj by total surprise. "I’d thought one would have to look like a Greek god to play a prince. Obviously, not in a Shyam Benegal film," he smiles. Pitched between the likes of Rekha and Karisma Kapoor, Manoj plays a prince involved in an extramarital affair. And Manoj has more surprises up his sleeve, he plays an unemployed youth in Ghaath and a peppy mechanic who waits for his dreams to come true in the fun machine, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar.

If the offers turn out to be clones of any of his previous roles, down goes the Bajpai thumb without a second thought. As more than a dozen filmmakers found out, after they approached him with roles that smacked a little too much of Bhiku Mhatre, the don he played in Satya.
Manoj has no dearth for offers now, though he’s yet to be signed by any of the big banners, yet. The reason’s simple: "None of the established names approached me with the kind of roles Ram Gopal Verma keeps coming up with. When the new guys are offering me good money and meaty roles, tell me, why would I settle for less?" Good question, that.

BACK AT SQUARE ONE
Sanjay Kapoor’s back to running Prithvi Theatre. After her tryst with the Amul India Show on Star Plus, where she was replaced as hostess by another second generation Bollywood girl, Meghna (daughter of Gulzar and Raakhee), Sanjana’s back to terra firma, and Prithvi.
Call it the star’s regress, if you like. Coming at a time when other star progeny are plotting their way into the showbiz big time (like Kareena Kapoor, Vastavika Raaj Kumar or Moushumi Chatterjee’s daughter, Megha) or have already done so (a la Twinkle Khanna, Kajol or Hrithik Roshan) Sanjana’s a rarity. She’s back at square one. Plotting her next big move, or rather, awaiting her next big offer.

GUNNING FOR PLASTIC
Stars have their pet causes. And TARA DESHPANDE, sure, has hers. But hers is quite unlike those of Sunil Dutt, who dabbles in everything from relief work for those struck by natural calamities to cancer research, and the likes of Anupam Kher and Sunil Shetty, who work among the underprivileged children.

Tara, who also writes a fair bit of poetry, is a known crusader for environmental causes. She helps with the Bombay Forest Society’s waste disposal committee. You know, the "Shed plastic, use jute bags," routine. "Problems of the environment have intrigued me over the years," she confesses. “And jute, unlike plastic,, is bio-degradable."

Compliled by Shaju George Alex
With inputs from Anit Mukerjea and Salma Khatib