Pageant passion
There are models and then there are models. A lesser known ramp-walker from Lahore Madeeha Naseer (aka Diya Ali) is making quite a few waves for deciding to take part in the second edition of Miss and Mister World International 2017 to be held next month in Prizren, Kosovo (there is an ‘and’ between Miss and Mister, so don’t get confused).
In the beginning of this year, she participated in the Miss Asia Pacific International pageant where she was declared Miss Perpetual. Cool! The strange thing about her quiet strides towards fame is that her snobbish colleagues in her own country don’t seem to care much about it. Shouldn’t they be supportive of her? Oh, perhaps she’s not la-di-da enough for their liking.
Swimming with sharks
This is the power of social media. Intelligent people use it symbolically as well, like the scrumptious Katrina Kaif does. June 8 was World Oceans Day. Apparently to mark the day, the actress posted a not-so-old video on the internet of hers in which she’s seen swimming alongside a whale shark, which went super viral in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
No, don’t get wrong ideas. Try and understand this. She wasn’t trying to show how good a swimmer she is: she was merely suggesting that to work in Bollywood is like swimming with sharks. Dig!
Jab Harry Met Sejal
In case you are thinking Sejal is a variation on the name of our talented Pakistani actress Sajal, well, no. Jab Harry Met Sejal is the title of Imtiaz Ali’s much-awaited upcoming film, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, whose poster has finally been released. And the poster looks good. A little bit of trivia about the title is that it was suggested by none other than Ranbir Kapoor.
According to SRK, Ranbir had come up with the name When Harry Met Sejal, but Karan Johar changed ‘when’ to ‘jab’ to impart a more Imtiaz Ali feel to the project (ala Jab We Met). Initially, Imtiaz didn’t like the idea, but later it grew on the entire cast and crew of the movie and they decided to keep it. Another thing that SRK has clarified is that the film’s story is not even close to the Hollywood classic When Harry Met Sally.
Our best wishes for the movie. We hope it does well at the box office, otherwise the public might remember its title as When Flip Met Flop or Jab We Tanked.
Sehri smile
One of the funniest men in the world Saad Haroon is back, and this time round he can be heard on CityFM89 cracking jokes and making laughter-eliciting comments on society’s shortcomings. On June 10, Saad H hosted a rib-tickling programme in Karachi’s PACC auditorium which began late in the evening and continued till Sehri time — hence it was called Smile Till Sehri.
The country’s foremost comedians such as Danish Ali, Akbar Chaudhry, LOL Waaley and Khawatoons among others featured in the charity comedy marathon and gave sparkling performances. Well done you funny people. Keep making us smile.
Art doesn’t die, artists do
It is such a cerebral delight striking up a conversation with eminent qawwal Farid Ayaz. He is knowledgeable, wise and talented. On June 11, the maestro performed in Karachi in front of a large audience, where this writer had a brief tete-a-tete with him. When his opinion was sought on some people’s assertion that eastern classical music is a dying art, unlike qawwali which seems to be in safe hands.
He responded: “Art never dies, artists do.”
Expanding on this he said the artist should have enough passion in him to do well in his chosen field of art. And then it’s society’s job to create conditions where art and artists can flourish.
Farid A is spot on. Sadly, our society doesn’t do that.
Published in Dawn, ICON, June 18th, 2017
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