Ten more years

Listen to the beautiful Babra Sharif. It has taken her a while to give a statement on the so-called revival of Pakistani cinema theory but, man, she has spoken. The yesteryear heartthrob believes that Pakistani cinema needs 10 more years to reach the position (she used the word urooj which means pinnacle) that our film industry enjoyed in the past.

She doesn’t sound particularly optimistic about the current state of the industry because she thinks it is difficult to revive the old glory of the country’s cinema business. Leaving aside the question of the actual quality of that old glory, Babra ji, can you please bring down the number from 10 to, let’s say, two or three? You know, a decade down the line, you might be a tad too old to enjoy the revival.

Meera sings Celine

To be honest Meera sounded so cute when she sang the famous Titanic song My Heart Will Go On at a private gathering, which was video-recorded by someone and subsequently put up on social media. No idea what the fuss that people made afterwards was all about.

Okay, she may have gone horribly off-tune but as for the rest, you sing a song in your accent or with intonations that come natural to you. You can’t fake it. And those making fun of her accent, well let’s hear their Urdu or Punjabi or whatever accents.

Well done, Meera! Next time try a Nirvana song, preferably Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Confession

Hold it, big boy! She’s a married woman, and the daughter-in-law of one of the most powerful men in Bollywood. The message is for Akshay Khanna who doesn’t do many films or interviews. But whenever he does (do a film or give an interview), he attracts attention.

Recently while plugging his latest film Ittefaq on a TV talk show, he was asked about the sexiest girl in showbiz. Pat came the reply: Aishwarya Rai. He didn’t stop there. He told the host of the programme that he can’t take his eyes off Ash every time he meets her.

Mr Akshay K, the next time you meet Abhishek Bachchan, chances are he won’t be able to take his eyes off of you.

His lady luck

Full marks to cricketer Virat Kohli for crediting his girlfriend Anushka Sharma for mentoring him about life and making him wiser than he was prior to meeting her.

In his latest interview, the captain of the Indian cricket team has called the Bollywood actress his lady luck, adding he had no brains before and, ever since she came into his life, she’s taught him a lot of things, making him more sensible and patient. Cool!

So, all you admirers of Virat K, from now on whenever he plays a reckless shot and gets out early in the innings, remember, it will mean he has flashbacked into his pre-Anushka period!

Engaged Gaga

She is wacky, eccentric and bold. One would have expected Lady Gaga to get engaged to her boyfriend Christian Carino, an agent at Creative Arts Agency, in an unconventional manner. Not to be.

It turns out that since February, Christian C has been spending a great deal of time with Lady G’s family and when he felt that they had reached a certain level of comfort with him, he asked Lady G’s father for his blessings to propose to her. The father did give his blessings and now he is engaged to the pop star.

Hmmm … seems like a bit of Yash Chopra makes everyone go Gaga.

The name changer

There he goes again. The rapper formerly known as Puff Daddy — then Puffy, then P Diddy, then Sean Diddy Combs — has once again decided to change his name. What is it? Well, it’s ‘Love’ aka ‘Brother Love’.

P Diddy, sorry Love, made this announcement in a video on his 48th birthday. Though the name Love is not something that should befuddle music lovers, it’s the aka Brother which is causing a bit of confusion, especially to his female fans.

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 12th, 2017