MADEEHA GAUHAR, ALAS!

Eminent theatre and TV artist Madeeha Gauhar passed away in Lahore on April 25. She was 61. Brave and bold, just like the plays she produced and acted in on stage, she valiantly battled with cancer for three years. She was the founding member of the critically acclaimed Ajoka Theatre, a platform from which she and her husband Shahid Nadeem, who directs Ajoka’s productions, managed to put up contextually rich and daring plays such as Dara, Toba Tek Singh and Lo Phir Basant Ayee. Madeeha also acted in quite a few TV plays and her performance in the drama series Neeley Hath was particularly appreciated. May she rest in peace.

SABA’S CHINESE CELEBRATIONS

It is sad that the effervescent Saba Qamar is not doing any cross-border or international projects at the moment because the one film that she did last year in India, Hindi Medium, is doing roaring business worldwide.

In fact, it has now become one of the highest grossing Bollywood films in China, earning 205 crore rupees at the box office in three weeks. Take that, you who oppose Pakistani artists working in India!

PLAGIARISM IN OCTOBER

Oh no, if it’s true, then it’s more tragic than the story of the film itself. Director Shoojit Sircar’s October, starring Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu, has been garnering rave reviews, even from the harshest of critics, ever since it was released.

On April 20, however, Marathi film director Hemal Trivedi accused the makers of October of plagiarism.

He said the plot has been copied from a 2017 Marathi movie Aarti — The Unknown Love Story helmed by Sarika Mene. Aarti is inspired by the events that took place in the life of Sarika M’s brother, whose girlfriend had to face the same situation as the female protagonist in October.

In response, a statement from Shoojit S’s team said, “We have full faith in our work and in our team. We have not heard of the film Aarti … We will look into this and deal with it appropriately.” Who’s right, who’s not, we can’t say. What we can say is that now October sounds more like The Winter of Our Discontent.

#MEERATOO

Folks, in case you are still thinking about the Meesha Shafi-Ali Zafar story and similar stories that haven’t come out yet, well, worry not: our very own Meera, ever with her fingers on the pulse of the nation, has decided to write a book on sexual harassment faced by girls in the film industry. 

According to a news report, she will reveal in the book all those names that have, in her 20-year career, either harrassed the actress or tried to blackmail her. She says the names that she’s going to give in the book do not just belong to the showbiz community, but outside of it as well. Safe to say, if it ever comes about, this will be a big, fat tome.

SLEEP-DEPRIVED BURGLAR

The word weird doesn’t even begin to describe this. Last week, a man by the name of Roger Alvarado was arrested by the police for breaking into pop star Taylor Swift’s New York apartment. 

Apparently, it was an act of burglary. But what made it more bizarre was the fact that after getting into the apartment, Roger A even took a shower and then dozed off on the singer’s bed. Taylor S, by the way, was out of town. His defence probably will be Look What You Made Me Do. Taylor will, no doubt, Shake It Off …

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 29th, 2018