Kamli Saba

It’s been quite a while since the effervescent Saba Qamar was seen on the silver screen. By that we mean the last time we saw her impressing us with her acting skills in a movie was in the Bollywood production Hindi Medium with Irrfan Khan.

Now the gal has signed a movie titled Kamli which Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is both directing and producing. If all goes as planned, the film will be released on Eidul Fitr. Saba Q is uber excited about the venture, and has claimed that it’s going to be bigger than Hindi Medium. We believe you ‘kamli’.

Qavi Sahib’s wisdom

Nothing beats experience. During the press briefing on September 14 for an upcoming Pakistani film Gawah Rehna, written and directed by Tahir Mahmood, a journo asked seasoned artist Qavi Khan a question about India’s cultural influence in showbiz, to which Qavi sahib answered: “India who?” Exactly! This is the kind of attitude that we should have towards the entertainment industry from across the border.

Focus on your own industry, and your own artists guys. Why be apologetic?

Oscar Call

‘Well deserved’ is the phrase that comes to mind. The Pakistan Academy Selection Committee has chosen Laal Kabootar, directed by Kamal Khan, as the country’s submission for Oscar consideration in the ‘International Feature Film Award’ category for the 92nd Academy awards to be held in 2020. We feel that it is the best film, technically as well as content-wise, to have come out of Pakistan this year. Since laal means red and kabootar means pigeon, we wish team Laal Kabootar red-hot success and hope that their effort will not be pigeonholed by the Oscar jury.

Gigi Sued

If you think posting pictures on social media is a harmless activity, think again. On September 13, photographer Robert O’Neil filed a lawsuit against supermodel Gigi Hadid in a New York federal court for posting a photo on her Instagram story of her former boyfriend Zayn Malik.

According to the shutterbug, she did not seek his permission to do so which meant she infringed his exclusive rights as the copyright holder of the photo by “reproducing and publicly displaying it”. Wow! The question is: did Robert O take Zayn M’s permission before taking his picture?

The Age Factor

Meera is not given credit for her sagacity as often as she merits. When actress and model Iffat Omer on her YouTube show (three cheers for digital media!) asked the Lollywood star, who was her guest, about the age factor associated with the word Baaji (the name of the film directed by Saqib Malik), Meera replied that what really matters is the character that she’s playing in a movie and the art of acting, not the impression of age.

Spot on Meerajee! In fact, in certain cases even the art of acting doesn’t matter at all. Not in your case, of course.

Divorced

In April this year, singer par excellence Adele’s representative broke the news that she’s separating from her husband Simon Konecki. Well, on September 13 it became official that they’re no more husband and wife, as she filed for divorce in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The two were together for seven years. Sad.

From now on, whenever she sings the line ‘Hello from the other side’ from her most famous song Hello, we will know who she’s talking to.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 22nd, 2019