Award for Khalid

Seasoned TV and theatre actor Khalid Ahmed has won the best actor award at the Harlem Film Festival in New York for his role in the Sakina Samo-directed Intizar. Sakina S announced the good news on her Insta page. Khalid A’s response to the news was pretty interesting. He told a journo it’s for the first time ever that he’s won an award for acting, meaning that, before this, he hadn’t got any such recognition even in his own country. Well, sir, we can’t Intizar to see what all the fuss is about and, let’s just say, may you win many more.

Sonu-Sajjad Camaraderie

Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam already has a huge fan base in Pakistan. He recently increased that further by praising the eight-year-old vocalist from Lahore, Hadia, and didn’t stop there. Last week he shared a picture with his admirers taken in March in which he is seen with our very own Sajjad Ali. The kind of lavish praise that he has showered on the Chief Saab singer can only come straight from the heart. This goes to show that, while politicians will keep creating hurdles in the way of bonhomie, artists will keep removing them with love… and sureela pun.

It’s a Girl!

On Sept 23, pop star Zayn Malik and supermodel Gigi Hadid became the proud parents of a baby girl. The father took no time in letting the world know about it on Twitter, and the mother shared a black-and-white picture of the newborn. It seemed that fatherhood immediately added a few ounces of wisdom to Zayn M as he commented, “The love I feel for this tiny human is beyond my understanding.” Congratulations you two! Time for daddy dear to write and compose some nursery rhymes instead of those mushy romantic numbers!

Dazed and Confused

The Sushant Singh Rajput suicide (or murder) case is taking one strange turn after another. On September 26, Bollywood A-lister Deepika Padukone went to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) where she was questioned about a drugs’ usage case, that is somehow born out of Sushant’s death. Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan were also supposed to visit the same office that day. To be honest, if the investigation carries on like this, goaded by rightwing media, then more than half of the Indian film industry might have to answer questions they thought they’d never be asked. To be honest, Indian media these days can leave anyone dazed and confused.

Mariah Memoir

Mariah Carrey has published her memoir The Meaning of Mariah. People are already calling it her best work. Co-written with journalist Michaela Angela Davis, it is a no-holds-barred account of her life, in which she has unmasked quite a few people that have come into her life. Giving an interview to none other than Oprah Winfrey, the pop icon claimed she wouldn’t have penned her thoughts down if some people hadn’t treated her like an “ATM machine with a wig”. Right on, girl! Tell those leeches that you don’t wear a wig… and let your hair down.

Crazy Cricket

Talk about much ado about nothing. Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was recently hauled over the coals on Indian social media for something he never even said. During an IPL match, Sunil G made a comment about the lack of proper practice IPL cricketers were facing because of the Covid-19 lockdowns. He pointed out how even Virat Kohli was not able to do anything except practice at home, referencing a video that had gone viral in which the Indian captain is seen playing cricket at home with his actor wife Anuskha Sharma. For some unknown reason Anushka S took it as an attack on her. “Mr Gavaskar [that] your message is distasteful is a fact,” she immediately tweeted, “but I would love for you to explain why you thought of making such a sweeping statement on a wife accusing her for her husband’s game?” Say what? Then her fans went wild, with some even suggesting that Sunil G be removed from the commentary team. The whole thing left us bewildered. For his part, Sunil G — gentleman that he is — simply asked for people to actually listen to his words before making accusations. Everything’s not about you, Anushka S.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 4th, 2020