Kahi Ankahi

The rumour that theatre director Dawar Mehmood and actress Amna Ilyas are romantically involved — some even suggest that they’ve tied the knot — is rife. If they have indeed tied the knot, we congratulate them; and if they haven’t or aren’t even an item, then we’d like to tell the media to back off. What we would like to talk about though is the opening date of Dawar M’s play Ankahi, starring Amna I among others, which seems to be getting pushed farther and farther down the line. The production has been on the anvil for quite some time and was supposed to open this month — we hope the rumours that lack of sponsorship scuttled plans are, at least, not true.

Pakistani Netflix

Make no mistake: it’s good news. Don’t think otherwise. Federal Minister of Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain’s announcement that Pakistan will soon launch its own OTT (Over The Top, i.e. streaming) service, ala Netflix, has been received with some unwarranted comments. The fact of the matter is that, first and foremost, it’s an attempt to harmonise ourselves with the rest of the world in terms of new forms of entertainment delivery. Yes, there is the issue of ‘policy guidelines’, which Fawad C said are still to be worked out regarding the kind of content that will be allowed on it. But if the minister is smart enough to come up with such a worthwhile idea, then he should also be thinking about how not to mar it with unnecessary censorial instructions.

Roll of Dice?

Ludo, directed by Anurag Basu, is one of the most eagerly awaited Indian movies on Netflix. Its cast includes Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Bachchan, Rajkumar Rao, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sonya Malhotra. When asked by a journo about the casting process, Anurag B said that everyone in the film was his first choice. Hmmm… interesting. Even Abhishek B? Or, since it’s the game of ludo that is the subject of the story, was it a roll of the dice thingy that got him the part?

Dress Stealer

Ever heard of someone stealing their husband’s clothes? Well, Priyanka Chopra does that. Participating in the online challenge How it started and how it’s going, the BoHollywood actress uploaded a photo of her better half Nick Jonas sporting a white dress and, on the split screen, there’s her own picture in the same set of clothes. To make things more obvious, as if it were needed, she underlined the images with the caption, “Love stealing your clothes Nick.” Folks, this proves love has two stages: heart stealing and clothes stealing.

Can’t Believe

On October 23, Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Reynolds celebrated his 44th birthday. But instead of cutting a cake, he ate pie. Yep. This everybody got to know when his wife, the lovely Blake Lively, posted a happy birthday message for hubby dear with the complaint, “Who is the lost soul that selects birthday pie, and what animal eats their cake (pie) without first blowing out the candles?” She added, “I can’t believe we’re still married.” Blake L, we, too, can’t believe it.

Rahman and BTS

Here’s another endorsement that K-Pop is getting bigger and bigger by the day. Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman, in a recent interview to a TV news channel, has said that Indian artists should look at the South Korean pop band BTS for “the way they market their music.” He argued that the group is an “example of how an artist from a different market can gain success on a global stage because barriers these days are not as strong as before.” Spot on, sir! But barriers is something that India seems to believe in when it comes to art. You may be singing the wrong tune here.

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 1st, 2020