THE GRAPEVINE

Published March 7, 2021

Not Harassed

Actor Azfar Rehman created quite a stir in the world of social media when he, during a recently relayed interview, talked about the #MeToo movement, and suggested that in his showbiz career he was harassed by female co-actors. People immediately began to guess who those actresses could be, but it did not take him long to clear the air by suggesting that he wasn’t ‘sexually’ harassed. “The harassment I faced was all about power play, clanning, humiliation and bullying…” Interesting clarification, because sexual harassment also carries more or less the same elements.

The Uninvited

People like to make mountains out of molehills. A good example is the Yasir Hussain-Nausheen Shah spat, in which the former actor said to a TV host that the latter actor came to his wedding uninvited. Why argue about such a frivolous thing? But that’s the nature of the beast we call celebrity. Whatever they do, whatever they say, and if it’s caught by the ever-prying eyes of their admirers, it becomes news. The best way to avoid such pointless punch-ups, if celebs really want to do that, is not to react to the comments that follow an event. Ah, but then what would actors be if they can’t react ...

Audience Obligations

Janhvi Kapoor is turning out to be a young girl with a real mature head on her shoulders. She has begun to openly talk about matters that many do way later in their careers. Here’s a piece of evidence. The actress says, perhaps indirectly addressing her colleagues, that the “audience is not obligated to love you… you have to give them reasons to love you.” Spot on, gal! It’s time you started giving some acting reasons, too.

Justice Bieber

On Feb 26, pop star Justin Bieber announced on Instagram that he’s come out with a new album called Justice. He shared an image of the album cover. Describing the effort, he wrote, “In creating this album, my goal is to make music that will provide comfort, to make songs that people can relate to and connect to so they feel less alone. Suffering, injustice and pain can leave people feeling helpless. Music is a great way of reminding each other that we aren’t alone. Music can be a way to relate to one another and connect with one another.” Responding to her hubby’s profound post, his wife Hailey wrote, “Yay baby!” For sure, she’s not feeling lonely.

Comedy Queen

A few adjectives come to mind when we think of Kangana Ranaut: talkative, garrulous, loquacious. Well, they are synonyms, all of which mean a person who yaps a lot. Nothing wrong with that. The problem with her, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde’s words, is that she talks a lot and says rather less. Check out the latest statement, in which Kangana R has claimed that she’s the only actress after Sridevi to try comedy. What? Oh, that’s right — what Kareena Kapoor did in Golmaal or Deepika Padukone in Chennai Express was an emulation of Mother India.

Sajid Recovers

Last week seasoned TV and theatre actor Sajid Hasan (Dhoop Kinaray) was admitted to a hospital in Karachi for a coronary artery bypass grafting procedure which was, thankfully, successfully done. One of the actor’s close friends posted a picture of him on Facebook, saying he was doing fine and needs prayers for a speedy and complete recovery. We sincerely hope and pray that Sajid H recuperates soon and returns to the world of theatre and television, where he has been entertaining and impressing his fans for more than three decades.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 7th, 2021

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