THE GRAPEVINE

Published August 22, 2021

She’s Back

After a little less than two months’ break from social media, singer Momina Mustehsan (who closed her Insta account on June 26) is back on her favourite networking space. It appears that the breather has made her wiser. Her comeback announcement note, among other things, carried the following message: “We all know the downside to social media, but the upside is that everyone has the opportunity to be heard and to tell their stories firsthand. The concept of the ‘other’ is shrinking. We are all the same, and not the same. Life is a big puzzle and we all hold different pieces to the larger picture. We all have little solutions to the bigger problem. We just need to be human together.” Yep Momina M, you’re right. And you fit nicely into the big puzzle as a lovely, melodious piece.

Not In Fraternity

If you’re a member of the Pakistani showbiz fraternity and want to get married to Rabia Butt, well, no chance. The reason we’re saying is that talking to Ahsan Khan on his talk show — in which she participated with Adnan Siddiqui — the actor and model said she wouldn’t tie the knot with a man from the industry, because she doesn’t even believe in making friends there [leave alone getting hitched]. Continuing with the argument, she claimed that people in the industry fall into the category between friends and strangers. Hmmm… these friengers!

Durdana Butt, Alas!

Seasoned actress Durdana Butt passed away on August 12 in Karachi. The 75-year-old had been battling cancer for a few years and had also recently contracted Covid. As an actress, she achieved nationwide fame after working in the iconic television drama series Aangan Terrha, penned by Anwar Maqsood in 1980. She played the character of Sultana, sister of Chaudhry Sahib (played by Arshad Mahmud), who has feelings for her neighbour Mahboob sahib (Shakeel) who is married to Jahan Ara (Bushra Ansari). Ms Butt worked in some other popular plays as well, the foremost of which was Tanhaiyaan written by Haseena Moin. May she rest in peace.

The Nazia Allegations

The most shocking news that grabbed the attention of showbiz lovers in the country last week was musician Zoheb Hassan’s statement about his legendary sister, pop star Nazia Hassan, who died of cancer in 2000. He claimed that her cancer had gone into remission and alleged that according to “Nazia’s own testimony”, it was her husband, Ishtiaq Baig, who had poisoned her to death. He also claimed that Nazia had got a divorce from her husband because he used to mistreat her. All of this was denied by Ishtiaq B and he gave his own arguments on why Zoheb H is levelling such serious accusations at him. He also announced he would sue Zoheb H for defamation. Since the matter is extremely sensitive, we wouldn’t like to comment on it. We can only hope that the truth will prevail.

Sibling Rivalry

Who doesn’t know that Meghan Markle’s father Thomas Markle and her half-sister Samantha don’t like her? Only her mother Doria seems to get along with the actress. Wait, her half-brother, the eldest sibling, Thomas Markle Jr is also no fan of hers. In one of the promos for the latest edition of the reality TV show Big Brother Australia VIP — in which he has been included — he can be seen badmouthing his celebrity sis, saying that he had warned Prince Harry prior to the royal wedding that she [Meghan] is going to “ruin his life”. Uff! The entire family seems to crave the spotlight and want to ride on the Duchess’ coattails.

Mother-in-Awe

We always had the inkling that Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra were an item — they’ve been spotted in a cozy mood with each other at high-end restaurants on a couple of occasions. Here’s confirmation of sorts. Recently, during a special screening of the film Shershaah (jingoistic, we might add) in which the two are working opposite each other, Kiara A was seen looking after her beau’s mother Rimma. She even had a picture taken with her, which went viral in cyber space. Now it’s Sidharth M’s turn to have a photo with her mother and… baat pakki.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 22nd, 2021

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