PSL 7 Anthem

This year’s PSL anthem Aagay Dekh, sung and performed by Atif Aslam, Aima Baig and Abdullah Siddiqui, is a cool track, make no mistake. We don’t know why some people are making a fuss about it (well, okay, some people make a fuss every year). It’s groovy, it has a foot-tapping beat and a melody that is as contemporary as it gets. We bet everyone will be humming it soon. A job well done by those who wrote and composed it! And for all the naysayers out there, we can only say, aagay dekh…

Age Factor

What’s wrong with people? Someone on Twitter claimed that Aijazz Aslam is 61 years old — which was in the context of how some showbiz celebs (Humayun Saeed, Mahnoor Baloch etc) look younger than their actual ages. The actor, denying the claim, was quick to respond, “Ageism is ugly for both men and women in our industry and, although these attempts to quote the wrong age for me are silly, why should anyone be defined by their age? Especially in 2022… is this what we are reduced to now?” Sadly, Aijazz A, it’s an age-old issue.

The Return

King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan took a break from cyberspace after his son Aryan was arrested in a case involving drugs. Now that the dust has settled, on January 20, after a gap of four months, SRK returned to Instagram by posting a TV advertisement that he’s recently done, which also features his wife Gauri. It’s a slick advert, in which the couple is seen enjoying the comforts of a luxurious life. Hmmm… Since his films have stopped doing well at the box office, it seems SRK will now have to bank on these adverts to enjoy as much luxury as he can.

Sweet Spot

Twinkle Khanna, despite having left acting as a profession decades ago, knows how to remain relevant with the media. She first began writing biting columns for newspapers, then published books and now has a vibrant social media presence, which she keeps using to her advantage by doing interesting things. Last week, the former actress put out a video on Instagram in which she’s seen singing the film song Mera dil bhi kitna pagal hai to a plateful of laddus, suggesting she wants to eat sweets but can’t because she’s diet-conscious. Tell you what girl, you are beysura and can’t sing to save your life, too. Be conscious of that as well, please.

Mommy Issues

Dakota Johnson is one of the hottest showbiz gals in the world, and yet she doesn’t use the internet that much. Her mother, actress Melanie Griffith, does. And the daughter doesn’t like it. Why? Well, mom keeps putting up pictures of her offspring from the time when she was not even a teenager. Talking to James Corden on his talk show, Dakota J said, “I don’t like it, but I also don’t go on social media, so I don’t find out about it until it’s really baked into the internet, and somebody will send it to me like, ‘Oh, you were so ugly — or you were so cute — when you had braces and a slicked back ponytail. I become like a 12-year-old and I’m like, ‘Mom, you can’t do that. We’ve had this conversation so many times’! She doesn’t care.” Dakota J, some daughters do have ’em!

Going Out

Now that’s how you keep a relationship under the hat from the prying eyes of journos! It has been revealed that comedian Bill Hader (of SNL fame) and actress Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) have been going out for more than a year, and no one knew about it! Both starred in a 2019 movie Noelle. It was a year after that film that they began dating. Bill H (43) has three daughters from his marriage to director Maggie Carey which ended in 2018, and Anna K (36) dated British filmmaker Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) for four years — 2009 to 2013. Well, their love story doesn’t sound pitch perfect, but we wish them well.

Published in Dawn, ICON, January 30th, 2022