Bappi Lahiri Dies

Celebrated Indian music composer Bappi Lahiri, considered the pioneer of disco music in his country, died on Feb 16 in Mumbai. Born Alokesh Lahiri, Bappi D was 69 and had multiple health concerns. He is known for the memorable music he composed for superhit films such as Disco Dancer, Dance Dance and Namak Halal. Occasionally, he also used his own voice as a playback singer and some of his tracks are so popular that their remixed versions appear every year or so. A couple of them are: Koi yahaan aaha naache and Pyaar bina chaen kahaan re. May he rest in peace.

CS Visuals

It is true that Season 14 of Coke Studio has so far come up with some outstanding, memorable songs. However, there is something that its producers might need to revisit — or not. The thing is, it is essentially a music show. So when you turn it into a visual-heavy venture (with camera movements that make it look like a music video programme) you, in a way, dilute its musical richness. Some of the videos have been very creative no doubt. But no creator of CS will want music to take a back seat, hai na?

Nuanced Performance

Dimpled doll Deepika Padukone’s latest film Gehraiyaan, directed by Shakun Batra, is about, among other things, infidelity. She’s being praised for her no-holds-barred performance because her work in the movie comes across as effortless. When the opinion of her hubby, actor Ranveer Singh, was sought as to how he felt about her acting in the movie, he replied it’s her most nuanced performance to date. Hmmm… Well that’s what we call respecting each other’s professionalism — with nuance.

Daughters’ Praise

Hollywood insiders say Nicole Kidman has a more than decent chance of winning the best actress Oscar this year for her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the film Being the Ricardos. According to the actress herself, when she received a face-time call while having breakfast with her daughters Sunday Rose (13) and Faith Margaret (11) telling her that she’s been nominated for an Oscar, she went all teary-eyed. Her little ones, however, responded in this way: “Wow, congratulations, mom. Anyway, we’re gonna be late, we gotta get going.” Nicole K, there’s a saying in Urdu, which roughly translates as ‘home-cooked chicken is no better than lentils.’

Waxed!

Actress Zendaya is going places. To prove our point, here’s the latest on her: London’s Madame Tussauds Museum now has a wax figure of the talented artist. Since she is loved all over the world, the moment the sculpture was unveiled, social media went bananas with comments whether it really resembled Zendaya. Most netizens believed that ‘she deserved better’. Come on guys! She is just 25 years of age and wafer thin. Give her some time to earn more money, which will get her an inflated ego. Then there will be no discrepancy between her actual look and her wax figure.

Friends Again?

One of the actors who appear on comedian Kapil Sharma’s TV talk show on a regular basis is Akshay Kumar. It seems he might not do that in the near future. Here’s why: in his last appearance on the programme, the actor was asked a question about his interview with Indian premier Narendra Modi, which he didn’t like and his staff requested Kapil S not to include that bit in the final edit. It happened just like that but the bit somehow reached social media and went viral. Akshay K didn’t approve of it, which led to rumours that he might not come to the show again. Last week, the comedian tweeted that he had talked with the Bollywood A-lister and things have been sorted out — he will make an appearance on the show to promote his upcoming film Bachchan Pandey. Well, we’re not sure, because we hear that the actor is just as short-tempered as his prime minister.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 20th, 2022