Barzakh It Is

Now we know what Asim Abbasi was up to all this while. The talented filmmaker has made a new web series titled Barzakh for Zee5. The project will have its international screening next month at the Series Mania Festival in France. And who are the cast members, in case anyone’s interested? Answer: it has Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed as the male and female protagonists. In case you’re wondering what barzakh means, well, one of its meanings is limbo, which the series now isn’t in.

Crew Mistreated

Recently, a film crew had a traumatic experience in Karachi’s PIB Colony when they were manhandled by a mob. As per director Nabeel Qureshi’s tweet, his cast (Hira Mani, Salman Saqib, Salma Zafar, among others) and he himself were ‘attacked, harassed and robbed’ by a mob while they were shooting a short film. The police are investigating the incident. It’s a sorry state of affairs. If the artist community cannot feel secure, that too while creating art, then there’s little hope for us to grow as a sensitive society.

Wedding Bells

On February 7, Bollywood’s young guns Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani tied the nuptial knot in a lavish ceremony that took place in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Both had been going out for a couple of years. Posting their pictures on social media, the couple wrote, “Ab humari permanent booking ho gayi hai [now we’re booked for life]. We seek your blessings and love on our journey ahead.” Congratulations to the pair! We wish them a happy married life… with no advance bookings.

Unbreakable Heart

Arooj Aftab has again done us proud by getting nominated for another Grammy for the song Udhero Na. When a journo asked her about it, she replied that the track has a 15-year history, explaining which she said: “Arooj then [15 years back] was a heartbroken teenager and I’m really thankful for having had that kind of sentiment that pushes you to pour out your feelings and write some soft, gentle, heavy metal beast you know, that has stood the test of time. And it’s still, apparently, a good song… a Grammy award winning or nominated song. And I’m still the same person, I’m emo, loving. I love heartbreak, I think sadness really is a pure and beautiful emotion and I channel that a lot in my music. So, it’s all going well, although, since I’m more mature, no one can break my heart now. But yeah, that’s the difference.” Hmmm… so happy songs are forthcoming?

Wish List

Harry Styles is riding the wave of success after winning the Grammy for album of the year (Harry’s House) and his single As It Was doing exceptionally well on the charts globally ever since it was released in 2022. To boot, when an interviewer asked Hilary Duff, who is these days playing the lead character in the hit sitcom How I Met Your Father, how would she like it if Harry S played her romantic partner on the show, she enthused: “Sure, my God, we’d love to have Harry Styles, right? That’d be dope.” She added that her four-year-old daughter would be excited to see him with her. Well, Hilary D, don’t raise your hopes, we’re telling you as it is.

Rickshaw Ride

In recent times, Indian actor Anupam Kher has revealed the political side to his personality, which is not very pleasing. It seems he has decided to be socially relevant as well. Last week, to avoid traffic, he took a rickshaw to get to Versova Beach in Mumbai, to take part in a beach cleaning drive alongside actress Nargis Fakhri. The campaign is initiated by an NGO. We appreciate his efforts but would also like him to think about cleaning and washing the bigotry that’s fast corrupting the fabric of Indian society.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 19th, 2023