Lame Excuse Lyricist

After a strong reaction from the Pakistani showbiz fraternity and social media users to Indian lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar’s ‘hellish’ statement, he gave another interview to save face… but couldn’t. In response to our very own actress Bushra Ansari’s reminder that Javed A’s wife Shabana Azmi couldn’t get an apartment in Mumbai because she is a Muslim, the geet kaar said the owners of that flat were Sindhi migrants who had been forced out of their homeland during the partition of India, hence their bitterness was justified. Javed A, please find another hook to hang your Uncle Tom cap on — India’s Punjab province, to name just one, is full of migrants. They don’t do such things there, do they!

The Praise

Farhan Saeed is playing the male lead in a web series, Shamsher, based on the national sport of Pakistan, field hockey. In the same spirit, the actor-cum-vocalist felt super happy when recently Pakistan’s Sybil Sohail won the gold medal at the Asian Weightlifting Masters Championship in Doha, Qatar. Tagging the athlete on his Insta page, he exclaimed, “Proud moment, congratulations!” Indeed, and we are proud of Sybil S, too. But we’re waiting for Farhan S to show us that he can convincingly lift the weight as a hockey player in the series. Dribble and dodge us.

Fake Exclusive

On May 31, Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood turned 95. Happy belated birthday! The actor and Oscar-winning director’s mood was ruined prior to his birthday when he found out that an Austrian newspaper, Kurier, had published a fake “exclusive” interview of his on his big day. In a statement, he clarified, “A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news. I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I’ve turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phoney.” The newspaper later said it was severing ties with the reporter, since the quotes were from previous roundtable discussions and were wrongly packaged as an exclusive. Clint E, sir, don’t mind, as you know there’s the good, the bad and the ugly!

Meta Rapped

Eminem isn’t just a no-holds-barred musician. He is also unafraid of taking on giants when it comes to their illegally stepping into his creative space. On May 30, as was reported a few days later, the rapper filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms [Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp] accusing it of copyright infringement and looking for $109m in damages. According to him, the media giant violated the copyright of 243 of his songs through unauthorised storage, reproduction and exploitation. He goes on to say that certain features of the three apps encourage its users to steal his music without proper attribution or licence. Brother Eminem, now that’s a rap on the meta knuckles!

Another Shameful Incident

The murder of the 17-year-old TikToker Sana Yousaf in Islamabad has again brought the issue of toxic masculinity to the fore. Just imagine, she was only 17. A girl who hadn’t even properly begun life’s journey and her journey was brought to a grinding halt by a heartless young man. Yes, heartless is the right word here because, apparently, the murder took place because Sana Y wasn’t interested in the killer’s romantic gestures. And romance has to do with the heart. If your heart is not into something, just don’t do it. Some people can’t understand that. No means no.

Jan’s Back

The iconic 1981 film Umrao Jan starring Rekha, based on an Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa and directed by Muzaffar Ali, is all set to hit the cinema screens once again on June 27… with a difference. This time round, the cine-goers will get to see it in a 4K restoration. What is that, some might ask. Well, it means better visuals with a horizontal resolution of 4,000 pixels. Wonders of technology! That said, at the end of the day it’s the way a story is told that counts, not better resolution. Still, not a bad idea to watch ‘In aankhon ki masti’ in horizontal resolution of 4,000 pixels!

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 15, 2025