Cool Compliment

Bilal Maqsood’s puppet show Pakkay Dost on YouTube has gained traction, justifiably so. There isn’t enough content on or about children these days, and in clean-as-a-whistle Urdu at that. Realising this fact, actress par excellence Sajal Aly has given the former member of Strings a big pat on his back: “Bilal Maqsood, you are doing a great job. Urdu is a beautiful language and it’s high time we stop running away from it. It was always cool. Let’s own it, celebrate it and make it even cooler!” How sweet is that! But let’s not translate the word ‘cool’ into Urdu. It might mean the opposite of what Sajal A is trying to suggest.

Shamoon Engaged!

On July 28, singer Shamoon Ismail broke, arguably, the most important news about his personal life. He is now an engaged man. However, his social media accounts did not completely reveal the face or the identity of the bride-to-be. He messaged his fans requesting them that, as he celebrates his special moment, no additional photos from the event be shared publicly. The vocalist went on to say that he sincerely values his privacy and truly appreciates “your understanding.” Well, Shamoon, we truly understand that you understand that we understand.

Dating Again

Sydney Sweeney is receiving flak from some people for doing a jeans’ advert whose tagline is “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans.” They are saying that the ad is implying her ‘white’ genes. But we’ve got another bit of news about her. Four months ago, the star of Euphoria broke her engagement with businessman Jonathan Davino. Last month, the actress was seen taking a jet ski joy ride with a man in Idaho. As she was driving it, a man was spotted sitting behind her with his arms romantically wrapped around Sydney S. By the time of filing this news item, his identity hadn’t been revealed. But we can say for certain that romance is in Sydney S’s genes.

It’s Just a Number

Actress Mariyam Nafees gave birth to her first child in March. She will now try and balance her professional and private lives in a different manner, she says. And it seems she has already worked out the private bit of the equation. She thinks you should have a total of two children. Her reason: “You are automatically raising your husband — he’s already a kid. But other than that, two kids are enough, a boy and a girl.” The question is: if she is raising the husband and the child, which child is being raised by the husband? Oh sorry, we get it, he’s a kid. He doesn’t have to do that.

Why It Failed

Bollywood A-lister Salman Khan and his fans received a terrible shock when his last film, Sikandar (released on March 28), tanked at the box office. Now the director of the movies, Murugadoss, has spoken up about it. He says he knows what works in his mother tongue, Tamil, but didn’t know much when he tried to make a Hindi film. He claims he also knows how to engage the youth by using “trending captions and dialogue on social media” and cannot do that in other languages. Who knew Salman K could be lost in translation!

Post Split

Ever since Jennifer Lopez broke up with Ben Affleck, she seems to have gone cuckoo. Her stage performances, in which she is openly talking about — and trying to simulate — her intimate life (with ex-husbands) have caused many an eyebrow to be raised. It has been reported that her 17-year-old twins, Max and Emme, aren’t happy about it either. The word ‘cringe’ has been used by the Western media to describe how they’re feeling vis-à-vis their mother’s latest shenanigans. Hmm… can one call this a new J-Low as far as the teenagers are concerned?

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 10th, 2025