Soft Sunny

For action buffs, this might come as bad news. Last heard, Sunny Deol — Bollywood’s iconic one -man army with the proverbial short-fuse — had hit the greenroom for a total image makeover, trading in his lassi and sarson-da-saag-fuelled brawn for a more civil, urban, mousse-and-gel look. The reason? Well, the rise of the multiplex. The grapevine has it that Deol, starved of hits within city limits, has finally decided to bid his rustic angst goodbye and settle for that smatter of sophistication that makes the multiplexes tick. Every dog must have his Deol, we suppose.

All that jazz

They call it modal jazz. Unlike conventional music, it uses musical modes rather than chord progressions to span itself out, in a way similar to Indian classical music. So when the two unite, can anything less than a miracle be expected? The Indian Core, a new fusion album between a host of Indian classical instrumentalists and the Norwegian jazz band, The Core, attempts to answer precisely that question. “We were touring Norway when we came in touch with The Core, and it did not take us much time to come up with our own music. In fact, we did 11 very successful concerts in Norway,” says Kanchman Babbar, Indian classical flautist. Apart from Babbar, other Indians in the album include sitarist Fateh Ali and Prasenjit Mitra on the tabla, who play seamlessly with the piano, bass and saxophone used by the Norwegians.

Guru gab

Trust these journalists to sniff stories within stories. Hear it from veteran magazine editor Sathya Saran, who has just penned off a brand-new book called Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi’s Journey, which recounts the explosive life and times of Bollywood legend Guru Dutt through the voice of Abrar Alvi, Dutt’s one-time-chaperon-turned master scriptwriter, due for release soon. “I read an article in The Indian Express on Abrar’s memories of his days with Guru Dutt, and at the end of the story was a challenge to writers, that if someone had the time and the inclination, Abrar had many stories to tell,” says Saran. While others simply ignored the challenge, she decided to take it up. And the result, as publisher Penguin puts it, is “an intimate account of the ecstasy and agony that marked the making of some of the enduring classics of Indian cinema”. Now, to those of you who also happened to read the article but simply chose to fold away the papers for the raddiwala’s benefit — go bite your fists.

Real to reel

Stars hunt in pairs again. Kareena Kapoor is said to have signed a new film with beau Saif Ali Khan. This comes soon after Jugal Hansraj’s animation film, Roadside Romeo, for which they have lent their voices. The double whammy follows the headache-inducing, super-duper no-show of Tashan. The two had shared on-screen space in Omkara earlier, but haven’t rocked cinemas together yet. It’s learnt that Saif — who is currently shooting in London for an Imtiaz Ali film — was glad to land the offer from Ashtvinayak productions. The producers promise that it is going to be “a cool, sexy” film. With a cool Saif and a sexy Kareena, how can they go wrong?

Two’s company

T’s the word for Aamir Khan. The actor has a special thing going with T series, the music company. And all for emotional reasons. His music has been marketed in association with Bhushan Kumar, whose company T-Series has held the audio rights to his films. It all started with Khan’s debut film, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak — released exactly 20 years ago. It catapulted him to stardom, and gave a boost to the T-Series music label. Then came Aamir’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par — and the relationship continued. “The debut coincidence doesn’t end here. The outstanding music of A.R. Rahman for the new Aamir Khan produced film Jaane Tu … Ya Jaane Na, too is with T-Series,” an insider points out. Call it coincidence, or a matter of faith, but Khan is clearly not going to break with T-Series. The relationship apparently continues with his next big film Ghajini. That’s music to some ears.