Come together

So what’s common between Mallika Sarabhai and Geet Sethi? On the face of it, nothing — for one’s a dancer-choreographer, the other a billiards champ. But the two have come together — along with a host of artists, writers and others — to make an appeal against hatred. The “Secular Voices” CD, launched by Delhi’s social group ANHAD, is an answer to the political hate campaigns that have marked the run up to the Uttar Pradesh elections. Sarabhai, Sethi, artist Vivan Sundaram and several others call for an end to hatred in the CD. But is anybody listening?

Chopper chap

In reel life, Rajnikant beats the baddies seven in one blow. Off-screen, Tamil Nadu’s ageless superstar is as resourceful. The 58-year-old’s much awaited film Sivaji: The Boss is set to hit the theatres next month. And the Rajnikant fan club — reportedly with the star’s blessings — is coming up with ingenious ways to fan the hysteria around the film. Publicists plan to make the movie’s prints drop from the heavens — a chopper will land on a Chennai theatre carrying the prints. A song in the film holds that the hero can turn Tamil Nadu into America. And why not? After all, he can light a cigarette with a pistol in mid-air.

Bharat Inc

Bimal Jalan may remember his words at another book launch. “Maybe after this we should go to Ghungroo and dance,” the Rajya Sabha MP and former Reserve Bank of India governor joked when he presided over the launch of a book by the former chief economic advisor, Shankar Acharya — called Can India Grow Without Bharat? — in the very un-Bharat environment of ITC Maurya Sheraton’s pub, Dublin. Jalan, of course, was referring to a popular discotheque in the hotel. His publishers, Penguin, didn’t quite organise a disc for the launch of his own book, India’s Politics: A view from the backbench, earlier this week. They, however, decided to make it tech savvy. An entertaining and stimulating panel discussion was preceded by a two-and-a-half minute audio-visual presentation on the book. It started with headlines about unruly MPs, and then went into the key points the book makes. The film was prepared for the trade because the book was difficult to summarise. So positive was the response that Penguin decided to use it at the launch. So now you’ve seen everything!

Encore, encore

Mahabharata’s Draupadi still rules, long years after the telly series went off the air. Actress Roopa Ganguly is now all set for a new venture. After making a comeback on Hindi television in Karam Apna Apna, the latest buzz is that she is now ready to act in a film named Kasturi — where she is to play the role of a middle class bahu who rebels against her family. Roopa, clearly, is moving from one daughter-in-law’s role to another. The good news, of course, is that this one rebels!

Boy wonder

If you can’t sing, you can always sing. Or so goes the mantra of America’s latest bug-bear after Osama Bin Laden — a 17-year-old Bengali-Italian boy called Sanjaya Malakar. Those who have been watching American Idol, a popular Fox show on television, would know that the lanky young boy with curious hair has been thumbing his nose, week after week, at those who like their music. Sanjaya, who can’t sing for toffee, has been voted right back into the show every week despite caustic — and sometimes downright rude — comments by its panel of judges. This week, too, Sanjaya — after singing Besame Mucho in a quivering voice — was voted back. His vocal cords have incited a telly viewer to go on a hunger strike and a website called votefortheworst to root for him. But Sanjaya is cool. “If you couldn’t sing, which talent would you most like to have,” he was asked in the Idol’s website. “Singing,” he replied. That’s why he’s been getting an aye for an aye.