Blues power
After Saif Ali Khan, it’s now Gen X Congress MP Milind Deora’s turn to earn a reputation as a man who could make a living from playing the guitar, just in case he happens to lose his regular job. Want proof? Ask those 100-odd people who had gathered last weekend at The Haze — a south Delhi club patronising the Blues — for an evening of live music played by the Mumbai-based band Beatroot. Deora, who happened to be present in the gathering, came on stage, borrowed a guitar from the band and jammed with them late into the night, his skills causing several jaws to drop around the house. The best riff of the evening? The searing one from Blues at Sunrise, an Albert King classic that fans swear by to this day. “What a nice way to canvass for votes,” someone was heard quipping. Or was he merely pulling strings?
Double take
SRK is a busy man these days. So busy that he actually lets his dummy fill in for him when he can’t make it to an event in person. Only a few days ago, in the teeming Trafalgar Square in London, a group of svelte Bollywood dancers was seen gyrating around a life-size waxwork of King Khan, borrowed from the Madame Tussaud’s museum for an occasion announcing the world premiere of King Khan’s latest celluloid venture Chak De India, where he plays a hockey coach. But given the film’s London show was part of the ongoing India Now festival celebrating England’s connections with India, the star couldn’t have remained so far from the action, could he? So he presented himself in full glory at the actual premiere on Thursday, and went on to introduce the screening before a sell-out audience. The man should take care — his dummy may soon replace him in films. And, sadly, no one would know the difference.
Swiss sojourn
He made a feature film on a shoe-string budget, digging into his scholarship and borrowing from friends when it didn’t prove to be enough. Then, he managed to take it all the way to the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. And Calcutta film-maker Ashish Avikunthak, 35 and shooting, simply can’t stop rejoicing. “I am happy that my film was selected for the festival and got a discerning audience,” he says about Nirakar Chhaya, made with a little help from his friends from the FTII, Pune, and Calcutta over three years. The film, incidentally, was the sole Bengali production and the second Indian film to have made it to Locarno this year. “I now hope that a distributor is interested in the film, so I can raise money for my next project,” says Avikunthak. That’s called drive.
Fooled ya!
Pooja Bhatt’s new film Dhokha, we hear, is about to pop off the assembly line any minute now. Based on the story of a police officer who loses his wife in a bomb blast, and then digs deeper into the case only to know that his departed sweetheart was indeed the suicide bomber, the film reportedly revolves around the theme of people waking up one morning to realise that life has pulled a real fast one on them. But while the rest of us have to wait for the movie’s release to find out more, one singer from Delhi swears he’s been zapped already, by none other than the film’s music director M.M. Kreem. An otherwise versatile singer, the musician swears he gave close to a million retakes for the title track, but simply couldn’t belt out the phrase ‘Dhokha! Dhokha! Dhokha’ in the way Kreem wanted it. Finally, he just had to hang up those headphones and catch a flight back to the capital. But does that mean the film will eventually be released without a title track? Dhokha! Dhokha! Dhokha!
Dutt once more
Fourteen years after his death, Calcutta is remembering Utpal Dutt again. A museum at the newly-renovated Minerva Theatre is scheduled to be thrown open to the public in the last week of September, to honour both the legendary thespian and his long association with the century-old show house. Memorabilia from Dutt’s personal collection, including his costumes, sets, pictures and books, apart from other material closely associated with Dutt’s theatre days and films are set to go up for display. “I am also being helped by the set designers and photographers who were associated with my husband,” says actress Sova Sen, who is chipping in with more material from her personal collection. Hats off!
