Editor’s cut

Namrata Rao is quietly relishing her national award for editing Kahaani. But the talented 30-something film editor says life has not changed after the award. Except that since it is “one of the biggest notes of appreciation”, it gives you a bit more recognition. Rao, an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India, who got her break with Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and shot into the big league when Maneesh Sharma’s Band Bajaa Baraat became a hit, is part of the new brat pack of Bollywood. So what’s her dream project? “I want to do different kinds of films, with different voices and worlds. Nothing excites me more than new stories and ideas.” Well, Bollywood could certainly do with that!

High on Honey

He may have been lambasted at home for being a sexist pig, but it seems Honey Singh hasn’t lost his mojo outside the country. The Punjabi rap star, known for his misogynistic lyrics, was in Dubai for a Holi concert last week. At the sight of him, some of the fans went wild, and rushed to the stage to get a piece of the man himself. Singh managed to calm the audience down and the concert went on as scheduled. Needless to say, Singh is mighty pleased about the incident. He called it audience ka pyaar. Well, he certainly needs it, considering that he’s getting so little love at home.

Two suns

This is a tribute to the two Robis of Bengal. Hansa Veena exponent Pandit Barun Kumar Pal (in pic), one of the closest disciples of Pandit Ravi Shankar, will be performing at a Calcutta auditorium on Tuesday along with Rabindrasangeet artiste Balaka Das to pay homage both to Tagore and the sitar legend who passed away last December. Pal had been Ravi Shankar’s student since 1978. In fact, it was Shankar who designed the instrument Hansa Veena. Aptly titled Dui Robi, the programme will feature some of the ragas conceived by Ravi Shankar himself and, of course, Tagore songs as well. An interesting jugalbandi, to be sure.

Role model

It was Irfan Pathan’s date with Delhi’s kids. The all-rounder, who is playing in the Delhi Daredevils team in the ongoing IPL tournament, shared his childhood memories with the city’s under-privileged children. “I had great fun as a 13-year-old ball boy in Baroda. I started out like that,” reminisced the cricketer. Pathan was interacting with the children as part of an initiative by one of the principal sponsors of the team, to raise funds for their education. No doubt, many of the boys who were grinning and cheering for Pathan hope to grow up and become a cricketer like him one day.

Movie diaries

After watching it, Satyajit Ray remarked that he had “never seen such a remarkable first film”. Twenty-five years later, Salaam Bombay remains a remarkable film. And for Mira Nair, the film’s director, one way of celebrating it is by releasing the 25th anniversary edition of the book Salaam Bombay (Penguin). The book is on the making of the film and contains Nair’s letters to friends and others regarding the film, her notes and excerpts from a journal that she maintained during the shooting and after the film’s release. Nair remembers the way Salaam Bombay had opened a thousand doors for her. “It was the film that made Denzel Washington say yes to Mississippi Masala. It made Billy Wilder take me out to lunch, and Jafar Panahi, the great Iranian director, kiss my hands and feet. It was the film that gave me the love of my life,” she says in the foreword to the new edition of the book. Salaam Mira.