NAMESAKE: Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard

Shadow of a tale foretold

In London, audiences will be all too familiar with the plot of Bodyguard, in which Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) is hired to protect college girl Divya Rana (Kareena Kapoor).

They will recall stories about Princess Diana’s bodyguard, Barry Mannakee, being relieved of his duties in 1986 because he had apparently got involved with her. He sold his story about how he and the princess would snuggle up while watching TV before Mannakee, a married officer with two children, was killed in a motorbike accident in 1987.

The same thing had also happened with Princess Anne, whose bodyguard, Peter Cross, was sacked in 1981.

In Monaco, Princess Stephanie went so far as to marry her bodyguard, Daniel Ducruet, in 1995, after having two of his children. They split up a year later.

Lovely Singh falls in love with a belle on a BlackBerry, being too simple to work out that Chhaya is a figment of Divya’s imagination. Still, one can be reasonably safe in assuming that the director, Siddique, was “inspired” by the 1992 Hollywood film, The Bodyguard, in which Whitney Houston plays a pop superstar Rachel Marron facing death threats while Kevin Costner is cast as Frank Farmer, a former secret service agent hired to protect her.

After the release of The Bodyguard, Kevin Grold, a San Diego psychologist, explained: “We all have a need to be protected — in fact, the idea of protection can become an aphrodisiac. For many women who have never had one, a bodyguard is an irresistible fantasy.”

In January this year, a senior Labour politician, Alan Johnson, the shadow chancellor of the exchequer, resigned suddenly, citing “personal reasons to do with my family”. He issued no denials when newspapers reported he was thrown on discovering his wife, Laura, and his personal bodyguard had been having an affair.

Lovely Singh is right in one respect. It is totally unprofessional for a bodyguard to have a personal relationship with his “principal”.

Brian Isdale, a former Scotland Yard close protection officer, established some basic rules when he set up Envoy Protection, a personal security business in 2008.

“One of the first things I say to new officers is that you are not leading the life of the people you are protecting,” he said. “Some people start believing the trappings are for them. It’s certainly been true of officers on the royal side. It’s quite noticeable; they start to adopt the mannerisms of those they are protecting.”

Sample this: London Bridge that allows trains with 12 carriages

London lesson

Is this photograph of a long line of ticket barriers a vision of things to come at Belgachia Metro?

Personally, I don’t see why not if Calcutta is to deal more effectively with dangerous overcrowding in the metros in the peak periods.

The photograph, which shows what is possible with imaginative planning, was actually taken at London Bridge, one the busiest main line stations in London.

If Mamata is to make Calcutta more like London, there are a couple more things she ought to consider. One is reduce overcrowding by introducing more frequent and longer trains — the refurbishment at London Bridge will allow trains to have 12 carriages instead of eight.

Also essential are escalators. London Underground stations are mostly served by escalators or lifts. The Brits take the view that a society cannot call itself civilised unless it looks after the disabled.

Farewell Fleet

The byline “James Allan” won’t mean much now to people other than those who were his colleagues in The Daily Telegraph newsroom, as I was when he was an established senior. When I joined as a junior he and others took immense trouble in passing on tips on how to write a news story to a new generation of reporters.

Attending Jim’s funeral last week with so many others brought it all back to me. The Daily Telegraph might have been a Tory newspaper but its unrivalled news coverage was always balanced and its newsroom a place of gossip, laughter and friendships that have endured.

The old Fleet Street, with its camaraderie, has now disappeared. I think Jim and others like him were part of an England which is also passing. The funeral began with Jerusalem and ended with Roberta Flack’s The first time ever I saw your face.

Tame show: Ravi Bopara (left) and Samit Patel

Tebbit’s tigers

Tough Tory of yesteryear, Norman (now Lord) Tebbit, wanted Indians settled in Britain to support England against India.

But have the desis taken his bidding one step too far?

The Daily Mail headline after India’s Twenty20 defeat at Old Trafford said it all: “Ravi and Samit finish off India.”

The presence of Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel, allied to India’s 0-4 defeat in the Test series, may have the unintended consequence of winning England many more British Indian supporters — which is perhaps as it should be.

Meanwhile, an honorary Doctor of Letters has been conferred on Mahendra Singh Dhoni by De Montfort University in Leicester.

Dhoni is certainly a deserving case though the timing could have been more propitious. Some Indian wits maintain he has been honoured for “his contribution to English cricket”.

 

Made in India

The Taj Bombay doesn’t need to advertise but I am glad to see the sea-facing iconic building, along with two elephants, promoting the 85 hotels in the group.

The October issue of Conde Naste Traveller also recommends where to shop in Mumbai — Le Mill at Wadi Bunder in the old dock area. “Set in a 15,000sqft former rice mill, the store is modelled on trend-setting spaces such as Milan’s 10 Corso Como and Colette in Paris.”

It quotes French expat Cecilia Morelli-Parikh, one of three friends behind the project, who was frustrated at the lack of home grown products in Mumbai’s mall-centric scene.

“We were sick of shopping abroad, then flipping the label to find the pieces we were buying were mostly made in India,” she says.

Does this mean West is no longer best?

 

Role reversed: Madonna, the director of W.E.

Tittle tattle

Newspaper readers in India who blog ought really to try to replace abuse with argument. In Britain, you can get quite a high class of blogging.

A debate has started on Madonna’s attempt to rewrite history in her new film, W.E., set against the backdrop of Edward VIII’s 1936 abdication crisis, which premiered last week in Venice.

Madonna has overturned British conventional wisdom by making Wallis Simpson a romantic heroine while the late Queen Mother, who could never tolerate the American, is portrayed as a bitch.

“I think this is a case of self-delusional narcissism along with a desire to be thought educated (like her desire to be thought a child’s author etc.),” is a typically waspish comment about Madonna.

Another reader agrees: “My gut feeling is that Madonna has made this film out of spite towards the British establishment.”

There is an intelligent counter-argument which makes such blogs fun to read: “The Queen Mother (QM) and Princess Margaret got stuck into burning anything in the royal archives which portrayed them in a bad light. The bonfires went on for years. Even the QM’s hagiographer attested to this. There are two sides to every story, and it’s about time we heard something of the other side where Wallis and Edward are concerned.”