Second innings: Harish Patel

Indian fatboy keeps on running

These days in England you can’t call a person “fat”. But Bollywood actor Harish Patel, who is making a name on the British stage and screen, pokes fun at himself: “This fatboy is running.”

As far as his career in England is concerned, he certainly is.

Harish flew over to London from Mumbai for a day last week for the world premiere of All In Good Time, a tale of a young Indian bride and groom who are forced to live with the boy’s parents in their cramped house in Bolton in the industrial north of England.

The director Nigel Cole says this universal dilemma could be set anywhere in the world.

There are several good performances in the film, which has been scripted by the talented Ayub Khan-Din of East is East fame, but Harish steals the show.

He plays a well-meaning but interfering and rather slobbish father who takes too close an interest in the lives of his son and new daughter-in-law. Since the father is in an adjoining bedroom, asking if everything is alright every few minutes, it is no surprise that the son gets a psychological block when it comes to consummating his marriage.

At the post premiere party, I find Harish relaxing for a few hours before returning home. He tells me he is enjoying a new post Bollywood career.

In 2007, Harish was cast as a landlord in a British film, Run Fatboy Run, about an Englishman who trains for a marathon to win back a pregnant girl he had dumped five years previously on the eve of their marriage.

Harish was in Ayub’s play, Rafta, Rafta, at the Royal National Theatre — and it is this play which has been adapted for All In Good Time by Ayub himself.

“Today I am 60 years old,” Harish emphasises. “It’s almost like I have finished my career back in Bollywood.”

His Bollywood style of acting is especially suited to All In Good Time though Harish insists he does not ham it up for Hindi movies. “A good film is a good film; a good director is a good director all over the world. I have worked with Shyam Benegal, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Shekhar Kapur, directors like Raj Santoshi, all brilliant directors — you cannot say that they are lesser than any other director in the world.”

He laughs as he points out: “So that’s why I always say, after Run Fatboy Run, this fat boy is running.”

Calcutta connection: The 1st Marquess of Reading with László

Missing link

Somewhere in India, it is believed there is a portrait of Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (1860-1935), who was viceroy of India from April 2, 1921, till April 3, 1926.

The painting was done by Philip Alexius de László (born 1869, Budapest, died 1937, London), a Hungarian artist known for his portraits of royals and aristocrats.

One man keen to track down the painting is the subject’s great-grandson, the 4th Marquess, Simon Charles Henry Rufus Isaacs, who was born in 1942.

“I think the painting could be in Calcutta,” Simon tells me.

The line of descent is as follows: Simon’s father, the 3rd Marquess of Reading, Michael Alfred Rufus Isaacs (1916-1980), was the son of the 2nd Marquess of Reading, Gerald Rufus Isaacs, (1889-1960), who was the son of the viceroy.

Sandra de László, a member of the artist’s family, has tracked down an old newspaper image of the missing portrait.

She says: “Alas, de László never visited India — although he had serious plans to do so and asked (1st Baron) Hardinge (viceroy of India, 1910-1916), to help him get commissions there, but due to pressures of work at home, his health and anxieties about the commercial success of such a journey — he never actually went — so almost all these (India-related) paintings were painted in London.”

However, several of these paintings are in India, according to Sandra’s research.

Pratibha Patil has been enjoying them because the portraits in Rashtrapati Bhavan include: Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto 1912; Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, 1919; and the Marchioness of Willingdon 1924.

Some are in private collections in India but there is one of the 4th Earl of Minto at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta.

Anyone who can track down the gayeb chitra of the 1st Marquess of Reading will earn the eternal gratitude of his great-grandson.

Incidentally, Simon’s daughter, Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs, a fashion designer, frequently visits India where she has tried to help women in red light areas by giving them work.

MAN AND WIFE: (From top) Phillips with Princess Anne, with Sandy Pflueger, and Lauren Hough

Marked man

The papers have not been kind to Captain Mark Phillips, 63, who is dumping wife No. 2, wealthy American horsewoman Sandy Pflueger, 58, to set up home in Florida with his new love, 35-year-old Olympic riding star Lauren Hough. His first marriage to Princess Anne in 1973 ended in divorce in 1992.

He has two children Peter, 34, and Zara, 30, by Anne, and a daughter Stephanie, 14, by Sandy.

The Daily Telegraph reported: “Rumours of Mark’s weakness for a pair of tight jodhpurs have trailed him for years, although he has only been badly caught out once when a one-night stand in New Zealand with a woman (Heather Tonkin) he had met at a riding clinic, resulted in the birth of a daughter, Felicity “Bunny” Tonkin, now 28, and, naturally, a keen rider.”

Explaining his leap into the arms of Miss Hough, he reportedly told a friend: “I might only be alive for another five or 10 years, so I might as well be happy.”

I blame it all on Maharajah Gaj Singh’s family — the jodhpurs come from, well, Jodhpur.

No Lord!

It is distressing news that the David Cameron-Nick Clegg led Tory-Lib Dem coalition wants to “reform” the House of Lords by getting rid of hereditary peers.

That really would mean the end for the family of Lord Sinha of Raipur (1863-1928). His descendants have not taken their seats or claimed their titles.

Alas, I failed to persuade the late Anindo Kumar Sinha, (1930-1999), technically the 5th Baron Sinha (“Jo Jo”), to claim his title. I failed, too, with his son, Arup, technically the 6th Baron Sinha, who was born in 1966.

If we get a fully elected House of Lords, the place will be full of ex-MPs and trade union officials past their sell by date.

Turmeric treat

A recent medical report suggests turmeric in Indian curry can make chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients more effective.

This is one more reason for going to Indian restaurants.

In Tatler’s Restaurant Guide 2012, the Indian selection includes Andy Varma’s new venture, Chakra, in Notting Hill Gate. He has gone for cuisines from the royal kitchens of India.

Andy is sure Maharajah Bhupinder Singh would have approved of his Patiala Chaap.

Hit man: Rupert Murdoch

Tittle tattle

The latest issue of Private Eye makes fun of an upright citizen like Rupert Murdoch — “Getting away with Murdoch” is the cover caption.

Private Eye continues to flourish by making wicked jokes about people at the top.

In some other more civilised places, such cartoonists and hacks would have long been — well, you know — discouraged.