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Captain’s case
Guess what’s common between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Mahendra Singh Dhoni? No, it’s not that their names start with “M”. Both of them happen to be subjects of management case studies at a B-school in Bangalore. The IFIM Business School has developed a case study on India’s captain cool after he led India’s cricket team to World Cup victory earlier this year. Dhoni’s stellar performance as captain is a lesson in tackling pressure, managing human resources and team building, according to the B-school. And what about his propensity to lift World Cups (don’t forget the T20 World Cup in 2007) in sleeveless shirts? Ah well, what’s a bit of underarm grossness when the man is a winner all the way?
Politic parleys
Political correctness was never her forte. But Khushboo, the former Tamil filmstar who once courted controversy by making a spirited case for girls indulging in pre-marital sex, is now as politic as can be. After the DMK’s election debacle in Tamil Nadu recently, when all the senior party members quickly disappeared from view, it was Khushboo who was left to hold the fort and field questions from the media. The 41-year-old actress, who joined the DMK last year and is the party spokesperson now, glibly defended DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his family’s role in the party’s dismal showing in the elections. She even defended the former first family’s stranglehold over the Tamil cinema industry. From talking pre-marital sex to talking up Karunanidhi and his brood, Khushboo has certainly come a long way.
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Second act
Sonu Nigam is one restless soul. And one who obviously thinks that his many-faceted genius is just not getting full play. Though exceedingly successful as a playback singer, Nigam now wants to take a second shot at a career in acting. This despite the fact that his first tryst with acting had ended in disaster. He has a fair number of dud films to his credit — Jaani Dushman, Love in Nepal, Kaash Aap Hamare Hote and so on. The sad reception to his heroics on celluloid had so dampened him, in fact, that at one point it even affected his singing career. But the intrepid Nigam is once again itching to get in front of the camera. Clearly, this is not a case of once bitten, twice shy.
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Copy Kat
If you thought Katrina Kaif lookalike Zarine Khan had vanished from the Bollywood firmament, think again. Khan is all set to bounce back after Veer, the Salman Khan extravaganza, sank without a trace in 2010. The actress will soon be seen in a glamorous role in Sajid Khan’s Housefull 2. And we hear that she is being promoted by none other than Salman Khan, who seems confident that this girl has got what it takes to be an A-list star. She is also working hard to shed her Fat-Kat image and is said to be sweating it out at the gym. Funnily enough, though, she goes to the same gym that Kaif works out in. Now, that’s enough for people to start calling her Copy Kat again!
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Kantha cool
A well wrought kantha saree is something a Bengali woman could die for. And if that comes twinned with Tagore, another abiding cultural icon of Bengal, what could be better? Rural women from all over the state are currently taking part in an exhibition at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, in Calcutta where they are displaying their kantha works depicting Tagore’s dance dramas and short stories. Tagore was himself a folk art enthusiast and had set up a museum in Santiniketan to preserve rare pieces of folk art, including kantha works. The exhibition, which is on till June 9, has been conceptualised by Shamlu Dudeja, who has been at the forefront of kantha revival in Bengal.