When Moushumi Chatterjee, who was on her monthly trip to Calcutta, heard that back home in Mumbai her old colleague Rati Agnihotri had filed a police complaint against husband Anil Virwani for domestic abuse, she was disturbed. "Rati and I haven't been in touch lately. But when we did work together, we always got along well," Moushumi remarked over the phone. It wasn't just lip service for she followed it up by messaging Rati to wish her well.
Rati and Anil, who have one son, seem to be heading for the divorce courts for the actress is determined to see this through to its logical end. I guess she wouldn't have gone to the cops if she hadn't been so sure of where her marriage was heading. But, like it happens in all such cases, friends of the couple are finding themselves in His and Her camps. The biggest surprise is that Rati's spiritually inclined friend and actress Smita Jayakar (among other roles, she was SRK's mother in Devdas ) seems to be supporting Anil. Smita's husband is leading Mumbai lawyer Mohan Jayakar and, bafflingly, he's said to be representing Anil in the Agnihotri vs Virwani case.
Whatever the trouble brewing over the years between husband and wife, son Tanuj is fortunately 27 years old now and perfectly capable of handling the family dispute. As for Rati, her cousin is actor-turned-filmmaker Atul Agnihotri who is married to Salman Khan's sister Alvira. So she is not alone in this unfortunate battle.
Funny how Rati's marriage has ultimately turned out. She debuted in Hindi films with Kamal Haasan in the love-is-forever film Ek Duuje Ke Liye . Thereafter, Kamal, as we all know, went through two divorces (neither of them amicable). Now Rati is in the same boat. And they've both had love marriages.
What does Moushumi Chatterjee do every month in Calcutta? Plenty, it seems. To begin with, she and husband Babu (formal name: Jayant Mukherjee) take turns to visit the city and keep an eye on their beautiful house in Ballygunge, close to Hemanta Kumar's statue. Moushumi has friends and family here, including her ageing mother, sister and brother, and catching up with everybody is always on her agenda.
There is another little known reason the actress has been making frequent trips to Calcutta. When Hemanta Kumar's wife passed away, she left behind her Labrador. Ever since her death, the Mukherjees have been maintaining domestic staff in the city to take care of the pet and Moushumi flies down regularly to ensure that it's looked after well. But on this trip she's made the momentous decision of taking the lab to Mumbai where he will have the family around him.
The animal-loving side of Moushumi is not really known to the public. But the truth is, she has always been surrounded by dogs and birds. In her Mumbai apartment, she has a parrot hopping in and out of her room. And she has rice and eggs made every day to feed crows who visit the apartment at meal time. With the mercury rising, Moushumi makes a plea to all her friends to kindly keep some water out in the balcony for our winged friends who're likely to be thirsty and parched in this weather.
Director Shoojit Sircar is waiting for Indu (as Moushumi is called by close friends) to return to Mumbai where the promotions of Piku are ready to take off. This is the film that stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Jisshu Sengupta and Irrfan Khan. After films like Roti Kapda Aur Makan, Benaam and Manzil in the 1970s, Moushumi will be seen with Amitabh Bachchan once again in Piku . But this time, AB plays her jijaji (brother-in-law). Since both of them are accomplished actors with a flair for comedy, their antics should be fun to watch.
One tiny question to chew on this Sunday morning: what do Sushmita Sen with her brilliant smile and the eternally-smiling Piyush Goyal, minister of state with independent charge for power, coal and new and renewable energy have in common? Believe it or not but they both visit the same dentist in Bandra, Mumbai. The dentist has his own way of taking care of their dental health. They get the last appointment of the day and just before they arrive the doctor's assistant politely requests all waiting patients to clear off since a VIP is expected any minute. Thus, when Sush or Piyush arrive, they have the clinic and the dentist all to themselves. Hmmm, one thought: even Times Now won't be able to do anything about this kind of VIP culture. Second thought: considering the bright and beautiful smiles of the actress and the politician, the dentist seems to be doing his job rather well.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
