All of us know that Maharashtrian mulgi Madhuri Dixit, mother of two, settled in the US (Denver) after marriage, flew into Mumbai sometime this year to do a film. This Friday, she returned to the celluloid world with Aaja Nachle, her comeback film.

On a quieter note, few know that another Maharashtrian actress, also a mother of two settled in the US (San Francisco) after marriage, flew into Mumbai sometime this year to produce and act in her comeback film. The same Friday (November 30), her film too hit the screens all over Mumbai. Remember Ashvini Bhave, Rishi Kapoor’s heroine and fiancée in Henna who danced to the number Aajave mahi tera rasta…? Following the same trajectory as fellow Maharashtrian Madhuri Dixit, Ashvini quit films after marriage to a well-placed software engineer who writes financial programmes for banks in San Francisco. Two kids later, her husband Kishore supplied the financial support for Ashvini to park herself in Mumbai for five months with her two kids and to produce a racy, taut psychological thriller in Marathi titled Kadachit (Occasionally). Playing the lead role of a successful neuro-surgeon who has a supportive anaesthetist-husband, Ashvini released her film in Mumbai on November 30 in what has been an efficiently-planned production.

If Madhuri’s surgeon-husband stood by her while she shot for her comeback film, so did Ashvini Bhave’s software-partner who flew down to applaud her at the Pune premiere of Kadachit. Even if one has been hearing only about Madhuri’s comeback, it’s a fair bet that Ashvini’s well-made regional film will also make news soon. And now that she has tasted blood, Ashvini’s next production may well be for a larger audience in Hindi.

Incidentally, the director of Ashvini’s film, Chandrakant Kulkarni, has already made Meerabai Not Out, a film in Hindi for Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC). The film, starring Mandira Bedi, Mahesh Manjrekar and Anupam Kher, also marks the acting debut of — Anil Kumble, the current captain of the Indian cricket team!

With Kumble in the news, perhaps this is the best time for PNC to wake up and release Meerabai Not Out quickly.

Or maybe, after John Abraham’s Goal (or Chak De Football as it pathetically tried to be), all films that have anything even remotely to do with sports, should stay in the cold storage for the moment. We’ve had such an overdose of the underdog emerging triumphant on the sports field that you don’t feel like reading even John Grisham’s latest book Playing For Pizza which follows the same tiresome cliché.

Kabul Express, Baabul, Salaam-e-Ishq, No Smoking and now Goal — John Abraham has managed to notch up a huge flop in every genre of Hindi cinema. And he’s still asking for an acting fee of Rs 7 crore!

John and Bipasha are going the Sanjay Leela Bhansali way — they’ve gone into denial. Insisting that Goal has been loved by the audience all over, the twosome has actually been telling close friends that their film has been sabotaged by Shah Rukh Khan because he wanted to ensure that Om Shanti Om continued its golden run!

One hears that veteran Danny Denzongpa was approached to play the coach in Goal. One look at the script and Danny turned it down as a sure flop. Danny’s reject then went to Boman Irani who turned in one of the hammiest performances of his career as the coach in Goal.

As for Arshad Warsi who’s down in the dumps after Goal (apart from the heated ‘creative differences’ he had with John during the filming, his role was also short-circuited), he’s decided to turn producer. Arshad has written his own script and has roped in Raja (Rakesh Roshan’s assistant who is directing Krazy 4 for the Roshan banner) to make a film tentatively titled I Believe In Angels. He has also got Naseeruddin Shah’s enthusiastic nod to come on board for a prominent role in I Believe… How about a role for himself? “I didn’t want to cast myself in my production because I didn’t have any spare dates!” laughed Arshad. “But my director told me that if he had got such a script from anywhere outside, I would have been the actor he’d have approached to play the main role because it suits me perfectly. I wouldn’t have cast myself in it otherwise. So now I am going to act in my film.” At least his role won’t be trimmed out of shape in his own production.

There’s another miffed face around town and it belongs to Salman Khan. A tabloid tale squeals that the actor has been holding up Boney Kapoor’s film Pokhiri, directed by dancer-choreographer Prabhudevaa, by not giving him any dates to shoot the film. However, one knows for sure that last week, when Salman had ten days on hand, he told Boney that he was free to utilise those dates for his film. Boney was so thrilled with the ‘bonus’ (because Salman was not scheduled to shoot for him those days) that he happily gave a day off to Salman to celebrate his dad Salim Khan’s birthday. So where’s the question of holding up the Hindi version of Pokhiri?

If anybody should be wary of Salman’s current lousy mood, it is Subhash Ghai who has both warring lovers (the Khan and the Kat) heading the cast of Mukta Arts’ Yuvraj, for which shooting began in Austria a couple of months ago.

When star lovers quarrel, it’s time for producers who’ve cast them together to cower and cross their fingers.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International