Good evening... Allemooo, I love you too baby, muah, muah...” Thus began birthday girl Aishwarya Rai’s formal speech on Thursday night (November 1) when 11-month baby Aaradhya, sitting podgy on dad Abhishek’s lap in the front row, spotted her mom on the dais and let off a wail of protests.

When the French government conferred the Chevalier dans ’Ordre Arts et des lettres on Aishwarya at an intimate and formal gathering that evening, Abhishek Bachchan stole a few hearts for being the exemplary husband and father who happily took care of Aaradhya and her lusty protests while wife was being felicitated. All through the function, Abhi held the tot, intermittently got up and dashed out of the room when she became a handful, and heartily applauded Aishwarya’s big moment on stage.

But if anybody could steal Aishwarya’s limelight on Thursday, it was Aaradhya as the battery of photographers couldn’t have enough of her. The tot who wasn’t comfortable with the goings-on was finally taken away by her parents, leading to loud pleas from the lensmen who wanted just one good frame of mom and daughter together. They even petitioned Amitabh Bachchan, screaming, “Bachchan Sir, please tell them...” which of course fell on deaf ears.

The very formal evening hosted by French Ambassador Francois Richier took off with a little audio-visual of Aishwarya’s many achievements (the Miss World moment, Oprah Winfrey’s show, the Padma Shri, film clips et al). Her acceptance speech, stymied by the protesting baby at the beginning, went off smoothly after Abhishek quickly carried Aaradhya out of the room. While thanking everyone, Aishwarya pointed to the door through which Abhi had exited and thanked her “darling, dear husband” not only for his eternal support but also for graciously offering to babysit Aaradhya that evening, so that all of them could share the moment together.

She said that she was overwhelmed to have her entire family with her. The “entire family” had one person missing — mother-in-law Jaya Bachchan who was in Vancouver attending another function. “But I just spoke to Ma a few minutes before this,” shared Aishwarya, getting teary as she also talked of her parents, Vrinda and Krishna Rai.

Pa-in-law Amitabh Bachchan, who had similarly been honoured by the French government a few years ago, kept his speech brief and wondered, poker-faced, if he should have worn his Chevalier dans ’Ordre Arts et des lettres badge that evening to gain entry into the function.

It was a special evening for the celebrity mom in shimmering pink and silver who turned 39 and cut a cake on stage. Happily for her, the formal, black tie event turned out to be also a cosy, family affair. One big tick in favour of Ash and Abhi: they truly are hands-on parents who don’t have nurses and maids clucking around their child. Watching Abhi that evening was like encountering any normal parent at a cinema who would rush out if the baby howled during the film.

Howling foul are Ajay Devgn and Yash Raj Films who’re locked in a fierce battle for the Diwali spoils at the box office with Son of Sardaar and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Just before this blew up into a full legal battle (with Devgn accusing the YRF banner of bullying exhibitors into not giving him a good chain of theatres), Shah Rukh Khan had clearly quashed the whisper that they wanted Son of Sardaar to put off their release to facilitate a clear run for Jab Tak Hain Jaan. Khan was emphatic that asking anybody to postpone his release was just not done and Yash Chopra himself would have never asked any producer to do it. But Devgn’s legal charge puts a new twist to it, promising fireworks this Diwali.

However, the cold war between SRK and Ajay Devgn is not today’s news; it has been in discussion for years, with Kajol neatly caught between the two.

Interestingly, Karan Johar recently let out that his next film would be a large-canvas Partition-time subject that had caught his late father’s fancy. Not many know that it had been Yash and Karan Johar’s dream to pit Shah Rukh and Ajay in the lead roles of this Partition saga.

With Karan wanting to revive the story and film it, will he still be able to bring together the two actors who’re currently snorting at each other? Whatever the answer, with the battle hotting up a week before Diwali, Devgn’s and Khan’s films will be in the news right up to release day. And when an important film is around the corner, any news is good news, right guys?

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal