In the melee that followed KKR after their victory, a more poignant promise was lost. Team owner Juhi Chawla who is religiously inclined, had taken a quiet vow that if KKR won IPL 5, she would visit the Kalighat temple to say “thank you”. She did just that while the cameras stayed on chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Shah Rukh Khan.

The rambunctious celebrations may have brought a disapproving frown or two from the less flamboyant, but the charge that the chief minister should not have showered so much attention (and gold) on players who were essentially not from the state (except for a Manoj Tiwari or a Lakshmi Ratan Shukla), is contrary to the very melting-pot texture of the IPL. In fact, it was a fine, un-parochial act by the chief minister to felicitate Delhi-bred, Mumbai-based Shah Rukh, Mumbai’s Punjabi girl Juhi, her Nigeria-and-Mumbai-sourced industrialist-husband Jay Mehta, Pakistani Wasim Akram, Delhi boy Gautam Gambhir and a host of non-Bengalis who brought cheer and honour to the state.

What escaped censure and needed to be spotlighted was a gesture by SRK which was too supercilious and patronising for the chief minister to have stood by and taken with such a big grin on her face. Anyone who has watched Shah Rukh’s stage shows over the years would have seen the star go through the practised routine of teaching a non-professional celebrity a few dance steps or two. He has done it with cricketers at a show for Sahara in Lucknow where he got Yuvraj Singh and others to dance on stage with him. He, of course, would be the better performer but would patronisingly laugh and hug the cricketer as a finale. It was a feel-good act and since the cricketers were his juniors in many ways, especially chronologically, it would go down well with the onlooker.

Shah Rukh repeated that act at the big fat G.V.K. Reddy wedding in Hyderabad (where he was paid a bomb to hold the fort). At the sangeet, he had got the bride, groom, both sets of parents et al to shake a leg or two on stage, led by him of course. At the end of their gauche moves, he hugged each of them with a laugh.

Hugging and giving a quick peck on the head to a junior player, someone younger than him or a couple of rungs lower than him in the social pecking order, is something that Shah Rukh Khan routinely does, at the end of his act. But is this patronising touch — which he would never dream of doing to, say, Hema Malini who’s a dignified senior colleague, or to Sonia Gandhi who would command his respect — justified when he does it to the chief minister of West Bengal? It doesn’t speak well for Mamata Banerjee that she allowed such familiarity from a film star, however euphoric and glamour-struck she may have been in that moment of victory. And SRK too, needed to control his over-the-top exuberance, taking care not to overstep the line that separates celebration from cockiness.

You had, on the other hand, Juhi Chawla touching Mamata’s feet. What a contrast in the behaviour of the two team owners.

By the way, when the entire Shah Rukh Khan brood of wife, daughter, extended family of friends and their children, were on the field in Chepauk as winners of the IPL this season, where was his son Aryan? His best friend, 14-year-old Ahaan (Chunky Panday’s nephew) was by SRK’s side but not his own son. The reason was rather simple. Aryan studies at Mumbai Indians’ owner Nita Ambani’s school and he had a test on Monday morning. Reportedly, Aryan’s presence was being monitored by the school and he’d been given strict instructions not to bunk school for a cricket match.

The IPL may be over but its slim, attractive TV anchor Shibani Dandekar (the same one with the accent) is here to stay. She has a younger sibling, Anusha Dandekar, who has already acted in Hindi films like Viruddh and has done a Marathi film too, recently. Few know that apart from hosting events, Shibani sings well (she belted out Azma luck azma before the finals started last Sunday) and she’s all set to dance too. Rumour has it that the celebrity participants on the new season of Jhalak Dikhhla Ja will include the Australia-bred Anusha Dandekar. But it’s too hush-hush at the moment for confirmation.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal