When 85-year-old Pandharinath Kolhapure passed away on August 15, he did not realise that he'd be leaving behind a very worthy statement. His family observed all the funeral rites but every bit of it was carried out, not by any male relative but by his three spunky daughters. Shivangi (wife of Shakti Kapoor and mother of Siddhant and Shraddha Kapoor), Padmini (wife of producer Tutu Sharma and mother of aspiring actor Priyank Sharma) and Tejaswini (wife of producer Pankaj Saraswat and mother of infant Vedika) sat before the pandit and did it all in traditional Indian style. Before the ambulance took him away, Shivangi, Padmini and their friends who follow Mahikari (the Japanese cult), also chanted prayers in Japanese.
At the crematorium too, the three daughters followed the instructions and performed the last rites before stoically lighting the pyre together. On the 12th day, they had a traditional puja, more elaborate than the one their dad had done for their mother, with the three of them even wearing the janau (holy thread worn over the shoulder) while they performed all the rites. Three women with heads covered with a dupatta and a thread across the chest over their kurtas was a rare sight.
Their uncles, cousins, husbands, sons and other men watched on supportively but it was the threesome that was completely in control. The rites done, they turned into efficient hosts and laid out a wholesome lunch for everybody at the Kolhapure bungalow called Abhinay.
Apart from close buddy Poonam Dhillon, Juhi Chawla - who studied classical Hindustani music under Pandharinath Kolhapure - was with the family right through their stint at the hospital and at home. For the 12th day lunch, Juhi got her maharaj (chef) to make a large, delicious tray of melt-in-the-mouth mithai decorated with rose petals.
The Maharashtrian priest who took the Kolhapure sisters through the pujas, encouragingly told the trio, "This is the land of Jhansi ki Rani. Of course you can perform the rites." The sisters' farewell to their dad was heartwarming to watch and a story worth retelling several times over.
The other Maharashtrian mulgi in the news, for different reasons of course, is Radhika Apte, the siren this column has been tracking since her robust performances in Badlapur and Riteish Deshmukh's Lai Bhaari . Check out her versatility in two short films, Sujoy Ghosh's Ahalya and Anurag Kashyap's That Day After Everyday , both freely available on the Net. In Ahalya she is sensuous with her clothes on while Kashyap's film is about women learning to defend themselves - nothing remotely titillating about it. Still, it's Radhika lifting her dress and doing a graphic Sharon Stone (for another Kashyap film) that gets the maximum number of hits on the Net.
It doesn't bother Radhika, who has caught the fancy of many filmmakers including Anurag Kashyap who has completed another short film called Clean Shaven with her. With Kalki Koechlin out of his life, Anurag turns to Radhika every time he needs a willing professional actress. But unlike Kalki, the Anurag-Radhika mutual admiration is strictly professional, nothing risqué about it.
In fact few know that Radhika is happily married - husband Benedict Taylor is a London-based British musician. That explains her uninhibited body language before the camera - an Indian husband may have stifled her a wee bit.
Stifling is exactly what the censor board continues to be. The other day, director Anees Bazmee was pacing the floor outside the Nehru Centre auditorium where the censors were discussing his film Welcome Back after watching it.
"They've been at it for 20 minutes," said Anees, wondering what on earth they could possibly be talking about. "They're probably discussing how someone could make such a clean comedy without a single double meaning dialogue or vulgar shot in today's times," he chuckled. "Watch any of my films, even No Entry where Bipasha Basu played a prostitute. I never even picturise a kiss. I only make films that I can watch with my wife and two daughters."
The censors surprised him. They objected to a quick shot of a girl coming out of the swimming pool in a swimsuit ("What's she supposed to wear?" he wondered) and to the word "Saale ".
"Saale " is what the censors have also objected to in Salman Khan's Hero which introduces Zarina Wahab and Aditya Pancholi's son Sooraj with Suniel Shetty's daughter Athiya.
Finally, here's confirmed news: Rani Mukerji has been avoiding stepping out in public because she is radiantly pregnant and has even begun to "show". Six months completed, three more to go, Rani and Aditya will have a Scorpio or Sagittarius baby. Mom Pam Chopra who'll be a grandmother for the first time is reported to be ecstatic.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
