Sufi rock

When sufi meets pop, it rocks. Pakistani singer Atif Aslam will tell you that. Just back from the US after performing for Indian and Pakistani audiences, Atif is all set to release a new album on Sufi pop. “It is a new concept and I hope Bollywood will accept it,” says Aslam. Having sung Tere Bin in director Onir’s Bas Ek Pal, Aslam has reason to be confident. “I did several live concerts with the Sufi band H3O and they were well received. I am really keen on the fusion of traditional music with popular tunes and I think Bollywood is a great place to experiment.” Are we talking about a brave new world, or are those famous last words?

Payback time

In the lexicon of cinematic terms, a new word has been coined for controversy — and that’s Khushboo. After her remarks last year on pre-marital sex, Khushboo is back in the news for being signed on to play Maniammai, the young wife of an aged E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker — the legendary Dravidian leader popularly called ‘Periyar’ — in a film funded by the Tamil Nadu government. The film has kicked up a political ado even before its release. The marriage of Maniammai to Periyar, who was decades older than her, caused major ripples in the 1940s within the Dravida Kazhagham, founded by him, for it was seen as going against the tenets of social reform propagated by the party. Interestingly, when Khushboo was under attack for her remarks about chastity and women, her defenders had cited Periyar. He had denounced the common notion of chastity as a male chauvinist creation. Is this payback time for Khushboo?

Guessing game

It’s that time of the year again — for the guessing game to begin on.

It’s that time of the year again — for the guessing game to begin on the next Booker prize winner. And all those who are game for some guessing can do so by entering the “Guess the Man Booker Winner contest 2006”, open for British Council library members. All that you have to do is think of the writer who is likely to appeal to this year’s panel of judges — which includes biographer, academic and reviewer Hermione Lee as the chair, poet and novelist Simon Armitage, novelist Candia McWilliam, critic Anthony Quinn and actress Fiona Shaw.

Shaking a leg

Here’s news for all those who have been missing Jassi. Mona Singh, who will forever be known as Jassi — the ugly duckling-turned swan who had captured a considerable number of eyeballs — is all set to make a comeback on the small screen. And this time, she is putting her best foot forward, literally. For Naach Baliye II is only meant for those who can shake a leg. So had the pretty lady gone into hibernation, post-Jassi? Not quite.

Singh had headed down south, family in tow, just to get over the Jassi hangover. “After the three-year contract with SET India Pvt Ltd expired, the backwaters of Kerela beckoned,” says Mona Singh. Some serious rock climbing and rafting later, Singh is back at work. And now that she is all set to jive, let’s hope this adventure too pays off.

Your choice

If John Fowles can do it, why can’t Farhan Akhtar? Readers of The French Lieutenant’s Woman — and viewers of the film that was subsequently made starring Meryl Streep — will remember the twist at the end, in the shape of two different endings. Now the buzz in Mumbai has it that Akhtar, who made quite a splash with his first film Dil Chahta Hai is going to do just that with his new film, Don — a remake of the 1970s classic. While staying close to the original, Akhtar has modernised the film to a great extent. And the film, the whisper goes, will have two endings. In both versions, the hero and the anti-hero — a double role played by Shah Rukh — will meet, but in one the good guy will die, and in the other, the bad guy will. Clearly, cinema in the time of multiplexes is all about choices. And there is no ‘yehi hai right choice, baby’.