The 12th Man

The trailer for an upcoming film Baarhwaan Khilarri, starring Danyal Zafar, Shaveer Jafry and Mahira Khan, is impressive. The project does look promising. However, we were thinking that since the phrase ‘baarhwaan khilarri’ — meaning the 12th man in the game of cricket — became popular after the great Urdu poet Iftikhar Arif wrote a poem with the same title decades back, did the makers of the movie talk to him, consult him or inform him about it? We’re not saying he owns the phrase. But still… there’s something called ethical integrity.

Hybrid Ragaton

Ali Sethi and Shae Gill are basking in the success of their Coke Studio song Pasoori. It is a good track, without a shadow of doubt. But Ali S appears to be taking it with more excitement than it perhaps merits. In order to classify the song, he wrote the following on social media: “It took us a whole year to make this song, to blend the Turkic, Indic, Arab, Persian and, yes, the global, placeless, ubiquitous ‘beats’ vibe that is also our inheritance. But I think we created a hybrid new genre in the process. Abdullah Siddiqui, I want to call it Ragaton.” Nope, it’s a very good pop song.

Love and Comfort

Talk about PDAs (public displays of affection). Well, in this case, not in the visual sense, but in the verbal sense. Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor have been going out for a few years now. News is that soon they’ll be tying the knot as well. Last week, talking to a journo, Alia B gushed with emotion about the relationship, saying that, at this juncture of her life, she’s a dil wala, a little bit of romantic and, because she’s in love, she’s “reached a comfortable state.” Hmmm… Girl, hope you’ve heard the saying, “The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.”

Lock-Up Wish

Kangana Ranaut will soon be seen in a reality TV show called Lock Upp, in which she will host famous and not-so-famous individuals in a lock-up. Plugging the programme at its trailer launch in Delhi, when asked who among the celebs she’d like to put behind bars, the name that the actress mentioned without missing a heartbeat was of Karan Johar, calling him her best friend. There could be two reasons for saying that, bad and good. She wants him to suffer or she’s been cast in his next film.

Princess Act

Kristen Stewart is winning accolades for portraying the character of Princess Diana in Spencer and has even earned a best actress Oscar nomination for this year. You would think that she knows all about the royal family. Not true. During an interview, when discussion turned to where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have shifted from England, presuming she knew about it, she had no clue. When she was told it was California, she said, “Makes sense. It’s really nice up there.” What doesn’t make sense, with such dismal general knowledge (GK), how did she prepare herself for Princess Di’s role?

Angry Jonah

Actor Jonah Hill (Don’t Look Up) is known for his wry wit. It seems, though, that these days he gets livid at the slightest provocation. Recently, news started doing the rounds on the internet that he’s popped the question to his girlfriend Sarah Brady (who is a surfer, by the way). After tolerating it for a while, he took to Instagram and wrote, “The rumours are not true. I’m engaged. But not to my girlfriend, I am engaged to your mom. I know this is shocking, but please respect our privacy at this time.” Come on Jonah H, cool it. Don’t ride the wave of anger just like that.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 27th, 2022