Cross Border Appeal

Indian screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar heard Pakistani singer and actor Moazzam Ali Khan croon out a song on social media. The writer, who is also a poet, liked his voice so much that he expressed his desire, on X (formerly Twitter), for the Pakistani artist to get in touch with him and to sing “a few songs for us.” The latter responded immediately by thanking the “legendary Javed Akhtar Sahab” profusely. This reinforces the fact that the artist community knows no boundaries, even if the visa issuing authorities do. Moazzam A K, best of luck!

Truth Be Told

This girl has a heart of gold. Who? Swara Bhaskar. And she doesn’t beat about the bush. After Israel violated the ceasefire in Gaza and killed hundreds of children and women, the Bollywood actress took to the internet to express her anger: “We live in a world where it’s apparently acceptable to slaughter 400 children in one day because they are Palestinian. What an utterly despicable act of terrorism. I will say it again and again: Israel is the terrorist.” Swara B, yours is the rare sachi [true] voice in Bollywood.

Unrecorded Times

Cate Blanchett is one of the greatest actresses the world has produced. She is a bit of an old school sage as well. Notice how she feels about the modern-day pervasiveness of recording devices at award functions: “There’s so few spaces that you can go now where you are private. That’s what I loved about the late ’80s, going to all of the dance parties in Sydney for Mardi Gras. People were just there. They were so present, they were just together, collectively, having a great time. It was non-aggressive. No one was being recorded. Go back to the day when it wasn’t televised. Bring that back and just have a great party where people can just let go.” Cate B, we’re afraid, you can’t turn back the clock but we hear you.

The Better Half

Danish Taimoor may talk about polygamy, but his wife Ayeza Khan is into bilateral relationships. Or so it seems. The actress has shared a picture of hers on board a flight with an emoji of an Indian and Pakistani flag shaking hands. Naturally, everyone began to harbour the notion that she is off for some joint Indo-Pak project. What project? By the time of the filing of this news item, it hadn’t come to light. In the famous words of her husband, “Filhaal” [for the time being], we can only wish her lots of success for her future endeavours.

Mom’s Pasoori

In 2022, a song titled Pasoori, sung by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill for Coke Studio season 14, became a global hit. We thought no music lover either disliked it or was indifferent to it. We were wrong. Ali S’s own mother, Jugnu Mohsin, isn’t an admirer of the track. A clip of her has gone viral in which she can be seen saying that she told her son: “I don’t like this song. I like more traditional music, like Punjabi songs and ghazals, for example, ‘Gulon mein rang bharay.’” Well, Ali S has sung ‘Gulon mein rang bharay’ but not everyone liked it.

Looking the Part

Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has come a long way after a period of struggle. He openly talks about it. He says he looks like countless people in India, which is why, when he started acting and began to get roles, he was sometimes even stopped from entering movie sets because he didn’t ‘look like an actor’. Recently, answering a question at a festival, he has been quoted to have said, “During interviews, journalists would say, ‘You are unconventional looking’. How am I unconventional, when crores of people in India look like me? It’s Hrithik Roshan who is unconventional.” True. Thankfully, Nawaz S, your acting was not Bollywood conventional.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 6th, 2025