A Track I Used To Know

Remember Gotye’s 2011 song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know?’ Who doesn’t! Well, its new local — or should that be ‘glocal’, because it’s shot in Pakistan and the US? — version is a brilliant take on the track featuring none other than singers Bilal Ali of Kashmir band, Bilal Ahmed of Tamasha, Afsar Hussain of Bayaan, Tessa Hoyos and Maheen — the Globe. It’s brilliant because, while retaining the flavour of the original number, it also has a dash of Shoaib Mansoor’s lyrically penned Ajnabi. Listen to it if you want to enjoy quality vocals and gentle rhythm.

Esra’s Xenophobia

Pakistanis like Esra Bilgic, the Turkish gal who plays the role of Halime Hatun in the hugely popular series Dirilis: Ertugrul. Well, they might have to slightly alter their views about her because of her recent tweets, in which she came across as an unthinking xenophobe. After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, she retweeted hateful tweets carrying hashtags such as “I don’t want refugees in my country” and “I don’t want Afghans here.” Although she did later take down the tweets after someone told her that she was spreading xenophobia and hate against distressed people, it might have helped had she first thought about her commercial endorsement in which she utters the lines ‘Mera naya ghar [My new home].’

Kubra Speaks Out

What a crowd of 400-plus men did to a young female TikToker on August 14 at Iqbal Park, where the historic Minar-i-Pakistan is situated, shocked all of Pakistan. Members of the showbiz community were no different. The likes of Mehwish Hayat, Kubra Khan and Ushna Shah took to social media to express concern at women’s plight in the country. For example, one of the things that Kubra K mentioned was, “Am I angry? Disgusted? Yes. More than that… I’m scared, terrified for the safety of our daughters, sisters, mothers.” You couldn’t be more right girl! This is a sorry state of affairs.

Marriage Query

When will fans in the Subcontinent learn that times have changed? It seems, never. Recently Indian actress Shruti Haasan did an Instagram Live session with her fans. As often happens, one of them asked when she was going to get married. Shruti H, showing restraint and coolness, replied, “I don’t think I am going to, to be completely honest. I think it is time we move on from this. It is 2021 and there are way more pressing issues in the world, more burning questions so… peace!” Shruti H dear, peace is something that they might not get until you tie the knot with someone or the other. So don’t bother yourself with their pieces.

Suhana and Khushi and Ibrahim

We all know that Archie Comics has signed a partnership deal with Graphic India. Ever since this took place, everybody has been trying to conjecture as to who would be cast in the Indian version of the Archie story if a film based on it were made. Well, gossip-mongers believe that Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana and Boney Kapoor and (late) Sri Devi’s youngest daughter Khushi have been roped in for the movie, to be directed by Zoya Akhtar. As for the titular character of Archie, apparently Ibrahim Ali Khan — son of Saif Ali Khan and his first wife Amrita Singh — will play that part. Hmmm… we think they should name the movie Archie in the Land of Nepotism.

Return of the Porsche

When Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriquez were an item, the baseball player gifted the Hollywood star a Porsche car on her birthday in 2019. Now since they’ve broken up, J-Lo (who has reunited with Ben Affleck) has removed all her photos with Alex R on Instagram. As a reaction, last week A-rod struck a pose with the red Porsche that he had given to her. This broke the internet, as everyone immediately recognised that it was the car that was presented to J-Lo as a gift. It means not only have they split, things have gone pretty sour between them… red-hot sour.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 29th, 2021