To-Be Hubby

Mehwish Hayat has finally come round to the idea of getting married. Earlier, she was busy with her career. Now, she has begun giving it a thought. What kind of a man does she want in her life? According to her, he should be kind-hearted, and how he navigates his professional and family life is important… These elements are taken into account because “in marriage it’s not just two people, it’s two families coming together.” You’re absolutely right, Mehwish H, but you might have to wait for quite a while for such a man to arrive in your life… unless you already have your eye on someone.

Menace of Abuse

Recently, unnerving pictures of actress Nargis, in which she can be seen as having faced severe domestic violence, became the subject of public debate. Film star Resham was quick to comment on the issue. She said the images that everyone saw were nothing compared to what she had seen when she visited Nargis’ home. Resham said that, in order to protect her home, Nargis had left the world of showbiz, but she couldn’t protect it. Well, it is a sorry state of affairs. We praise Resham for telling it like it is and hope Nargis does something concrete about the situation sooner rather than later.

Now SRK Under Threat

Like everyone else, we were disturbed when we got to know that Salman Khan had received death threats from a group of gangsters led by the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi. Last week, the Indian media reported that Shah Rukh Khan has also received such a phone call. Investigations revealed that the call was made from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, by a man named Faizan. By the time of filing this news item, the details of the police report hadn’t come out. All we can say is that Indian authorities need to revisit their slack attitude towards criminals and tighten security around showbiz celebs, especially those belonging to minority communities.

Ex Praise

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck may be separated, but no one can stop them from applauding each other (or one of them applauding the other). Talking about J-Lo’s performance in the latest film Unstoppable, which he has produced, Ben A has called his no-more-wifey “spectacular”. Interestingly, when she was asked to say something about the project, the actress/singer used the same adjective, underlining that everyone involved in the film was “spectacular”. What a spectacular ex-relationship!

Grammy Great

Beyonce has made history. Her latest album, Cowboy Carter,is doing so well all across the globe that it has enabled the pop icon to get 11 Grammy nominations for the year 2025. Not just that, it is for the fifth time that she’s been included in the Album of the Year category, and that makes her total tally of nominations 99. This means she has become the most nominated artist in the history of the Grammy Awards. Wow! Congratulations Beyonce! Waiting for you to corral 100, cowgirl.

Prayers for Sanity

What’s happening in India? People show their communal colours in response to the most innocuous of issues. Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh have named their daughter Dua. It’s an Arabic word which means prayer. This hasn’t gone down well with many of their Indian fans and they have inundated social media with Hindu or Sanskrit equivalents to the name, such as Prathna. Give us a break! Give the couple a break! Give yourself a break, you bigoted people! It’s just a name. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.”

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 17, 2024