"Death is like the loo. You got to go, you got to go!" It could only be a madcap genius like Woody Allen, who could unleash this witticism and take the sting out of something as terrifyingly inevitable as death.
When I got the news this morning from a friend, I was stunned! It was just a few months ago at the Kolkata Book Fair where we met up and had a brief warm chat. He was moderating a very interesting programme on Ray's Women, where he was in conversation with such class acts as Madhabi Mukherjee, Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore. Immediately after the programme, he took me aside and whispered wickedly. "Dada, hope you were not too bored with all the inane chatter!"
Witty, smart, clever, charming, articulate, Ritu and I go back to the early nineties when we first met at my sister-in-law, Aparna's (Sen) place at Alipore, Kolkata. I was living and working out of Delhi, so knew nothing about him. I remember him telling me that he was in advertising too - a copywriter - but his heart was into movie making. He had just made a children's film 'Hirer Aangti', but since he was not known and it wasn't well marketed, the film made no waves.
He was scripting his first feature film 'Unishe April' starring Aparna and Debasree Roy in the principal lead roles and could I please pray that it resonates with the audience? He admitted later
07:52 PM, May 30, 2013
New Delhi: In a recent interview given to 'The Variety Studio: Cannes Edition', Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat expressed her views about Indian society and how she relates to her character in forthcoming film 'Dirty Politics'. During the interview, Mallika says, "I was the first actress in India to kiss on screen and wear a bikini," she says. "Imagine in this 21st century. And instantly, I became a fallen women and...
12:29 PM, May 25, 2013
Mumbai: She isn't in filmdom for either fame or money, rather Soha Ali Khan wants to do good work and also clarifies that doing a remake of her mother's film is not on her wish-list. Daughter of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and late cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Soha said: "Why would I want to be in my mother's remake film? That would be like suicide for me because I...
06:07 PM, May 19, 2013
Guwahati: The recent Delhi gangrape shook the conscience of the nation, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said and underlined the need to ponder and "reset the moral compass" of the society during this difficult time. "Sometimes certain events shake the national conscience. Recently the brutal rape on a young woman in Delhi shook the conscience of the whole nation and it compelled us to sit back and think where we...
09:25 PM, May 13, 2013
'Go Goa Gone' a zombie-comedy film will see Saif Ali Khan in a never before seen avatar. He is also seen mouthing bad words. ...
03:57 PM, May 04, 2013
Mumbai: Actor Saif Ali Khan, who is seen mouthing bad words in his upcoming film 'Go Goa Gone', says, his mother Sharmila Tagore is concerned about it while wife Kareena is supportive. 'Go Goa Gone' a zombie-comedy film will see Saif in a never before seen avatar. He is also seen mouthing bad words. Asked about the reaction of his family to this, Saif says "my mother thinks it is...
09:58 AM, Apr 19, 2013
New Delhi: At a glitzy ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday honoured the 108 Padma Award winners. This year's winners include DRDO chief Dr Vijay Saraswat, cricketer Rahul Dravid, Olympic medallist boxer Mary Kom, actress Sharmila Tagore and Sridevi. Actor Rajesh Khanna and comedian Jaspal Bhatti were honoured posthumously. Here is the list of awardees: Padma Vibhushan Raghunath Mohapatra, Art S Haider Raza,...
12:07 PM, Apr 05, 2013
Kareena Kapoor, who wed Saif Ali Khan last year, says being married is not a crime for an actress. She believes personal and professional aspects of life must not be mixed. ...
07:11 PM, Mar 12, 2013
Sharmila says that punctuality was another virtue which she had to learn very quickly after her marriage to Tiger. ...
04:46 PM, Mar 03, 2013
The 34-year-old is appreciative of the kind of cinema the Indian film industry is witnessing currently. ...
01:34 PM, Mar 03, 2013
The inaugural Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial lecture was unfortunately missed by the late cricketer's immediate family members. ...
01:51 PM, Feb 21, 2013
The inaugural Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial lecture was unfortunately missed by the late cricketer's immediate family members with wife Sharmila Tagore being hospitalised because of bout of food poisoning. ...
09:26 PM, Feb 20, 2013
Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the state government on a petition filed by members of the erstwhile royal family of Bhopal, including Sharmila Tagore, on the issue of government's "interference" with the 800 acres of land near Bhopal's Upper Lake. ...
10:40 PM, Feb 13, 2013
Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Sharmila Tagore pledged to work for children's survival and development. ...
11:14 AM, Feb 09, 2013
Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor today said that post-marriage, she has transformed herself into a begum (princess). Kareena and Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan tied the knot in Mumbai in October last year after a five-year courtship. ...
11:04 AM, Feb 07, 2013
