In Passing
All for music
SUCHITRA BEHAL
She is the voice behind countless peppy Bollywood numbers. Singer Asha Bhosale who turned 75 recently said that music kept her going. “I love participating in music shows. Even where people do not understand Hindi there is an empathy with the audience. That is the great beauty of music.” Of course she has had her share of ups and downs and looking back, she reminisces about the days when she had a tiny baby in her arms and would bus it back and forth to the recording studios. “But these don’t last forever,” said the singer. Bhosale says the one person she really misses is R.D. Burman. “I feel bad that he was not there to witness the success of his music in ‘1942: A Love Story’. He’d always make me sing all the dance numbers. When I complained he would say’ only you can sing these numbers, no one else’” As she looks back on her life and her relationships, Bhosale has no misgivings. “Life is energy and one must live it to the full.”
Good Samaritan
Here is a star who does more than pay mere lip service. Actor Suniel Shetty, who also runs a water sports company in Mumbai, was distressed on reading about the floods in Bihar. So he picked up the phone and spoke to minister Lalu Prasad Yadav offering not only monetary help but also additional manpower and rescue boats. “I just felt I had to do something for those guys,” said Shetty. “My boys are totally motivated and are happy to help. They are also willing to risk their lives but because they are so well trained they will do a good job.” He said he was glad that his company could do more than offer money. For most viewers, Shetty’s onscreen image has mostly been that of the bad guy but reality, as they say, is different from reel life with Shetty playing the role of the good Samaritan.
For a riveting script
It’s been acclaimed a winner. But it’s a dark film that takes a hard look at a subject now so much part of our daily lives.
Ask Naseerudin Shah why he decided to play a middle-aged terrorist in “Wednesday”, pat comes the reply, “I’d have taken whatever role was offered for this film. The entire script is riveting. Here is a man, just like you and me... Yet this one man hijacks all sanity in a city. It made me stop and think: even terrorists are human, so are the police; these are individuals after all, with what ever convictions they may have.”
That, according to Shah, is the essence of this film’s difference as opposed to other films on the same subject. He is convinced that as a people we have to talk about issues, we have to learn to resolve them and “brushing them away into the confines of a dusty corner will only make it worse.”
While Shah is happy and excited about his recent work, he hopes the audience will appreciate it too.
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