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Dec 6, 1999

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United Nations
Francis (extreme left) with the cast It's called Delhi Community Players (DCP). Key word: community. For a series of one-act plays this week titled The Whole Shebang, this multicultural theatre group is bringing together a cast of two American diplomats, an English scribe working for AFP, a Canadian teacher (incidentally, the wife of BBC's Daniel Lak), and an Indian stage actress. "The idea behind DCP was to bring contemporary American plays to Delhi," says Ruth Max, Calcutta-born wife of AP's Delhi bureau chief, who's co-producing the whole shebang with a British diplomat's wife. Director Padraig Francis, by the way, is an Irish diplomat. Whew! United Nations or what?!

Don't Stop When You Flop
Is Ram Gopal Varma Bollywood's Mahesh Bhatt II? The never-say-stop director has been churning out films this year, but remains unfazed by some unexpected flops. Barely had news come in of Mast's poor collections, than E. Nivas' Shool (produced by Varma), was out. And though reports on that aren't exactly hot, he's off shooting Jungle, a film on bandit king Veerappan, starring Sunil Shetty, Fardeen Khan and Hindi stage actor Shushant as Veerappan. "I'm very excited to work with Ramu," cooes Khan. Well ...

Catch a Falling Star
It's the sex-symbol image that made her a star. Now the tag might just be Urmila Matondkar's undoing. After four flops in a row -- Kaun, Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Mast and Dillagi -- the talk in the trade is that her clothes are worth watching more than her roles. Says Film Information editor Komal Nahta: "This is a case of bad luck combined with bad performances and good clothes." Change of image, any one?

Political Animal
The lady's got a thing for politicos. Last year, Padmaja Phenany Joglekar -- Mumbai-based microbiologist turned singer -- turned Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's poems into an album of songs. She's at it with V.P. Singh now. Turns out she met the former PM "the day after Atalji's album was released" and presented him with a copy. Singh in turn gave her a copy of his book Ek Tukda Dharti, Ek Tukda Aakash. "I set it to music, sang it for him over the phone and he said, 'Aapne meri kavita ko dulhan jaise sajaya hai (You have adorned my poetry like you would a bride)'." Sigh! (Postscript: The album will be out next March.)

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