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Eyecatchers
One in
Ten
 Something
to take your mind off match-fixing: When England's Marylebone Cricket
Club recently honoured the top 10 performers in the 100 Test matches played
at Lord's, guess who was the only Asian on the list that included Don
Bradman and Gary Sobers? Dilip Vengsarkar, that's who. "We
(only Bradman couldn't make it) walked on to the ground and watched our
younger selves on video clips being played on a giant screen," says
the now-44-year-old former Indian captain, the only player to score three
Test centuries at Lord's. "It was a very moving experience and the
proudest day of my life." We're just as moved, skipper.
Et Tu
Kerala
 It's
proof of the Bard's universality and Kathakali's adaptability-if any was
needed. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is being performed these days
as Charudatham in Kerala. And mind you, this isn't about Caesar
in bulky costume spouting Malayalam. In this "Indianised" version
by Sadanam K. Harikumar, Caesar becomes Charudatham, Cassius is Dandi
and Brutus is Jayasenan. "Kathakali will end up as a museum piece
if innovations in form and content are not tried out," says Harikumar,
who is now writing a play based on King Lear. Not much response
from the state's conservative Kathakali clubs. But hey, in God's own country,
you make your own rules.
Plain
Speaking
 Critics
don't scare him. So when a newspaper asked filmmaker Subhash Ghai
to review journalist-turned-director Khalid Mohamed's Fiza, Ghai
lambasted its "sketchy characterisations, incoherent script, screechy
background music". And here's an insightful remark from an unedited
version of the review that's on his website: "If my review praises
the movie beyond it deserves, (sic) I may be branded as sending lollipops
to promote my own interests ... otherwise, I risk losing the soft corner
in their hearts". Got to hand it to him: he risked it.
Case File
 She's
an ex-model and Jackie Shroff's wife. He's the nephew of producer-director
Subhash Ghai. Now Ayesha Shroff (seen here with hubby) is being
sued by Hitesh Bhari for what his lawyer Hasnain Naqvi describes as "a
case of clear cheating". It seems her distribution company Quest,
which is distributing the rights for the film Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta
Hai, allegedly chose Bhari's company for the rights in Karnataka and
Hyderabad, then realloted them to other companies. An incensed Bhari has
turned to the courts. And Ms Shroff is playing safe now. No comments,
she insists. The Mumbai City Civil Court might have something to say though.
Compiled
by Anna M.M. Vetticad
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If
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for get real---says INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Chengappa in
