This is not realism; it's real. What else would you
call a film in which Rohit Bal and Shweta Shetty pop up to play themselves? It's called Love You Hamesha,
and it's about some youngsters who gravitate towards Mumbai in search of fame and fortune.
Says co-director Aarti Surendranath: "We wanted to depict real-life people in
real-life situations." So you have Bal in the role of a designer ("I discover
the heroine and make her a superstar model") and Shetty playing a singer who makes it
in Mumbai. Of course, she's singing, but she swears this is her first and last foray into
films. "In music," she explains, "you are your own boss, and that is what I
want to be." Remember the words of Johnny Joker -- "Dil to kisi ka khilona
nahin (the heart is nobody's toy)." Obviously, nor is she.
People's Pop
"This will be a real mass, janta product," says Sweta Agnihotri of
HMV. And who does the janta vote for? Govinda, of course. Going by his
record in films, when the movie star makes his pop debut, he might just hit it off with
the crowds. His album -- which boasts numbers in Hindi, Punjabi and English, with music
and lyrics by his sister Kamini Khanna -- will be ready in three to four months, but can
he really sing? "I've sung before in some of my films like Aankhen and Dulaara,"
says the star. "My sister suggested this, so I said yes. Let's see how it goes. I'll
try my best to do my best." We can almost hear him say it: Meri pant bhi sexy,
meri shirt bhi sexy, yeh album bhi sexy hai ...
A Final Settlement
The happy wanderer has settled
down. Actor Chunkey Pandey, once best known for fuelling his old flames,
has made what his mother calls "a janam janam ka connection". Going by
what ma says, 23-year-old Bhavna Khosla -- his wife from January 17 --
has connected all right! With mother, son and some others! She is Chunky's "destined
life partner", said a family friend and tarot-card reader. She's even got the sultan
of smart talk to sober down. "I've finally found the right person," says Chunkey
simply. This from the guy who once held that "being unmarried is worse than being
married, because you know that marriage might happen some day. It's like this -- which is
worse, being dead, or being alive and knowing that you will die some day?" Dead or
alive now, Chunkey?
Her Own Woman
After years of being known as her parents' child, Meghna
Gulzar is striking out on her own. The daughter of actress Raakhee and
director-lyricist Gulzar has moved from assisting dad and film maker Saeed Mirza (she
worked with him on the critically acclaimed Naseem) to "working for
myself". Meghna makes her debut as an independent director with two documentaries --
one on maid servants, the other on private security agencies of Mumbai -- both
commissioned by DD3. "When I started off," she says, "the question was,
what kind of films should I do? Thing is, I don't ever want to decide, because whether
it's a documentary, feature or ad film, so long as I'm expressing myself, I'm happy."
Right now, then, she should be thrilled. Apart from the documentaries, Meghna is also busy
with the script for her own feature film. Don't ask us about it -- she's not talking.
This is not realism; it's real. What else would you
call a film in which Rohit Bal and 
"This will be a real mass, janta product," says Sweta Agnihotri of
HMV. And who does the janta vote for? Govinda, of course. Going by his
record in films, when the movie star makes his pop debut, he might just hit it off with
the crowds. His album -- which boasts numbers in Hindi, Punjabi and English, with music
and lyrics by his sister Kamini Khanna -- will be ready in three to four months, but can
he really sing? "I've sung before in some of my films like Aankhen and Dulaara,"
says the star. "My sister suggested this, so I said yes. Let's see how it goes. I'll
try my best to do my best." We can almost hear him say it: Meri pant bhi sexy,
meri shirt bhi sexy, yeh album bhi sexy hai ... 
The happy wanderer has settled
down. Actor Chunkey Pandey, once best known for fuelling his old flames,
has made what his mother calls "a janam janam ka connection". Going by
what ma says, 23-year-old Bhavna Khosla -- his wife from January 17 --
has connected all right! With mother, son and some others! She is Chunky's "destined
life partner", said a family friend and tarot-card reader. She's even got the sultan
of smart talk to sober down. "I've finally found the right person," says Chunkey
simply. This from the guy who once held that "being unmarried is worse than being
married, because you know that marriage might happen some day. It's like this -- which is
worse, being dead, or being alive and knowing that you will die some day?" Dead or
alive now, Chunkey?
After years of being known as her parents' child, Meghna
Gulzar is striking out on her own. The daughter of actress Raakhee and
director-lyricist Gulzar has moved from assisting dad and film maker Saeed Mirza (she
worked with him on the critically acclaimed Naseem) to "working for
myself". Meghna makes her debut as an independent director with two documentaries --
one on maid servants, the other on private security agencies of Mumbai -- both
commissioned by DD3. "When I started off," she says, "the question was,
what kind of films should I do? Thing is, I don't ever want to decide, because whether
it's a documentary, feature or ad film, so long as I'm expressing myself, I'm happy."
Right now, then, she should be thrilled. Apart from the documentaries, Meghna is also busy
with the script for her own feature film. Don't ask us about it -- she's not talking.
