Eye Catchers

Making a music video? Find a gimmick. The latest attempt to make video history compresses a '70s Hindi flick for music group Instant Karma. Saamne yeh kaun aaya is the background score to a rip-roaring rip-off of the '70s: long hair, fluorescent bell bottoms, and a ludicrous dance competition with 40-year-olds pretending to be college students. Starring an extra called Raja, a model named Sanjay, veejay Ranvir as a DJ, and produced by a company called Phat Phish, it is, says director Anand Surapur, "a try at spoofing our own genre". Great going -- but what's a bottle of Mirinda doing in a college canteen of the '70s?

After John Wayne, who? Quick Gun Murugan. The dosa-chompin' south Indian cowboy hero of Channel V promos will soon have a feature film of his own. Will he defend helpless maidens? Certainly not. What he will defend is his faith: vegetarianism. "He will play the karmic protector of cows," explains director Shashanka Ghosh. And there will be no gunfight at no corral. Instead, QGM duels villain Rice Plate Reddy, who diabolically schemes to put meat and beef on Udupi menus. White Plains Drifter this ain't.

They aren't used to being shouted down. But journalists Arun Shourie and Pritish Nandy --both gentlemen unused to being interrupted -- might just have to get used to being cut short by their colleagues in their new arena of action: the Rajya Sabha. It's their party affiliations though that have raised the most eyebrows, but when asked about it, both men exhibited some nimble footwork. Says BJP candidate Shourie, former Indian Express editor, famous for his clinical, if long-winded, dissections of current affairs: " I can't speak either for the columnist or the party, I can only speak for myself." Nandy, the liberal poet who is, ironically, backed by the Shiv Sena, was deft too: " I don't see myself among the moral police." he says, later adding, "The liberals always influence the conservatives." See, they already know how to play the game.

RICKY MARTIN
Q & A
Malaika Arora

Those swivelling hips, those dreamy eyes. No wonder Ricky Martin, singer of the superhit Maria was mobbed by women during his day-long trip to Mumbai. And now the smouldering Puerto Rican superstar has been chosen from hundreds to sing the closing song for the World Cup. But who's the mysterious Maria? Read on.

Who is the person in your life?
A lovely lady called Icra (his dog, a golden retriever).

Then who's Maria?
Someone I saw on the street and whose beauty dazzled me. Her full name? Well, wait for the next song.

What do you love about India?
The serenity of the people and their eyes -- they are amazing.

What do you think about Indian music?
Zakir Hussain and his album Storms of the Desert is astonishing.

How will you feel when you sing at the World Cup?
Nervous, of course. But I hope I do not slip on a flower petal (he did in Brazil) and fall flat on my face.