Of Glam, Fashion, Parties and Marriage

Televisionpoint.com Special by Anu Ranjan
Apna Tango Charlie's angels; Aishwarya Rai, Nandita Das and Mallika Sherawat have all returned home from European film-city Cannes, while I've just arrived at the heart of the universes' filmdom, Hollywood, California... for a mini vacation of my own -- and more so, to get away from the heat being generated back home... Not just were temperatures soaring when I left, but the raavans of society seemed to be on heat too, with rapes becoming an everyday affair! Our police force's unreasonably high reaction-times, our dismal conviction rates and our more or less ineffectual judicial system has made living bloodcurdling for the average woman on the street... yeh kya ho raha hai...?

The media, shooting off the shoulders of various talking heads, conveniently blames Bollywood item numbers, raunchy music videos and provocative attires for the majority of this pandemonium in society, but what about the media themselves? Our electronic media is going all gung-ho, practically doing somersaults to beat each other at who can come up with more gory and more distressingly graphic crime show; shows that glorify and sensationalise these offences. The shows are even anchored by persons, who with their melodramatic gesticulation and appearance look like criminals themselves! Seriously, a debate is now mandatory; someone needs to draw the laxman-rekha regarding the media's role in projection of crime.

NEWS FROM LA-LA LAND
Returning briefly to where I'm at... The USA accommodates the homes of so many Bollywood greats, and the desi action here is non-stop, that it hardly feels like I've left home (except of course for small things like the cows, the dreadful and smelly roads, the power problems, the slums, the roadside muck etc. which are missing).

Madhuri Dixit, who's married to Dr. Nene, with kids, is living here happily-ever-after, so is the actress Madhvi, and so is Pooja Batra who had come over to visit me few days ago, with her marvellous-doctor-husband Sanjiv Alhuwalia. In fact, the golden jubilee birthday celebrations of Talat Aziz also just took place here in Los Angeles.

At a fabulous party hosted by his good friends Tony Ashai and his wife Jamila, at their breathtakingly beautiful, exotic, Spanish-style villa in L.A.'s very posh, chic, up market section called Palos Verdes. Tony, a successful architect, who eons ago had (unsuccessfully) tried his hand at acting too, has designed himself a staggeringly huge and stunning home theatre where all he does is watch Bollywood flicks! Also at the party were Pooja Batra and husband Sanjiv, fashionable Delhiites Ashim and Kenny Kapoor, Minal Sellassie, VP at William Morris Talent Agency... better known as the agency that handles assignments of clients such as Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry, and our very own Aishwarya Rai.

The sexy sundown which went on till almost sunrise was well attended, with over a hundred guests present, and it featured plenty well endowed belly dancers who teased everyone on the dance floor with their wild moves. Talat, who was accompanied by wife Bina and their son, got all emotional while cutting his big birthday cake and gave a very syrupy-schmaltzy speech, which doubtless flew over the heads of most drunken attendees!

IT'S PLAYTIME FOLKS!
Either our small screen stars are getting bored of their jobs or they're not getting any jobs, because suddenly there appears to be hordes of them heading for the stage! Few months ago, Shweta Kawaatra, Manav Gohil and Nausheen Ali Sardar gave the theatre a shot, now the sexy sister double-act of Nigar and Gauhar Khan is set to take the plunge. The duo will be making their debut in dramas `See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil' and `Kya Karen Control Nahin Hota' respectively.

Costarring will be Pooja Ghai (from Hatim), Ashiesh Roy, Jayesh Thakkar and Paritossh Painter (who also happens to be the writer and director of both the plays). Other celeb values in the play comprise Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Paintal, and Amit Bhel. Paristossh recently pushed the boat out to launch these plays at a bash, held at a suburban hotel in Mumbai.The party which lasted till midnight was at an undersized, overheated, claustrophobic venue which was chock-a-block with every dramatist one could think of... from now slim Darshan Zariwali, to Shwetta Keswani, Vrajesh Hirjee, hottie Salil Ankola, Manoj Joshi, Ashwini Kalsekar and Surbhi Tiwari.

Couples present included Rajiv and Rakesh Paul plus wives and Sumit Raghavan (of Sarabhai fame) also with wife. The list carries on... with Bakhtiar Irani, Ashok Pandit, Soha Ali Khan and the outstanding Bhairavi Goswami who toddled in ooh-la-la with her two plus points all perked up, by design! Rumour has it that recently she even won a "Page 3 award" for these same assets.... Hmmm... After all that, the very least she does deserves is a cameo role in Kya Karen Control Nahin Hota'!

INDECENT PROPOSALS
Considering his name sounds almost like he could be an offspring of Rohit Bal and Suneet Varma, the least one expects from fashion designer Rohit Verma is some sense of design... he recently displayed his wares at a maha-flop fashion show in Mumbai, and so the less spoken about his style (or the utter lack of it) the better! However, what I can tell you about are some other great designs, which were being created, invented and proposed by sting-operation-survivor Aman Verma, on three fine-looking belles, that very same night, at that very same affair!

Aman Yatan Varma, in his spring-summer 2005 haute-couture blossom shirt, was witnessed performing supersmooth manoeuvres on Ms. Mink first, then laying them strong on Madame Meghna Naidu and finally positioning them on top of item-number Rehmatullah Khan (of Munna Bhai MBBS fame). Doodh ka jalaa but couldn't-care-less Varma sahib was at it, through the course of the night... Wonder if any third of AYV's party moved on to his apartment that night... hey, his initials almost sound like hidden-camera Ruchi darling's protests... hai naa...!?!

And, while I'm still on the topic of darling's... Bobby Darling (who could easily pass off as Rohit Verma's lost-at-thekumbh-mela sister) was there too... teddy-bear hugging all in sight and when he wasn't doing that, she was gleefully striking poses for all the trigger-happy shutterbugs in attendance. Adam Bedi who strode in, looking as lip-smacking as ever, spent the evening yakking away with Dolly Thakore.

AND, GOODBYE IT IS
A double bidaai ceremony was held recently for ITC's top-brassers; GM, Grand Maratha, Dipak Haksar and VP Sarabjet Dhawan. The do was a mixed bag of emotions... sad hugs and bids adieu mixed with cheerfulness, for all the terrific times of their tenure... Fantastic wine flowed and a marvellous feast was served up. Only the cream of the crop attended this dinner... the cine world was represented by a blitz... from Randhir Kapoor, Chintoo Kapoor and Prem Chopra to Poonam Dhillon, Siddarth Kak with his wife, Poonam Sinha with her son Luv and Shashi Ranjan who was overheard complaining to Javed Akbar about the oddstench of sushi in the hallway.

Also present at the do were Mrs. and Mr. Yash Chopra -Yash ji was glowing like a bulb, thanks to DDLJ's 500-week box-office bonanza... undoubtedly an extraordinary feat, in today's age of three-day-hits!!! Not just that, considering the Midas Touch of the "Yash Raj Films" banner, and with the nations concentration fervently set on the arrival of "Bunty aur Babli", the gentleman sure has every reason possible to radiate!