Just saying so...

I do not understand why these actors and directors say things that they probably cannot figure out themselves:

“Tomorrow, if I have to play a prostitute and wear skimpy clothes, I will do it.”
- Vidya Balan

After the makeover, if she wants to show skin, then it is fine. But she ought to know that prostitutes are not the only ones to wear skimpy clothes. In fact, they do not wear short skirts, halter tops, and go around in bikinis. If she were the enact such a role from the lower strata she’d be surprised to see them dressed in sarees that are not even Yash Chopra’s chiffons.

Now that she is being called the thinking man’s dream, whatever that means, she is talking about her own niche even as she says people are comparing her with Hema Malini, Sridevi, Madhuri, Rekha, Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Smita Patil. Some niche!

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“In a film, there is collective contribution, an entire team works on it. Like for my most favourite song, Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, I give full credit to the composer and the writer. But if the film Kagaz Ke Phool would not have been made, nobody would have heard the song. A song is created from situations in a film that come from the script of the film. Therefore, I feel it a song is not separate from the film.”
– Aamir Khan

Smart. He chose a song that has nothing to do with him. Of course, it was heard because it was in the film, but the film did not do too well in the beginning. There are movies that flop, but the music becomes a hit. There are background songs. There are private albums that do well. It is time these people realised that without the dialogues and the lyrics, they would just be moving their lips.


For days there was news about his run-in with Javed Akhtar where he said that a song becomes a hit because it is picturised on a big star. He says he was misquoted. If that were the case, why did Javed Akhtar not contradict it? Why has Aamir contradicted only now? And even when he does, it makes no sense.

He ought to know that there are often song banks of composers (including A.R.Rahman) and if they suit a situation, they are chosen.

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“Nirmal was a beautiful, giving person with malice to no one, just love and yearning for spirituality. He was a genius actor that was willing to bare his soul. Such people are destined to leave early.”
– Shekhar Kapur

Let us forget Shekhar Kapur’s knowledge about how destiny works. If he was a genius actor, how come he did not cast him again? It applies to all those who have termed him brilliant but did not give him any roles, and he faded away until his death the other day at 48.


I did not see much of Nirmal Pandey, except in Bandit Queen and Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin. The media should avoid getting sound bytes from those who did not do justice to his talent, that they claim he had, but gain publicity by appearing as his well-wishers.