Krishnamoorthi's bubbly persona is back on TV

MUMBAI The stay-in-the-background chapter of singer and actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi's life is over. Now, Shekhar Kapur's wife is back with a bang. While she falls back on her old skills for two feature films and an album, she is reinventing herself with a play and a TV chat show.

As anchor of Zee TV's new talk show Hum Aur Tum, Krishnamoorthi comes across as bubbly but composed, trying to make the most of her gift of the gab. "It's about love ... different people talking about it. And what makes their world go around," she says. What she would really like to do though is "interview live-in and gay couples".

While she took time to make up her mind about being a talk-show anchor, she says she instantly took to the idea of two Ram Gopal Varma films that now dot her busy schedule. Galti Se, in which she stars opposite Anil Kapoor, and Jaan Boojhke started off as one project which later became two separate films. Both are slated for an August 2004 release. In Galti Se she plays "a demented housewife". "I don't have to pretend anymore," she says with a laugh.

Jokes apart, it is obvious that Krishnamoorthi has not been whiling away her time indulging hubby Kapur or accompanying him to glamorous events across the world. She has been seriously investing it in writing. "I have written an English play titled Candle Light. It is a musical and my first ever," she says enthusiastically, adding that it is about the journey of a woman trying to find a voice in a male-dominated society. It is a cliched idea but Krishnamoorthi says she has written the best role for herself. She is still looking for a director for Candle Light but is determined to play the lead role herself.

Little wonder then that she is so full of cheer. "My next venture into singing, Udle (Fly away), is about the joy of freedom. It has very happy music," says Krishnamoorthi. For this album, she is working with composer Raju Singh who has composed the title track of the popular soap Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin.

Surely her heart sings but whether her career will fly or not, is something that hum aur tum will have to watch out for.

-By Vanita Singh

Just Troy It

NOIDA When a film like Troy, which celebrates love and war, is released it provides an excuse to mix partying with promotion. Radisson MBD has organised a Greek dinner festival on the Troy theme at the S18 restaurant. Two warriors usher you in while the staff in white Grecian robes fuss around. The Mediterranean menu dotted with Moroccan and Egyptian dishes is no longer Greek to the Indian palate. There are the usual babaghanouj and tahini, moussaka with almonds and the very sweet baklava. A variety of Grappa wines-a strong, heady peasant brew adds sparkle. What really flies is the quail in mango sauce. The meal may inspire you to watch the film. Till July 4.

-By Shefalee Vasudev

Play of Imagination

Dancing on Glass explores the psyche of IT employees

BANGALORE The city's most prolific English theatre company, Black Coffee, ushers in its second annual festival with three original creations. Founder-director Preetam Koilpillai, along with his actors and writers, has experimented with a new genre in a bid to bridge the lacuna in contemporary writing in modern theatre.

Dancing on Glass, written by Ram Ganesh Kamatham with inputs from actors, focuses on the IT industry and BPOs. Khel dwells on a true incident that took place between two communities playing a cricket match. Bodycatcher grew out of an idea developed by Alistar Boucher and Amy Thornton, British volunteers who worked with Black Coffee. It is fable-like with larger than life characters and music.

For Bangalore's theatre audience, accustomed to tried and tested plays, this festival should be a welcome change. From July 5 to 10 at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore.

-By Nirmala Ravindran

A Tired Tale

DEEWAR: LET'S BRING THE HEROES HOME Director: Milan Luthria Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna

Are Pakistan and India the same? Deewar, based mostly in the neighbouring country, says yes. There too, nubile young damsels in backless cholis do seductive rain dances, policemen are dumb and the bad guys-jailors with kohl-lined eyes-are relentlessly bad. The film is a good idea but it is literally pummelled, whipped, battered to death.

Deewar is an action drama in which a group of Indian PoWs try to escape from a brutish Pakistani prison. The son of one of the prisoners and a thug help them. But between hatching the escape plan and the Indian border are interminably long sequences of sorrow, longing, punishment and a few irrelevant songs. The prisoners, a singularly unsubtle lot, dig a tunnel and sing about soon returning to their motherland.

Amitabh Bachchan, in fine form, gnashes his teeth with conviction and Sanjay Dutt has a ball hogging the film's best lines. But despite them, Deewar feels almost as long as the PoWs' 33-year internment.

-By Anupama Chopra

Bollywood's Knight of Honour

Shrikant Kadam pays tribute to Husain with "Dialogue

Yash Johar did not go gently into the good night. Two days before being rushed to the hospital for a final week-long battle with cancer, he attended the premiere of Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya. The 75-year-old film producer was frail but feisty. He pumped hands, held animated conversations and went home only after the film was over at 3.30 a.m. A year of battling the disease and 11 sessions of chemotherapy had sapped his body but not his spirit.

Yash was a fighter. In his five decades in the movie business, he experienced titanic highs and spine-breaking lows. He started as a production controller in 1952 (he worked on both Dev Anand's Guide and Sunil Dutt's Mujhe Jeene Do) and established his own banner, Dharma Productions, in 1976. The company had middling success with films like Agneepath and Gumrah until 1998 when his son Karan Johar made his directorial debut with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Karan's creative vision combined with Yash's business acumen changed the fortunes of Dharma Productions. The relentlessly lavish Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and the superbly cool Kal Ho Naa Ho firmly placed the banner on Bollywood's A-list.

But Yash will be remembered for more than just success. In an often dishonourable business, he was an honourable man. His motto was: kill with kindness. He was unstintingly generous and always helpful. He often got teased because he never missed a funeral. No matter who the person was or where it was being held, Yash always went to support the grieving family. He also had a terrific, salty sense of humour. He loved to tell stories of his production days when he painted cows black to pass them off as buffaloes. When someone suggested to him that Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham would make history, he replied, "No it won't. It will make history, geography and everything else." Wherever he is, he is probably smiling.

-By Anupama Chopra

Soothing Strains

Music of the Valleys; Music Today; Rs 75

When images of beautiful valleys spring up in the mind, the sound of the santoor and the flute are not far behind. And what better combination than Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on the santoor and Hari Prasad Chaurasia on the flute?

Music of the Valleys features shimmering images in sound. The compositions interpret the mystery and beauty of the changing moods of the valleys. They span different musical idioms-from classical raga to folk-based melody. Whispering winds is a riveting piece while Flirtation is sprightly. Very easy on the ears.

-By S. Sahaya Ranjit