Perfect Score

Newsweek famously called her "The Perfect Face" of 2003. During a visit to India, US-based model Saira Mohan showed she had a perfect pair of legs too. They were on display at ABN-Amro's Pro Celebrity Tennis Challenge in Mumbai. In Delhi, she exercised her grey cells, debating "The Role of Women in the 21st Century" at the World Economic Forum. She even squeezed in a shoot for designer Payal Singhal's ad campaign. "She is a thorough professional," says Singhal. You see, not all models sit around looking vacuous.

The K Factor

You would think the snog says it all. But after this photo of Kareena Kapoor and beau Shahid Kapur, apparently taken on a cell phone at Mumbai's watering hole Rain, appeared in a tabloid, there has been a lot of peering. For more reasons than one. Rain's pr agency says, "Shahid and Kareena deny such a thing happened," adding that they haven't visited since Kapur threw a bash for Kapoor in September. Letters have been exchanged between Kapoor's lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani and the nightclub. So is this morphed? You take a look.

24 Karat

CPI(M) Central Committee member Brinda Karat as screen mother, dancing at a wedding? Don't reach out for Das Kapital. Karat has turned Marxist orthodoxy on its head by acting opposite National Award-winner Konkona Sen Sharma in Amu, the English film on the 1984 Sikh riots by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Shonali Bose. For Karat, it was a 24-carat love. "Amu is a film by someone who is like my daughter. In fact, I would call Bose my daughter because she grew up in my lap," she says. Is this the first lap in her race to stardom?

NEW ROLE

For Bangalore, Nandini Alva is the mistress of makeover. Marriage to politician Jeevraj Alva cut short her fledgling career as a Bharatnatyam dancer. But after her husband's death, she opened beauty salons. She went back to public performances after nearly two decades. Now, having created Bangalore Habba on the lines of the Singapore international festival, she is playing cultural ambassador. "Despite the hurdles, it has been a wonderful experience," she says. She could as well be speaking of her life.

-Compiled by Kanika Gahlaut

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