Shock Item

Will the golden oldies learn to play their age? Recently, it was Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia's screen reunion in the forgettable Pyaar Mein Twist and now it is Kapadia's former husband Rajesh Khanna teaming up with Zeenat Aman in director Shahrukh Sultan's Jaana. The duo play a couple meeting after 25 years, which is roughly the last time the two shared screen space. Khanna woos Aman with Zindagi ek safar. Looking at the sad picture they make, it is the audiences who may have to suffer.

Little Star

Remember young Michelle McNally in Black? The 11-year-old talented Ayesha Kapur is playing a beggar in music director Aadesh Srivastava's 12-minute film on child prostitution Sanaa, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Now mother Jacqueline is negotiating an American film for her part-German, part-Punjabi daughter. Great going girl!

A Different Beat

First it was Zakir Hussain who extended his musical range with a starring role in Merchant Ivory's Heat and Dust. Now it is 38-year-old Bikram Ghosh's turn. The tabla player has released six solo albums and is now acting in Choy-his second film-in which he plays a fashion photographer. But ask him if he is following Hussain's footsteps, and he says, "No, I would like to be different. Maybe I will create a Bikram Ghosh Gharana." That's not on a very different note, is it?

Filmi Twist

It is a typical filmi story, only one hasn't heard it in a while. Ayesha Mohan, a 20-year-old Delhi girl and the lead in Anurag Kashyap's next film Gulal, met the director at a film appreciation workshop in the capital two years. Kashyap asked her to do theatre and come back. She made a documentary, worked in short films and came to Mumbai. Initially hired as casting incharge, Mohan stumbled on the lead role when one day she filled in for the male actor just to give the cues and, says Kashyap, "She was phenomenal." We'll see that on the screen.

-Compiled by Kimi Dangor

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