Talk of the town

Kajol Devgan and Rati Agnihotri were a picture in contrast at the premiere and subsequent launch party for ``Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi'' last Thursday. Theirs may be a gap of nearly a decade in terms of mass appeal, but in terms of amiability the latter still stands out.

At the film's premiere, Rati was complimented for her gorgeous looks. ``Isn't she as appealing as my mother?'' asked Kajol. However, it was at the launch party that Rati's amiability triumphed over Kajol's irritability.

With the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Ms. Maneka Gandhi, and her son, Varun, being among the invitees, Rati was very sociable at the party interacting with all guests and mediapersons.

In stark contrast, Kajol arrived late, did not meet the Minister, and walked straight to a corner where she told the photographers in tow, ``Ten minutes, please!'' The director, Rahul Rawail, had no option but to put forward an appeal from his side too to the photographers.

As the cameramen started objecting, Kajol pleaded that she was just making a friendly appeal. Her mother, Tanuja, chipped in: ``She has worked hard all through the night. We are also human beings and entitled to some privacy.''

Kajol's irritability and Rati's sociability might have their own reasons, but it was truly ``Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi''.

* * *

Uniting under one banner to spread the message of patriotism on this Republic Day will be some well-known names of Bollywood who will present a star-studded musical show on January 26.

To be held simultaneously in different parts of the country, the special show, ``Hum Ek Hain'', will have top stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor and Sonali Bendre among the participants.

Conceptualised by the Principal Secretary of Maharashtra, Mr. Govind Swarup, and the Cine Artists Association, the show will be presented by actor Shatrughan Sinha and film maker Pahlaj Nihalani. The show will be inaugurated in the Capital by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and telecast live on the national network. A repeat telecast will be shown on Sony later.

Claimed to be the first of its kind in terms of technology, the event will be simultaneously telecast from different States as it happens. Providing a musical touch to the event will be a patriotic song of a different kind. While the ``mukhda'' of the song will be sung by artistes in Delhi, singers at Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai will complete it by singing the rest of the ``antara''.

* * *

It sure was a piggy-back ride for some of the organisations that facilitated the Delhi visit of the ``Living Einstein'', Prof. Stephen Hawking, this past week. Wherever they went, they basked in reflected glory so much so that his lone public engagement in the city -- the Albert Einstein Lecture-2001 -- saw them turn it into a ``sponsored programme'' of sorts.

At Siri Fort, the screen -- providing the backdrop for Prof. Hawking's lecture -- bore his name in fine print while those of the host and sponsors were twice the size and in brighter shades. As if that was not enough, one of the sponsors -- Discovery Channel -- even ran a promo of a Hawking series they plan to air shortly.

But the zeal of the Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science (CPFS) to derive mileage from the Hawking visit appeared to have robbed the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, of his chance to listen to the physicist's lecture.

No doubt security concerns would have made it difficult for the President to sit in the audience as he desired. But the CPFS Director, Prof. Ranjit Nair's disclosure of the contents of a Presidential communique in which the First Citizen had said that no special arrangements be made if he attended the lecture sealed the issue.

(Contributions by K. Kannan, Lakshmi Balakrishnan and Anita Joshua).

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