Nobody can forget ‘Thapad se darr nahi lagta saab pyaar se darr lagta hai’ the dialogue that made a star. Sonakshi Sinha, laadli beti of Shatrughan Sinha was an overnight star after the release of the film and as time went by, Sinha grew from strength to strength.

But the film industry is a cruel place and the more success it gives you the more controversies surround the actor. The same happened with Sinha.  There were stories of a rift between Sinha and Khan but the stories died a natural death when the two appeared together again for Dabangg 2.

The franchise is now ready for a third round and soon Khan Sinha will begin shooting for Dabangg 3 like they say the magic begins…

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Cinema is in her genes. Daughter of Babita-Randhir Kapoor,grand-daughter of Raj Kapoor and Hari Shivdasani and great grand-daughter of Prithvi Raj Kapoor was launched by South filmmaker Drama Naidu in Prem Qaidi when Karisma was only 16 years old.

Watching her last night on India Today Conclave on television I was pleasantly surprised that Karisma was not dismissive of her films and proud to take ownership of her roles and songs including ‘Sexy sexy mujhe log bole’. It was a conversation with two Kapoor sisters (Karisma and Kareena) on films, family, and feminism in cinema.

Karisma explained that she celebrated her 17^th birthday on the sets of her first film and that she was very scared initially when the critics attacked her for performing songs like ‘Sarkaile khatiya…’ from Raja Babu a but as she got older and had a better understanding of what was expected of her she chose her films and songs more carefully like Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani or Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hain which even got her a National Award for the supporting actress.

But her best award she said to the interviewer is her children because there is no greater joy than watching your children grow and she is a proud mother of her two wonderful children.

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A Hindi adaptation of Yerma by Federico Gracia Lorca director Mahesh Dattani presents a new play Maati conceived or the DSM students. Maati tells the story of a girl heralding from a family of landless shepherds, she is married to Jatinder a farmer with a very fertile land and Maati’s only desire is to beget a male child who will then make her as complete as the bountiful earth.  It does not happen for a long time and she seeks answers from everyone including the Goddess.

Director Mahesh Dattani explains that he was drawn to Yerma for many reasons: the overt theme of fecundity and its extreme polarity, barrenness, then the mystery of the complete and the incomplete and also the woman and the man. The climax is the surprise and that too only as conjecture. “What goes on in Yerma’s mind affects her in ways she does not fully comprehend; her desire for a male offspring is not social conditioning, but a need to get the maleness out of her own body. She is afraid of becoming more like a man and voices her fears to strangers”.

Dattani is one of the most successful playwrights of Indian theatre and a prolific director. He is the only Indian-English playwright to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his work and his notable plays include Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man, Night Queen, Tara to name a few. He has also ventured in film direction and has won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cairo Film Festival for his work. He was one of the 21 playwrights chosen by the BBC to write plays to commemorate Chaucer’s 600th anniversary. Currently, Mahesh is working on an original script of writer Shanta Gokhale’s Menghaobi – the fair one based on activist Irom Sharmila produced and directed by Mahesh.

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Evening Shadows, a feature film directed by award-winning filmmaker and gay rights activist Sridhar Rangayan has been creating waves at its screenings, first in Sydney and then in Bengaluru with houseful shows.

While the main story is of a mother-son bond that has to stand the test of hidden truths, it is more about traditional families in small-town India. More than a coming out gay film, Evening Shadows places women at its center; oppressed women caught up in a patriarchal system.

The five women who weave the story together try to smile through their tears to touch your heart and raise important questions about the status of women in small-town India. A subject like this granted a UA certificate for the first time, empowers both women and LGBTQ communities.

Mona Ambegaonkar who plays the main protagonist says women are the fountainhead of civilization. Yamini Singh says she accepted film because it is about choices. Written by Saagar Gupta and directed by Sridhar, Veena Nair, another character in the film plays Lata, a woman married to a gay man hiding in the closet. Disha Thakur, the fourth protagonist to raise her voice who plays Neela, the bride-to-be and finally the oldest of them all Kala Ramanathan who plays the matriarch of the family.

Premiered at the Bengaluru International Film Festival, Evening Shadows was screened in Amsterdam at the Roze Filmdagen film festival and also at Outfest Fusion in Los Angeles last week. Director Sridhar Rangayan will be attending the European Premiere of the film in Amsterdam along with producer Karim Ladak.

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Nominated by his school to participate in the Inter-School Photography Exhibition ‘Vana Mahotsavam’ in 2015 Dev not just won the first prize the first prize but also invited to paint live at the ‘Art Mela’ organized by his school in 2016. His Paintings, Digital Art and photographs are an inspiration.

It is unusual for an artiste to also excel in sports but Dev Mehta is an exception. He has participated in inter-school football tournament for boys under age 10, got recognition for participating in Handwriting contest n national level. He is the youngest activist associated with Nina Foundation, an NGO for friends with spinal cord injury and has over the years designed and painted their annual calendars.

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This was evident when he exhibited 40 of his paintings at Bal Disha Children’s Day a special exhibition organized by the Maharashtra Government for young child artists. For the Kala Ghoda Art Festival 2013 Dev he painted a Suzuki Baleno car and another masterpiece called ‘Chalti Ka Naam Mumbai.’

Like all youngsters he was consumed by the gadgets and drawn to the digital medium. The first time he downloaded an App called SketchBook Pro on his iPad and voila – colourful faces and forms were created with just a few strokes of his fingers. It was a matter of time that he got attracted to the camera, both with his iPhone as well as a DSLR camera and he shoots effortlessly. He has a cinematographer’s vision and his every frame is lyrical.

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In the coming years, little Dev graduated to a bigger canvas and explored different mediums. He was as comfortable with watercolors and the pastels as with the crayons and the acrylic. The more he discovered the more he wanted to know. He befriended the oils and the charcoals and when that tired him he flirted with the sketch pens and the digital and all this without any coaching or any tutor.

He is probably the only artiste in India to hold his first solo exhibition when he was under 10 Rhapsody in 2009 and Trancestroke in 2012. Dev received special recognition for this and was awarded the Robin Age (Weekly Children’s Newspaper) Bright Sparks Certificate for Spatial Intelligence as well.

The editor of Cambridge University Hindu Cultural Society’s – Sanskaar Magazine, London, UK invited Dev to participate in their contest because she believed there is a spiritual connection in all his creativity and is able to interpret the reason why he paints the way he does.

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