What’s in a name?

It is the mark of the increasing politicisation of Bollywood that even the name of a newborn baby has become fodder for controversy. Kareena Kapoor became a mother last week, a proud moment for her and husband Saif Ali Khan. But soon, what should have been an occasion of joy, turned into a strange public debate. When Kareena and Saif decided to name their son Taimur, they would not have anticipated the bizarre reaction it would invoke in some quarters. The name sounds like Timur, a famous 14th century conqueror from Central Asia whose empire spanned much of the continent and whose armies came as far as Delhi to ransack and loot it. Ever since the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the general election two years ago there has been a resurgence of Hindutva nationalism. To them, Timur is a symbol of invasion. Whether Kareena or Saif had any inkling about the history of the name is not known and is really irrelevant. It is the prerogative of parents to choose what their child should be called. But many of the right wing Hindu trolls on social networking immediately began to put up offensive posts, ridiculing and haranguing the star couple over their decision. Someone even compared it to naming a child after Hitler while others put up details of the violence inflicted by Timur during his campaigns. That this brouhaha was over a little baby seemed to have missed them. At the core of such a reaction is a vicious communal mindset which looks at Kareena as a Hindu and Saif as a Muslim, and therefore, sees it as a humiliation of their religion. There were however plenty of people who came in support of Kareena and Saif. Like Rishi Kapoor, who put up a tweet, ‘Why are people so bothered what the parents want to name their child please? Mind your business, it’s got nothing to do with you. Parents wish!’. When someone started to troll him on this, Rishi again gave a stinging reply, ‘You mind your bloody business. Tumhare beta ka naam toh naheen rakha na? Who are you to comment?’. One columnist in an online news and comments portal made a very interesting point to highlight the silliness of the issue when she wrote that the name of Timur’s youngest son had in fact, been Shah Rukh!  Letting bygones be bygonesIt was just a few years ago that Priyanka Chopra and Karan Johar unfriended each other. The backdrop to it was an alleged affair that Shah Rukh Khan was having with her and Karan stood by his good friend Gauri, Shah Rukh’s wife. Stories quoting anonymous sources began to appear in tabloid about how Gauri’s friends, including Karan, had ostracised Priyanka. Karan, in retaliation, made a tweet in which without naming names he wrote, ‘Using their hired PR machinery, and hiding behind so-called ‘friends’ to get news into tabloids is nothing but spineless and lame!!! Some people need to wake up and smell the KOFFEE!!! Get a reality check before it’s too late!!! Grow up, and don’t mess with goodness.’ With the fullness of time, the Shah Rukh-Priyanka affair was reportedly called off, but it was not very clear what her equation with Karan was. Recently, at an event Priyanka reportedly walked up to Karan and greeted him, indicating that bygones were probably bygones. There is also speculation that Priyanka might be coming in Karan’s popular chat show, too.Aamir heaves sigh of reliefDangal has released, as expected, to rave reviews. Almost every critic worth his salt has fulsome praise for the long awaited Aamir Khan movie. The only person who was not confident about the movie seems to have been Aamir. As he says in interviews, the weeks before the release are the most nerve-wracking time for him. In fact, one of the recurring things that happen to him during this period with almost every big movie is he starts smoking again. He also gets friends to come and stay with him weeks before the release to get emotional support. The stress is not driven by the yearning for profits or awards, but whether the audience would like it, he says. As it turns out, he needn’t have been apprehensive because the verdict is unanimous — he has delivered a thoroughly entertaining and as well as meaningful movie. Other Bollywood stars like Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor couldn’t stop lauding it in Twitter.  There was also a very amusing exchange between Salman Khan and Aamir Khan over the movie. Aamir had hosted a special screening for Salman’s father Salim, who, after seeing the movie called up his son and said it was an even better movie than Salman’s Sultan. Salman then put out a tweet which said, ‘My Family saw #Dangal today evening and thought it was a much better film than #Sultan. Love u personally Aamir but hate u professionally!’ To which Aamir replied, ‘...in your “hate” I feel only love. “I love you like I hate you”’  Whether Dangal overtakes Sultan in the box office is now the big question. But, Aamir at least can rest easy given how much the audience is relishing the movie.Mysterious ‘separation’There is news that the Rajkumar Hirani biopic of Sanjay Dutt might be leading to some unusual interaction between Sanjay and the man who plays him — Ranbir Kapoor. At an event in which he had been called on stage to talk, Sanjay mentioned casually that Ranbir had been trying often to meet him, calling him daily and ask to spend extended periods with him to presumably get into character. But Sanjay said he was unable to be in anyone’s company for even 30 minutes and candidly stated that he was avoiding Ranbir. It became a minor controversy with film journalists speculating that things were not alright between the two. But in a press conference, Rajkumar Hirani, the director of the biopic, said that Sanjay was only joking and that everything was perfectly fine between the two stars.  It is an odd sort of joke to make though. Even if it was true, there is little chance that Hirani would confirm it! Send your feedback tobollywood.eye@gmail.com