Issue 249

www.samajweekly.com
ACTOR VIDYA BALAN FEELS
‘THE MOST ALIVE’ WHEN SHE’S
ON A FILM SET. HOWEVER, SHE HAS A
FRESH APPROACH FOR EVERY
NEW FILM
NEWS ART & CULTURE POLITICS RELIGION LITERATURE FASHION KIDS FILMS
‘I DON’T FEEL ANYSENSE OF
ENTITLEMENT’
It’s been nearly a month since Tumhari Sulu
released, but the adulation for Vidya Balan’s performance
just doesn’t seem to end. And if endless
calls and congratulatory messages on social
media weren’t enough, the actor recently
bagged the Best Actor award for Tumhari
Sulu and she calls it the ‘perfect’ icing on
the cake.”
Compliments from fans and appreciation
from critics notwithstanding,
Vidya says that getting an award is
an entirely different feeling. “It’s
gratifying, fulfilling, and humbling.
I only dreamt of being an
actor and I’m living that dream
every single day of my life.
When I look at these awards,
I just feel gratitude,” says
Vidya, who debuted with
Parineeta in the year 2005.
However, the 38-yearold,
who is celebrating her
5th anniversary with husband,
producer Siddharth
Roy Kapoor today, confesses
that she doesn’t
really get to see all her
awards she has won in
her 12-year career, regularly. “As I won most of
these awards before I got married, they are all sitting
at my family home. Sometimes, when I go
there, my six-year-old niece and nephew ask me
questions about them — if it’s made of gold or
who the lady there is — that makes me smile, and
of course, I feel grateful,” says Vidya.
With several hits to her credit, such as The
Dirty Picture (2011) and Kahaani (2012), one
wonders if it ever made Vidya complacent. She
reacts, “I’m the most alive when I am on a film set
and that’s what I thrive on. I love creating another
persona — living another person’s life, and when
fans react to it in a positive way, it’s a joyous feeling.
It makes you feel good, and yes, you feel that
you are safe, [that] your belief has been validated,
but I don’t think there is any sense of entitlement.
When I step into another film, I will still approach
it as a completely new one.” Asked if she has gotten
used to success - from films and box office
numbers to fans’ response and awards, Vidya says,
“I don’t know if I have become used to, but every
time, it’s a new feeling, a new experience, and
each time, it’s a new something that you are presenting
to people. Thus, the reaction to each film,
each story, is different, but Tumhari Sulu has, in a
way, hit the ball out of the park. And I feel that
both success and failure push me equally.”
21/12/2017
23
Prince Harry, Markle
to marry on May 19
London : Britain’s Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle
will marry on May 19 at
St George’s Chapel in
Windsor Castle near
London, Kensington
Palace said on Friday.
“His Royal Highness
Prince Henry of Wales
and Ms Meghan Markle
will marry on 19th May,
2018,” the couple’s official
residence said in a
statement.
Royal officials last
month announced 33-
year-old Harry’s engagement
to the 36-year-old
divorcee, who is best
known for her starring
role as a lawyer in the hit
television show Suits.
Markle is planning to get
baptised in the Church of England ahead of her marriage and will
apply for British citizenship. The couple are living in Harry’s cottage
on the grounds of Kensington Palace with Markle’s beagle
Guy. St George’s Chapel is where Harry was baptised and has been
the scene of numerous royal marriages, particularly in the 19th century.
Markle will also spend Christmas with the British royal family
at Queen Elizabeth II’s private Sandringham estate — the first
fiancee invited to Christmas by the royals.
Outside court, ex-CJ touches
feet of rape-accused Asaram
JODHPUR : A man in cyan-blue
jacket bent to touch the feet of Asaram
outside a court in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur
Saturday.
Asaram later told reporters in the
court the man was Surendra Nath
Bhargava, former chief justice of
Sikkim high court. The self-styled
spiritual leader has been in the
Jodhpur central jail since August 31,
2013, after he was arrested for raping
a teenage girl in Manai village. On
Saturday, as Asaram was getting
inside the court of metropolitan magistrate
number 3, which is hearing a
case under the Information
Technology Act, Bhargava walked
Urdu poets enthral at
Ferozepur mushaira
FEROZEPUR: Poets enthralled the audience
at the 10th All India Mushaira, the concluding
event of Mohan Lal Bhaskar Art and
Theatre Festival 2017, here on Saturday night.
The arena had guests from different spheres,
ranging from the military to bureaucracy,
besides youth.The stage had poets including
Nafas Ambalvi,Tarkash Pardeep, Vipul Kumar,
Nadeem Shaad, Nashir Naqvi, Altamash
Abbas, Adil Rashid, Ahmad Alvi, Ritaz Maini,
Musaver Firozpuri, Tarif Faraz and Shiv
Sharan Bandhu. Mohinder Ashq received a
standing ovation.
The event was organised in the memory of
former “spy” Mohan Lal Bhaskar, who was
awarded death sentence by a Pakistani court,
but a higher court reduced it to 14 years.
Retired Sikkim High
Court Chief Justice SN
Bhargava touched rape
accused Asaram's feet
while the latter was
being produced in
Jodhpur court in the sexual
assault case.
towards him and touched his feet.
The I-T Act case pertains to a caricature
of a judge hearing the sexual
assault case which was allegedly
made by a follower of Asaram and
widely circulated. “Despite being in a
high position, Bhargava came for my
‘darshan’,” Asaram boasted before the
reporters inside the court. Asked
about his presence in the city,
Bhargava said he came to Jodhpur to
attend a private function. “I happened
to be here. Socha chalo bapu aaye
hain to darshan kar lein,” he said. He
said he has known Asaram since
1983-84. “After I became a judge,
bapu ke darshan durlabh ho gaye,” he
said, adding that the judiciary will
deliver justice in rape cases against
Asaram. “Nyaypalika jo karegi wo
nyay hoga (whatever decision the
judiciary takes will be justice).”
God’s own country likely to get a holy tourism circuit
KOTTAYAM : A group of pilgrims from Goa
kneel before the tomb of St Alphonsa in Kerala’s
Kottayam. After prayers, a priest guides them
through the sprawling church complex, packed
with pilgrims from across the country. The 20th
century religious figure, who became the first
woman of Indian origin to be canonised in 2008,
is one of three Christian figures who are fast
becoming a big draw in the state.
The other two are 19th-century priests Saint
Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Saint Euprasia
Eluvathingal. The church of Kerala now plans to
connect the villages of all three —Alphonsa’s
Bharaninganam,Chavara’s Manannam and
Euprasia’s Ollur – to make up a holy tourism circuit
in the state. The three villages are all in a 150-
km radius. India has only six Christian saints, and
the last five have come in the past decade. The
first saint was a Eurasian, Gonsalo Garcia in
1862, but the next saint took 146 years -Alphonsa
was canonised in 2008. In 2014, Kuriakose Elias
Chavara and Euprasia were canonised. In 2016,
Mother Teresa was declared a saint.
“For the state, it is the fruit of faith and sacrifice.
Our saints are symbols of hope and sacrifice.
They lead us to light always. In Kerala, Christian
values and traditions blended perfectly so it has
every right to become the land of saints,” said
Syro-Malabar church spokesman Father Mathew
Chandrankunnel who is also managing affairs of
the St Alphonsa shrine in Bharaninganam. Many
in the community were dissatisfied earlier this
month when the supreme head of the Catholic
Church, Pope Francis, visited Myanmar and
Bangladesh but not India. “Look at the size of
Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Pope should have
been here first,” a believer busy with her prayers
at the Alphonsa shrine lamented.