CHANDIGARH INDEX


Big FM tunes in 
 Smriti Sharma
After the heavy rains, it’s now raining celebrations in the city. Just a day after the much-awaited Valentine’s celebrations, the city got a gift long overdue. Finally, Chandigarh got its long expected FM channel, Adlabs’ 92.7 Big FM. True to its name, the launch was a big affair with people from the industry, local RJs and celebrity RJ Rajeshwari Sachdev descending upon the city for the launch. Chandigarh is the Adlabs’ 12th station in exactly twelve months from 2006 after setting up similar stations in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jammu, Srinagar, Aligarh, Jhansi and Bikaner.

The team of Big FM makes a pretty picture at the launch. — Photo by Manoj Mahajan		 The team of Big FM makes a pretty picture at the launch

Rajeshwari Sachdev ‘I love challenges’
 Bharatnatyam dancer, singer, actor and now RJ. Smriti Sharma chats up Rajeshwari Sachdev
Her name, the charming demeanour, dusky looks, wide smile, repertoire of peppy folk songs and Punjabi numbers… Punjabi, we presume. She brushes aside such thoughts. “My grandparents came from the undivided Punjab. That’s all,” says the hulle hullare girl Rajeshwari Sachdev, as we try to trace her Punjabi connection. Perhaps it’s this desire to retain her Punjabi connection that draws her to the city. “I always look for excuses to visit the city,” she tells. But with each visit she brings along something new, something fresh. And this time around, this glam lady’s come as the star radio jockey for Big FM. She shares notes on this one and more. So how did it all start? “With an onset of a new year everyone has a things-to-do list, but for me it just happened. I was simply told to start RJ-aying from January 1”. And this is how our lady started shuttling between her city, Mumbai, and Delhi to co-host the four-hour breakfast show Big Chai along with city lad Ayushmaan Khurana. “It was literally like being thrown into the sea,” she laughs.

Small wonder!
 All of seven, Kavita Bandlish has 200 stage shows to her credit and now she’s working with Bobby Deol Smriti Sharma
Getting an opportunity to work with Bobby Deol, director Sangeet Sivan’s untitled production is the biggest thing that has happened to Ananya Bandlish until now. All of seven years, this class 2 student of Ryan School, is a little star already. She has to her credit more than 200 stage shows with Punjabi music stars Sarabjeet Cheema, Malkeet Singh, Jassi, Dolly Guleria, Gursewak Mann, Babbu Maan and Rani Randeep. Her tryst with fame began when she was crowned Rose Princess at age of three during the ‘Rose Festival’ in 2001. If her dances capture audience attention her acting prowess are no less. Perhaps it’s the lead role that she had essayed in plays like Cinderella, Snow white and Jaadu Ka Dweep that lead her make up her mind to be an actress one day. She has inherited her glamour streak from her mother Kavita Bandlish who was once a ramp model. Besides dancing, acting and modelling, she happens to be a complete tennis buff and is equally good at painting and drawing, says her mother.

Ananya Bandlish strikes a pose. — Photo by Manoj Mahajan

 Ananya Bandlish strikes a pose

Poetry in monochrome 
 Kanwal Singh captures the drama and mystery of black and white photography
Texture, gradation, interplay of light… and you thought photography was all point and shoot! For these professional from various fields, the drama of black and white photography is timeless. Monochrome is their passion, a mystery that simply deepens, drawing them into its fold.

BIG PICTURE
Lensman Vinay Malik captures the beauty of land, sky and sun from the cockpit of an AN-32
SOARING HIGH: Lensman Vinay Malik captures the beauty of land, sky and sun from the cockpit of an AN-32. 

From the spaces within
 Anuradha Shukla
The spaces, the pauses, the movements in between the scenes, all contorting to make even the silences speak is what Kirti Jain was here to train students of the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University. This former director of the National School of Drama, teaching at NSD and director of famous plays like Subaranalata feels her “job is to train the imagination of an artist, for imagination is central to creativity.”

Meaning in melody
 S D Sharma
“Ghazal, being endowed with a rich sublime melody and the pure charm of romantic poetry, has kept music aficionados all over the world spell bound across the centuries,” claims noted ghazal and playback singer, Vinod Sehgal. Basking in the glory of two Platinum disc awards for his hit renditions in serial Mirza Ghalib and film Machis, the maestro has resolved to promote ghazal singing in the region.

Chikankari delights
 Anuradha Shukla
If you just can’t wait for the winters to be over to get into your favourite chikan outfits, the on going exhibition at the Aroma Classic is the place to be. Spotless whites in cotton and georgettes decorated with the fine Chikan embroidery work reminding of the sunny summers to wear them are a treat for the eyes.

SIDE LANES
 Levels of stress
 Joyshri Lobo
Newman is blonde, six, with huge blue eyes. His parents visit India often on teaching assignments. Kay, the mother, is a beauty with red hair and green eyes. Patrick, the father, is over six feet two, blonde, is a black belt in karate, with a heart like a marshmallow. He cannot bear his son’s tears and is often stressed out by the harsh reality around him. He reacts with a bad tum, but smiles through it.

Cleopatra busted
She’s believed to be one of the most beautiful seductresses to have ever walked the earth, but the discovery of a 2,000-year-old coin has busted the myth. Archaeologists discovered the old coin hidden in a bank vault, and found that the last Egyptian queen had a shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and a witch-like nose. As for Cleopatra’s Roman lover Mark Anthony, well it seems that he too doesn’t fare too well, what with him being portrayed as a man with peculiar bulging eyes, a hook nose and a rather thick neck.

‘Couldn’t have asked god for more’
 Vidhu Vinod Chopra on Eklavya, life and future plans
His film Parinda was one of the most critically acclaimed films in the 90s with its unusual Hollywood-style lighting, slick editing and taut screenplay. It gave the young Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who had earlier directed thrillers like Sazaye Maut, Satyakatha and Khamosh, his first major commercial success. Even 1942-A Love Story and Kareeb could not replicate the Parinda magic.

NEW RELEASES
 Will it, won’t it?
After a hiatus of seven years, the versatile Vidhu Vinod Chopra, known for his slick, sensible films is presenting Eklavya. Naturally, there are high expectations from the 120-minute film, which deals with the fact that once cannot follow your dharma blindfolded.

FILM & FASHION
 Madonna named most stylish star
Material Girl Madonna has been named the most stylish star by British magazine Elle. The Hung Up star was honoured with the title of top Style Icon by the publication for her outstanding contribution to fashion since the 1980s, and was praised by the Elle Style Awards panel for her ever-evolving image.

YOUTH SPEAK
 Words from the heart
Literature is treated more as a subject than the art form it really is. We all understand literature. Apparently. Its nothing more but words stringed together to make sense. We “literates” can read and write and hence we take it for granted that literature as far as we are concerned is well within our grasps. But the common man gives not much importance to literature today.

City’s pride
Khayali, Jonita host a comedy show on TV
Jonita Doda, model-turned actress from the city, and comedian Khayali Saharan, also from Chandigarh, have been roped in to anchor Comedy Champions on Sahara One Television. Talking about the show, Saharan and Doda said, “We want to reach out to the viewers and put a smile on their face. They are tired of the saas-bahu sagas.”

Indian Cowboy to hit US theatres
Another desi film Indian Cowboy is to hit theatres in the US later this month, close on the heels of two such successful earlier releases - American Desi and American Chai.