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Madhuri's revenge!

Here's good news for Madhuri fans out there who've feeling mighty low following reports that Karisma Kapoor had stolen a march over La Dixit. With great reports coming in about Engineer,

Madhuri Dixit. Click for bigger pic!

the southern venture she stars in opposite Arvind Swamy, she looks all set to get back into the top slot.

Of course, awards for her roles in Dil To Pagal Hai and Mrityudand did silence some but there's nothing like it when both audiences and critics applaud, is there?

Now she can look forward with new confidence to her upcoming Wajood (opposite Nana Patekar), Pukar (opposite Anil Kapoor) and Arzoo (opposite Akshay Kumar).

Gotta give it to her, each time she's written off, she comes back to make her point.

Old Jat. No new tricks

Dharmendra. Click for bigger pic!

Dharmendra may like to be put on a pedestal but he knows how to come off it in style too.

It happened that choreographer Naimish wanted to get the Jat with what some term his two sinistral nether appendages to do some complicated steps. "When I say, 1, 2, 3, 4, move over to the other side," Naimish told him.

Dharmendra laughed heartily and said in Punjabi: "Yeh 1, 2, 3, 4... chad yaar. Mainu bata kithe jaana hai. Main pahunch jaoonga. Dance wance mat karao humse. Mainu koi nahin nacha saktha."

He admitted he couldn't do it, and yet established his standing in the industry. Smart ol' man.

One great letdown

Urmila Matondkar. Click for really BIG pic!

We chanced to see the rushes of Satya, the new film by Ram Gopal Varma. But, alas, instead of the promised biography of Dawood Ibrahim, here was something else. But, to Varma's credit, the film is really something else. And unlike earlier movies, it showcased Urmila Matondkar as an actress, not just the shapely bod she undoubtedly is.

The change in script apparently had something to do with some polite advice Varma got, though the director himself denies it to perdition come.

But the way its been made, the movie looks better off without Dawood.

Samaritan Salman

Salman Khan. Click for bigger pic!

Salman Khan may be bad news for some, but there's one family at least that sees him as the good Samaritan of the parable. Here's the story:

The other day Khan was driving back home when he saw a blood-bespattered boy lying on the road -- clearly a hit-and-run

Khan stepped out, picked up the boy, put him in the car, and took him to hospital. Then he found the boy's address, called up the family and remained till they bundled in, a mixture of fear, confusion and awe.

Assured things were all right, the family enthusiastically waved goodbye to the star.

And soon after he left, the local florist popped in with a big bunch of flowers. Courtesy Salman.

So what is happening to the man. Despite piling on all the muscles, is he getting soft in the chest?

Still hangin' in there

Rekha. Click for bigger pic!

While the younger 'uns may wonder if Rekha was Methuselah's classmate, they surely can't find another actress of her age who can still play lead roles. And we aren't just talking Mother.

Soon after that sizzling negative role with Akshay Kumar in Khiladiyon ka Khiladi where she used that hourglass figure to eye-popping effect, she's acting opposite the young man again in Keshu Ramsay's next venture.

Shucks, considering we were praising Madhuri's tenacity, Rekha's done one better. When d'you think she'll toss in the towel?

Smart boy

Rahul Bose. Click for bigger pic!

Rahul Bose appears to be going places. His arrogance apart, Bose is getting beyond roles that bordered on noveau art and which catered to the city elite, to movies targeted -- ugh, of all things -- at the masses.

Mind you, the only reason Rahul's doing it is because Takshak is a Govind Nihalani film. After English August and Bombay Boys, he couldn't do something as crass as a Bollywood film without at least an art label as consolation, could he?

Takshak, starring Ajay Devgan and Tabu, is already expected to deviate considerably from the norm set by Nihalani's old films -- more rural Haryana than uptown Cannes.

But if Rahul obliges Govind, he's quick to refuse the director's brother Dayal,, who first blotted his copybook by entering commercial cinema and messed up further by making a pair of flops.

Call him snooty or sly, Rahul sure is saavy. Wot?

-- V S Srinivasan