Maestro-stroke

Five years ago, his sons Amaan and Ayaan co-authored a book dedicated to him, titled Abba: God’s Greatest Gift to Us. And now, sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan plans to write a tome himself, and an autobiography at that. “I am hopeful that it will be published soon,” is what the musician had to say about it earlier this week, before he left on a two-week foreign tour. “It will cover my entire musical journey from the age of 12 years,” he added. His wife, Subhalakshmi, confirms that the sarod legend has the book on his mind, though she says the project is still “pretty much in the air, and Khan Saab is yet to give it his full attention”. That’s fine. The fans, needless to say, will wait.

Home, not alone

Aung San Suu Kyi may be pining away under house arrest in Myanmar. But hundreds of miles away, at a gathering in Delhi this week, she was more present only by being absent. On Tuesday, Myanmarese refugees, veteran journalists, politicians and human right activists got together in the capital to celebrate the leader’s birthday by releasing a publication titled Celebrating Solidarity. Comprising letters from Myanmarese resistance groups exiled in India, letters from Suu Kyi’s party and even a letter from one of the 34 prisoners from Myanmar currently held at a Calcutta jail, the booklet claims that the prisoners are actually Myanmarese freedom fighters, who have been languishing there for the past nine years. The protesters held demonstrations at various parts of the capital, blaming the plight of the prisoners on the shift of the Indian government’s stand on Myanmar. Birthday or not, Suu Kyi herself probably couldn’t have celebrated it in a better way.

Salsa magic

Okay, so India woke up to Salsa fairly late. But singer and salsa dancer Giju — who incidentally also holds a Silicon Valley job in the US — now plans to make up for lost time, by coming out with his debut album that he says is the first ever Indian album based on Salsa. Called Rang Rangeeli, the album consists of eight original songs in Hindi, including a duet with playback singer Sadhana Sargam, and is scheduled to hit the shelves in Mumbai on Friday. Apparently, the album debuted at the San Francisco World Salsa Congress late last year, and is now on its way to get houses rocking across India. “I know that Salsa is getting pretty popular in India, and I hope people will feel happy to dance to a song that is in Hindi,” says Giju, who is also a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. On to the floor, then.

Item on item

Are Esha Deol and Tusshar Kapoor an item by themselves? Hard to tell, though word is now out that both are pitching in with item numbers for Rohit Shetty’s forthcoming film, Sunday. While the daughter of Dharmendra and former dream girl Hema Malini will dance to Shibani Kashyap’s tunes along with actors Ajay Devgan and Arshad Warsi, Tusshar will perform to the music of UK singer Raaghav. Tusshar admits that he has never done an item number before, and hence jumped at the chance when Shetty suggested it. In fact, he was so excited that he made himself available for the shoot the very next day after the director approached him. And the director is understood to have allowed the actor to choose his own costume for the special appearance, which is being choreographed by Ganesh Acharya. But would the item numbers add any Friday sizzle to Sunday? That remains to be seen.

Crooning glory

From Mrigaya to Guru, Mithun Chakraborty has indeed come a long way. But did anyone guess he would now try his hand — er, voice — at singing? Going by initial reports fresh off the press, the former film icon, who recently turned 53, has done some fervent crooning with Bollywood diva Asha Bhonsle in a new album. Not surprising, considering that Bhonsle has, in the past, managed to get celebrities ranging from Sanjay Dutt to Brett Lee to lend their voice to hers. But who would have expected the Bengal superhero to try his luck in the recording studio, now that his domination on celluloid is all but a thing of the past? But it would be nice to hear him sing — as long as the sub-woofers don’t go kaput, that is.