The female characters Sanjay Leela Bhansali has crafted in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar are fierce, manipulative and audacious. In contrast, the creator paints a picture of vulnerability with Richa Chadha’s Lajjo, who drowns herself in alcohol and delusion after being dumped by her lover. Over the past few days, the actor has been winning love for her part, which echoes well beyond its two episodes.

Chadha notes it is Lajjo’s pain that is resonating with the audiences. “Lajjo is a human reflection of this world’s pain, of people’s loneliness. She suffers from lack of love and wants to belong to someone desperately. People have always seen me play a tomboy or a boisterous part. This is a shift,” smiles the actor, who stars with Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Sharmin Segal in the series.

A lot of her love for Lajjo comes from the sheer joy of working with Bhansali. Giving shape to the creator’s vision of the character has been both exhilarating and demanding.

“He juices every ounce of you. I love being pushed to my extreme, feeling like, ‘Oh my God, I know nothing.’ On a bad day, you are destroyed. But the next day, you rise with a new confidence. Working with him is an ego-destruction exercise. People on other sets will tell you that you’re an amazing actor. When you come here, he’ll say, ‘Faltu! Kya hai yeh?’ With him, I went back to the rasa of acting. Once I caught [my character’s sur], I understood why it felt like a raw wound. Playing her felt like being in a world of ghazals. Sanjay sir is carrying forward the torch of storytelling in this subcontinent that represents greats like K Asif and Kamal Amrohi. This is a way of preserving our heritage.”

But many actors in Pakistan feel Heeramandi, which tells the story of Lahore’s courtesans, is an attempt at appropriation. Bhansali admitted that when it was conceptualised as a movie, he had considered casting Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan.

Chadha defends the show, saying, “I don’t see it as appropriation. My character’s name is Lajwanti. My grandfather is a Punjabi from Lahore, Sharmin’s grandfather studied in Lahore University. Our roots are the same. Most of us would love to see a world without borders, [bound] by a spirit of love. Appropriation would be Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily in Pan [2015]. In the original story, Tiger Lily was a princess from the Piccaninny tribe, native Americans who inhabit Neverland. Here, we are the same race.”

Pakistani actor-singer Ali Zafar, who recently hosted Javed Akhtar and performed in front of him, has now reacted to the veteran writer-lyricist’s earlier remarks on his country.

Last week, at the Faiz Festival held in Lahore, Akhtar had spoken about how perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks are “roaming freely” in Pakistan.

Reacting to this, Ali took to his Instagram Stories and stated that Akhtar’s remarks could “deeply hurt the sentiments” of people. He wrote, “Guys, I love you all and truly value your praise and criticism equally. But I always request one thing — verify facts before reaching any conclusion or judgement. I was not present at the Faiz Mela nor aware of what was said until the next day, when I saw it on social media.”

He went on to add, “I am a proud Pakistani and naturally, no Pakistani would appreciate any statement against its country or people, specially at an event meant to bring hearts closer than farther. We all know how much Pakistan has suffered and continues to suffer at the hands of terrorism. Such insensitive and uncalled-for remarks can deeply hurt the sentiments of so many people.”

Lahore: The perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks are still roaming freely in Pakistan, so Pakistanis should not feel offended when India talks about the 2008 carnage, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said at a festival held in memory of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz in Lahore.

In a video that has gone viral, he is seen making these comments in response to an audience member who told him to take with him a message of peace and tell Indians that Pakistan is “a positive, friendly and loving country.”

He further said, “We should not blame each other...The atmosphere is tense, that should be doused.”

The 78-year-old lyricist also said that though Pakistani artists have been welcomed in India, Pakistan has never held a single show of the late Lata Mangeshkar. “We hosted big functions of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mehdi Hasan. You never organised a function for Lata Mangeshkar,” he said. 

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut praised Javed Akhtar for his candid remarks in Lahore about the 26/ 11 terror attacks, tweeting: “Ghar mein ghuss ke maara (He hit them in their own land)”.

“We are people from Mumbai, we have seen the attack on our city. They (attackers) did not come from Norway or Egypt. They are still roaming freely in your country. So if there is a grievance in the heart of a Hindustani, you should not feel offended,” Akhtar said at the seventh Faiz Festival that was hosted by Adil Hashmi, the grandson of the poet Faiz. At the Lahore event, Akhtar spoke at length about language, poetry, performing arts, love and friendship.

He left Pakistan on Monday after the conclusion of the three-day festival which attracted a large audience from all walks of life at Lahore's Alhamra Arts Council. He said Urdu's original name was Hindvi and when everything was divided (during the Partition), “Urdu being a language could not be divided, so it was pushed to Pakistan).”

Regarding lack of depth of performing arts and arts, the lyricist said speed of communication has come at the cost of depth.

For musician Adnan Sami, his birthday falling on the same date as India’s Independence Day is not a coincidence. The Lahore-born singer firmly believes that he was always meant to be an Indian citizen and is grateful to share his birthday with his country.

“Today, I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as a coincidence. My destiny was written in India. My future and my dharmabhoomi were all connected to India. The love I have for India was so rooted from my childhood that it was like the angels were telling me. ‘You need to shift your focus over there’. I can’t write off this part of my life as mere coincidence. It’s far deeper than that,” he shares.

Sami, who turns 50 this year, says, “The way God created my destiny, it was almost as if it was planned that I was supposed to be an Indian. It was my destiny to be an Indian. It was unfortunate that the Partition happened, but God had his own way of telling me that I belong here. It’s like my birthday was the biggest hint that I belonged to India.”

The musician may have got his Indian citizenship only in 2016, but he admits that his relationship with India started the day he landed in the country for the first time in 1999 for work. “That was a start of an incredible love affair, and it continues, and reflects in my music and in everything I do. I’m a romantic at heart, I write love songs. And the ultimate love story I have is with India,” he muses.

However, Sami can never forget the struggle he had to face in order to get through the citizenship process and the fact that his application got rejected for technical reasons.

He recalls, “I never lost hope, I never gave up. I said, ‘I’ll do it again’. And that’s why it took me 16 years to do it. People think that one fine day, I became an Indian citizen. They have no idea how long I had to wait. And it was worth the struggle. I’d have waited another 16 years,” the Padma Shree awardee continues, “I just felt that this was home, right from the moment I landed here for the first time. This was the missing piece of the puzzle which made my life complete. I’ll never take it for granted.”

While the singer-composer is overseas with his wife Roya and daughter Medina, he says they do have some big plans for his 50th birthday. “Agar meri taraf se celebration mein koi kami aati hai toh woh pura desh poora kar deta hai. Everybody has a reason to smile on my birthday and I love that! It’s very special,” Sami concludes.

Mirror (January 13, 2015) had earlier reported that Saadat Hasan Manto who authored close to 300 short stories, 100 radio plays, numerous essays and film scripts before his untimely death at the age of 42, is the subject of Nandita Das' next directorial after making her debut with Firaaq in 2008. She has the full support of his three daughters, Nighat, Nuzhat and Nusrat, and other family members who live in Lahore. They have shared many nuggets from his life, not found in books, which have been incorporated into the screenplay.

“Manto is not a typical biopic but will focus on the seven most tumultuous years of his life, from 1946 to 1952. It takes us through his glorious days in '40s Bombay, the Partition and then his downward spiralling life in Lahore. The repeated obscenity trials made things worse for him, but he continued to be prolific and sharp with his pen. His fight for freedom of expression is all the more relevant today,“ Nandita had said earlier.

Mirror has now learnt that Nandita wanted to shoot some portions for the film, featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Manto, in Lahore as the writer had moved from Mumbai (then Bombay) to the newly created Pakistan in January 1948 following the Partition. However, owing to the ongoing Indo-Pak tensions post the Uri attacks on September 18, the actor-director will now shoot these portions in India.

“We all know that Manto spent three-fourth of his life in India but had to leave Bombay, the city he loved, and spent only his last seven years in Lahore. So, to maintain authenticity, we did have plans to shoot in Lahore. But considering the present situation between the two countries, we will need to shoot those portions somewhere in India. We are looking at several options. I have recently returned from a recce in Delhi,“ informs Nandita.

She had first read stories by Manto in college, and later much of Dastavez, a five-volume collection of his work. She says, “I have always wanted to make a film on his works, but his essays made me realise that his life was equally stirring and dramatic. Today, I feel equipped, both emotionally and creatively, to tell this story that so needs to be told.“ Nandita earlier shot for Deepa Mehta's 1998 period drama, Earth, which featured Aamir Khan, in Delhi even though it was set in Lahore. She starts rolling with Manto in the third week of December.

“After a short break, we will shoot till end of February. I'm currently busy with the prep and have a million things to put together!“ sighs the actress director who has co-written the script with Mir Ali Husain who has earlier written Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor.

Dalbir Singh, 61, is the older sister of Sarbjit Singh, a farmer from Bhikhiwind in Punjab (just 5 kms away from the Indo-Pakistan border). He by mistake crossed over in 1990 while farming, got mistaken as an Indian spy, was given capital punishment in 1991, but was not hanged. He was kept in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for 23 years, before he was killed by inmates a few days after the death of Afzal Guru in India. During his 23 years in jail, his older sister Dalbir Singh who treated him more like her son than her brother, made it her life's agenda to get him released. While she finally did not succeed in getting him released, she is determined to reach his real story to the world through a film being made based on his life. The film will be directed by Omung Kumar, the National Award-winning director or Mary Kom. Dalbir Singh met her brother only three times in those 23 years. She opens up to Bombay Times for the first time after her brother's death in 2013 and recounts the three times she met her brother in jail. Excerpts:

Did instances like the Kargil War affect you?
At the time of Kargil, I got very scared. There is a nearby village called Khasa, where many army officers live. I went to meet them and asked Brigadier sahab, given the situation how it would affect the way Pakistan would treat our prisoners. I was scared that if there would be war, how would the prisoners come out? I met another Brigadier who told me that if there would be war, we would open up the jail and release the prisoners, so that an innocent man should not get bombed and die in jail. But he didn't know what the Pakistanis would do. We would feel scared that Khuda na kare, if there was a bomb thrown in jail, how would he be able to run? My heart would sink if there was a flood or earthquake in Lahore.

How did Sarbjit actually cross over to Pakistan?
Our village is just about 4-5 kms from the border. I myself have gone many times to the other side while working together with the women from the other side on our fields. We would be working on our respective fields and some times, even eat a meal together with the Pakistani brothers and sisters on the other side. Gradually and slowly, the situation got bad to worse and they first put a rough line to segregate the boundary and then, there were some fundamentalists on both sides who did not have good thoughts. Though I believe that ours were not as negative as the people on the other side. There would be things smuggled in across the borders, but the women had good behaviour towards each other and there was no enemity. However, if there was anybody who went the other side by mistake, they would be caught and put behind bars termed as 'spies'. That night, we had finished our dinner when a friend of Sarbjit came and took him to the fields to work. The field was right next to the border. As is usually the case in Punjab, the men drink and then work. Sarbjit and his friend too had their full share of drinks and then, Sarbjit put his axe on his shoulder and not realising which direction he was walking, he walked into the Pakistani side. At that time, there was not even a wire to show the borderline. He was caught and blindfolded and only the next morning, he realised that he was in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail, accused of being an Indian spy by the name of Manjit Singh. Sarbjit was very fond of playing kabadi and he would often tell me, 'You wait and see. One day the world will know me as this famous pahelwan.' I didn't know then that he would one day become world famous, but not as a kabadi player. When Sarbjit suddenly disappeared, I initially thought that he must have been picked up by a terrorist group. But it was nine months later when he was first presented in the Pakistani courts that he wrote a letter to me, telling us how he had been arrested, accused of being a man called Manjit Singh, who was allegedly behind four bomb blasts. He asked me to please get Shri Akhand Sahib path done. After that, in every subsequent letter, he wrote to me details of what he went through. I have all his letters kept in a big bag with me. On August 15, 1991, he was held guilty and sentenced to be hanged. But for so many years, they neither released him nor hanged him despite my making so many appeals and requests for his forgiveness, even though he had committed no crime.

Why was it difficult for you to meet him?
I did not even have a passport, but right from 1990, I tried a lot to go but I never got the permission. At times, I would read in the newspapers that yes, his family can come and meet him, but then, there was a call from Pakistan that there was news printed there that they would not grant us permission. Finally, I met Rahul Gandhiji and took his help to get the visa for me and finally got the visa along with my husband, Sarbjit's wife and his two daughters Swapandeep and Poonam (Swapandeep was adopted by Dalbir as she does not have kids of her own). While we got the visa and reached Lahore, we were still not allowed to meet him. The jail authorities would say that they had not got permission from Islamabad and Islamabad would say that Lahore had not given the permission. After nine days of feeling mentally tortured, living in the Gurudwara Dera Sahib there, I decided to appeal in the High Court. The judge was very kind and he immediately granted permission. It was too late that day, but the next day on April 23, 2008, we all went to jail to see Sarbjit.

What happened in jail that day?
He had been kept in a tiny room where you could hardly stand up, with tall walls outside with a big lock. A mother can easily recognise her son. As soon as they opened the door to his room for us to go inside, I recognised him. He was standing at an angle and seeing him, my heart was sinking. His eyesight had gone weak and he wore a broken pair of glasses tied with thread to hold them together. I told him, 'At least you could have worn proper glasses.' He said, 'I got a lot of gaalis to even get this.' I remembered that in one of his letters to me, he had written how his eyes burn and itch but the authorities would abuse and harass him, but not give him medicines or glasses. I wanted to hug him but was not allowed to do so even once, so I held his hand and sat down on the other side of the bars next to him.

I held his hands and told him, 'Sarbjit, I wish I could have turned blind before seeing you like this.' I cried profusely so much so that I fell down holding the bars and got hurt on my fore head. That day, knowing we were coming to meet him, he had requested the jail authorities to allow him some water, cold drink and ingredients for tea, as he wanted to make tea for me and serve me. They had given him a stove and he had made tea himself, sticking his hands out of the bars, and then kept it in a flask to serve us later. When I fell down, he got hassled and quickly gave me water and the cold drink. Most of the 48 minutes went into crying, but fortunately, he met his daughters and we talked a little about his case. I also tied him a rakhi and he said, 'I have nothing to give you today .' He had tears in his eyes, but he tried to hide them from me even though I knew. I fed him a piece of barfi like I always did and he bit my hand with his teeth. He said, 'You have come to give me strength, then why are you scared?' He recognised his daughters as he had seen their pictures through the newspaper reports. He told me how the Indian prisoners would send him newspaper cuttings hidden below his rotis. And these he stored in that register that he had kept. At that time, he was sure that he would come back. The one regret I had was that I was not allowed to hug him.

What was his jail like?
There was no fan inside but outside for us, there was a small fan kept. Inside his room, he had a small pot of water with which he had to manage for the whole day, his bathing, washing clothes, using the washroom or drinking.

Did you visit him again?
I met him again in 2011, when he showed me a diary and register, where he said that he had written every word of what had happened to him in those many years. I wanted that diary after he died, as I wanted everyone to know what he went through in jail, but it was not given to me. When his body came in 2013, only that clay pot came with it. I got to meet him for three hours in 2011. And on this visit, I went to meet him twice. Unlike the last visit, this time he had not taken his bath, not prepared anything for me and looked indifferent. He was quiet and I asked him what happened. He said, 'Didi, for many many days, I don't even eat or sleep or take a bath and I keep thinking why I am in this state and I keep thinking whether I will come back or not. I can't even tell you what I go through here.' I felt that if he kept thinking like that, he would get mentally ill. I summed up strength to give him some and wanted to tie many rakhis that I had taken from here, many of which had been given to me by women in the village. He said, 'Chalo, you give them to me. I will keep tying it up slowly later.' I said, 'No, why are you talking like this? You will be with me in our aangan on the next rakhi.' It's only when I visited him for the second time that he was waiting for me, ready to serve me lassi that he had made mixing curd and water and the jail dal. He knew that I was the only one he could tell and told me how they would abuse Indians a lot there. If you asked the jail authorities for medicines or glasses or water, they would say, 'Aaj bahar nikale? Aaj paani pilaye hi dete hain tumhe.' He said, 'Sometimes, they would beat me, sometimes I managed by begging them for forgiveness.'

Was it ever proven that Sarbjit had been convicted wrongly?
The sole witness of the Pakistani police, Shaukat Ali was once interviewed by an Indian journalist, who managed to find him there and he said, 'I don't know whether Sarbjit has done it and whether he is Manjit or Sarbjit. Those days, my father had died and the police had asked me to say that Sarbjit was Manjit and that he had committed the bomb blasts in court and I said it.'

How did he finally die?
Over the years, there were many times when I would wonder if he would ever come back, but then again, I would meet people and get assured that he would come back. I had kept all the navratras, slept on the floor for 23 years, but it was after meeting S M Krishnaji, the External Affairs Minister, that I felt most assured that Sarbjit would be released for sure. I don't know from where I got the strength to fight, but I was determined and had decided that I would fight, come what may. But I quickly trust people and start feeling they are my own, but got cheated each time. Before Sheikh sahab, all the lawyers who represented us took the money from us, but cheated us in court. They did not even present our case of him not being Manjit, even though they had the papers proving that. Afzal Guru had been hanged in India a couple of days before Sarbjit was attacked in prison. We learnt that there was a man who would go inside jail and supply sharpened spoons and knives made from sandooks inside jail to the prisoners there. I feel the Pakistani prisoners there took Afzal's revenge by killing Sarbjit. I was with Swapandeep the day he was attacked. I had been having a severe back problem for two days and was in terrible pain. I could not sleep and was restless when suddenly I got a call from Pakistan telling me how he had been attacked. I screamed and woke up Swapandeep who was sleeping, but I thought we would still be able to treat him and get him back alive. It's only when I got his body in the hospital in Lahore that I finally broke down and realised that I had lost my son forever. Uss pal meri umeed bhi khatam ho gayi aur intezaar bhi.

Are you free now?
No, I try but I can never forget Sarbjit. I wish he had come back. For 23 years, my only goal was to get him released. But now, I want people to know who he actually was. What happened with Sarbjit inside jail? What happens to Indians inside Pakistani jails? There is an innocent Pakistani prisoner in Tihar, who has paralysis, that Sarbjit would tell me about. Through this film, I want a message to go to all. I could not bring back Sarbjit, but I hope that this Pakistani child in Tihar is released.

We have learnt that 2 States director Abhishek Varman's next is titled Kalank. The film, that is a period love story set against the backdrop of Partition, was originally researched by Karan's father Yash Johar, who had been through Partition himself, and had visited Lahore for this. Karan, while speaking to us earlier, had told us how every time he went back to this film, it reminded him of his father and he could not get himself to direct it even though it is a beautiful love story in a setting that his father loved. Karan had even cast for it way back in 2006. We have now learnt that recently, when Abhishek was trying to decide what to make next, he mentioned to his mentor Karan that he wanted to make a period film. And the gracious Karan immediately gave him his story. We will wait to see now who Abhishek casts in his version of Kalank.