That's what last night's Filmfare awards telecast on Sony was. It was also of course glamorous, sexy and entertaining. But that's the least you expect. What you don't expect is for humour to be delivered with so much élan that it permeates everybody, putting them in touch with their liberal, tolerant selves. Between Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, the hosts for the evening and two of the most sophisticated stars in the film industry, nothing remained sacred. So there was a blue ballad to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya; Saif Ali Khan was ribbed about his tattoo screaming his new love for Kareena; Karan Johar acknowledged that women were safe from him; To turning off the music and challenging Akshay Kumar to live up to his new hit machine status in real life; To some provocative Hinglish that left no one in any doubt of what they wanted to say about film critics. With this as...

There was a TV commercial that played out a lot on Doordarshan. Late eighties I think. A trim, genial, 'old' man chivalrously gives his spot in the elevator to a woman. He takes the stairs instead, compelling, a younger man to follow suit. The 'older' man makes it effortlessly. The younger one is left behind panting. Admiring FVO: 'Saanth saal ke buddhe ya saanth saal ke jawaan?' Roughly speaking '60 years old or 60 years young?' The commercial was for Zandu Pharma's Kesari Jeevan. The August celebrations of India's 60 are about winding down and if you were to ask marketers - '60 years old or 60 years young?' the answer would be an unequivocal '60 years young!' That's because like the world, we are fixated on the 365 million strong 18 to 35 year olds - our future consumers and target audience. On the verge of starting their earning lifecycle, they are looking to start lifelong (inshallah) love affairs with brands. They...

It shows. There's a photo that we can't show here for reasons of copyright but you can definitely see it elsewhere on the world wide web (click here to see it). Taken by the legendary Henri Cartier Bresson, this photograph of Mountbatten, Nehru and Edwina - a personal favourite - has been all over of late. It has been pulled out to accompany reports on Pamela Mountbatten's (Mountbattens' daughter) just published book India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During The Transfer of Power. Who cares whether Nehru and Edwina's love was platonic or otherwise. How does it really matter to anyone beyond these three people frozen in time. What matters is when you see a man wear just the expression Nehru's wearing - the jester, desperate to catch the woman's eye, trying to impress her, waiting for validation - you will know a man loves a woman. The other thought that's just popped into my...

Sivaji was out of my system after the response I had for all of you collectively. But I had underestimated like I seem to be doing consistently, the power of both Rajnikanth and the internet. There is one consistent argument that many of you have put forward - and that is, that a personal opinion or blog needs to be posted on a totally personal blog site. I have mixed feelings on this one and so am bowing down to the feedback. From now anyone who wants to know what I think about anything can go to Anuradha SenGupta's blog. Let me warn you it may not be worth your while and my posts can be quite erratic. I write only when I am really moved to. I am going to be gracious and let you have the last word. If you want to know how I feel about that you know where to go. :)...