Witerati: Of ill, kill & overkill, Big B or Brosnan way

It’s been a season that saw some glitterati taking ill, some inviting ill-will. This brought tidings for Twitterati that spelt ill or ill-will, kill or overkill.

Of costumes & celebs ill

Shooting for the “Thugs of Hindostan” in Jodhpur literally translated into a costume drama for Bollywood legend Big B. So heavy were the costumes Amitabh Bachchan had to “Don” that he ended up carrying more weight than he is wont to.

The fallout: Big B was ‘back’ on Breaking News. For, it was his legendary “back” that bore the brunt of bulky ensembles. With Bollywood’s venerated vertebrae plodding under the weight of shrugs, silks and stuff sartorial, this became more like the script of “Shrugs of Hindostan”.

Of Licence to Kill

If the Bollywood biggie grappled with illness accruing from a role that carried too much weight, a Hollywood hunk battled the ill-effects of lending much weight to a “paan” brand. Pierce Brosnan bore the brunt of being brand ambassador for an Indian “paan” product, which invited ire for serving as surrogate tobacco ad.

Shaken ‘n’ stirred, the “James Bond” star resorted to blame overkill to atone for the ad’s “licence to kill”, claiming the company kept him in the dark about Pan Bahar’s side-effects ill.

With Brosnan blaming the “paan” brand for befooling him, this resembled a real-life script of “Thugs of Hindostan.”

Of DeGeneres di dreading

If an American actor got a taste of the ill-effects of surrogate advertising, for betel or for worse, the American Prez tasted ill-will, from none other than filmdom’s feisty fashionista ‘n’ feminist-a, Sonam Kapoor.

Sonam’s digs indiscreet at Donald Trump were triggered by US show host Ellen DeGeneres’ alarming tweet: “The President has quietly started allowing elephant and other hunting trophies into the US…This is appalling…Spread the word. #BeKindToElephants.”

That made Sonam go gunning for Trump, inflicting ire at the presidential incumbent imbecile: “Hunting is illegal in India, one of the things the world can learn from us! Trump is an imbecile!”

This was not the first time that Trump was perceived as ‘BadMan’ by the Bollywood diva. Trump had earlier earned the epithet of “joker” from ‘Veere Di Wedding’ star Sonam for berating Meryl Streep as an “over-rated actor”.

This clash of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ smacked more of an episode of “Duds of Non-Hindostan.”

Of Modi-isms & Shashisms

While this Bollywood feminist did breathe fire at presidency on a foreign shore, Women’s Day overkill saw netas vying to bleat or tweet paeans to feminists of yore. Narendra Modi tweeted tributes to unsung crusaders for Swachh Bharat like Kunwar Bai, while the feisty Rani Laxmibai captured the Congress ode from Rahul bhai.

But the one to take the cake was parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor. He literally did walk the Women’s Day talk by perambulating to the home minister’s place to pontificate on a Bill against males who stalk.

All looks good with the Bill’s intent, but it could “run” into rough weather over the semantics of “stalking” and sundry content. For, the Shashism on “stalking” is still under semantic construction: “The forbidding farrago of unsolicited and uninvited shadowing and doggedly trailing type bedeviling of unsuspecting specimens of the fair sex with ambidextrous, mendacious and malafide intent …”

Once Shashism meets legalism, the Bill would surely be a suitable slap on the face of the stalking “Bugs of Hindostan.”

(The author can be contacted at chetnabanerjee@gmail.com)

Views expressed are personal