Curious Case: By Radhika Bhirani

Radhika Bhirani -- rbhirani@gmail.com -- It’s an everyday story. I promise myself to put on my walking shoes and go for a 45-minute evening walk every day. It seems like a mission. And that’s where it remains -a promise unfulfilled, a mission unaccomplished. Social media has been feeding me a heavy dose of fat-to-fit and flab-to-fab posts... In the real world, it’s more about flab-to-flabbier! Masaba Gupta’s shrunken waistline and Smriti Irani’s body transformations were motivation enough to move my ass, literally. “When they can do it, I can do it too” is a moment that lasts in my head momentarily. Then the hardwired brain says, “I will do it tomorrow”. That tomorrow rarely comes. Briefly, for a month between the Covid-19 waves last year, I made a routine of walking every day, coupling it with well-timed, well-balanced meals with adequate water. I lost 4 kg. The very visible result was there for all to see. But more importantly, for me to look into the mirror and tell myself, “This mu

Radhika Bhirani for ZeeZest.com rbhirani@gmail.com There's something Rasika Dugal is never likely to be 'out of love' with -- being completely invested in every role she takes on. It's an attribute that seamlessly reflects in the fluidity that she brings to each character on screen - whether in ensemble dramas such as Delhi Crime, A Suitable Boy and Mirzapur, or Out of Love where she drives the narrative. Variety and versatility have been mainstays in the career of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) alumnus who has worked across the theatre, television, film and web series space, lending her own different strokes to the different shades of a woman. In Out of Love, she convincingly essays Meera, a doctor, who is one half of a couple dealing with infidelity and its impact on their relationship and their child, while Mirzapur showcased Rasika as Beena Tripathi, a crime lord's conniving wife, who wears her sexuality on her sleeve. In conversation with Zee

Radhika Bhirani ~~ rbhirani@gmail.com ~~ "Being a brave, strong woman, she will never show the in-comprehensible grief she is going through," actor R. Madhavan posted on Instagram, referring to Mandira Bedi on a day when she lost her husband Raj Kaushal to a sudden heart attack. Except if she had a choice, that is, I thought to myself as I scrolled through an Instagram feed full of pictures and videos zooming into the actor's grieving and distraught face. We ask Bollywood stars and celebrities all the time about the changes that have ensued in the industry since the Sushant Singh Rajput episode... But when will it be time for self-introspection on this futile need of being voyeurs of death every time. It angers and upsets. "Ye dekhiye Mandira Bedi kaise phoot phoot ke royi," read one caption on a video in which the actor breaks down inconsolably just before her husband's dead body is taken to the cremation ground. "Mandira Bedi ke pati Raj K