A helping hand for Smita Patil's son

Subhash K. Jha reports in the Times of India that Shabana Azmi is helping Smita Patil's son as prepares for his own career as an actor. Prateik, now 22, is heading abroad to study acting and Shabana ji has offered herself as a kind of mentor to him.

It's a nice story, given the supposed rivalry between Shabana ji and Smita Patil, which as I understand was not entirely media-manufactured. They may have liked one another, they may not have - I don't know - but there's no doubt that they competed for roles and for recognition, and for the attention of their shared mentor Shyam Benegal. So it's sweet to see Shabana ji looking out for Prateik, who never knew his mother - she died from complications at his birth.

The article also reports that a Gulzar movie that Shabana ji made over 20 years ago - Libaas - is now expected to be released. I don't know why it wasn't released before.

Finally, in unrelated news, the items I mentioned in this post have arrived from Mumbai! The postcard is happily displayed on the bulletin board in my office and there is some great stuff in those magazines which I will share here soon, so look for that.