The Chasing Iamb

THE FEVERISH speculation around a young person poised for stardom in Bollywood is one that only people who follow racehorses would understand: the endless studying of form, of bloodlines, of gossip from the stable. There’s no telling which odds-on favourite will stumble, or which robust survivor of indifference will astonish on a Friday evening. And somewhere in the center, almost obscured by the harsh light and gathering crowds, is the one who must run.

Imran Khan, star of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, the freshest romantic comedy we have seen in years, will never have a week like this again. In a week, he has gone from complete anonymity to Aamir Khan’s nephew to someone whose girlfriend’s romantic history is being read about across the country. On the streets in Mumbai one evening, an autograph-hunter magically multiplied into an alarming mob. A woman threw herself at him begging him to marry her. And all this before Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na actually hit the theatres, all this only because of his astonishing good looks. Once audiences sampled Jaane Tu’s soufflé-like charm, there was no holding back the enamoured hordes. And somewhere in the centre is a 25-year-old who rarely speaks a superfluous, thoughtless word.

More here