Poetic justice!
In this weekly column, we focus on the off-the-script lives of the actors
Remember Sonal Chauhan, the girl Emraan Hashmi serenaded in the middle of the street with Zara si dil mein de jagah tu before whisking her off to his Jannat? Well, the actress has found a novel way to confront the existential crisis we are facing, quoting Lord Byron. The 19th century revolutionary British poet during a year of exchanging letters with Anne Isabella aka Annabella whom he later married, had confessed, “The great object of life is Sensation — to feel that we exist—even though in pain — it is this ‘craving void’ which drives us to Gaming — to Battle — to travel — to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principle attraction is is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
Sonal picked up a snatch of the above-quoted Byronism, replacing “object” with “art” to express her ‘sensations’, doing it in a pair of jeans and an itsy-bitsy lacy something. Naturally, all eyes focused on the picture she presented rather than the profundity of the statement. “Hot”… “Slayer”… “Beauty Queen”… “Mind Blowing” were some of the reactions she evoked making one wonder about Lord Byron’s reaction at Sonal’s attempt to resurrect his words.
Nargis Fakhri, Ranbir Kapoor’s muse in Rockstar, is borrowing from Rumi to find ‘meaning’ in the on-going pandemic that has ripped apart many lives over the last yearand-a-half. The actress sounded philosophical, even spiritual, Rumi-nating from New York, “What hurts you, blesses you” looking like a rockstar herself in fitted jeans and a leather jacket, a far cry from the 13th century Persian poet with his flowing beard and robes. remains of the day with Virginia Wolf, “Her heart is made of liquid sunsets.” But she also quotes snatches from her own poetry. The actor has been scribbling away since she was in school, pouring her heart out on paper to rhapsodise about her teenage crush. Over the years she has moved from love to tsunamis but the mood is always introspective and the picture accompanying these posts perfectly framed. Here’s one... “Her eyes were deep and honest And they never changed. That’s the kind of love she craved for.” A lot can be said in a few words, right?