Hot spicy masala. Review on Stardust

I like film magazines, particularly the gossipy ones. So much of chutzpah in them. The masala element in magazines was started by Queen Bee Shobha De. Before that film journalism used to be a boring and staid affair. The only start readers got was when they read the tangy reviews of Baburao Patel. However, compare them to reviews written by Khalid Mohammed and even some of our MSians, I am sure his reviews would pale in comparison and taste like boiled potatoes.

But Shobha changed all that. Under the tutelage of Nari Hira, this former Miss India made Stardust a scalding hot paani-puri that burned the tongues of its readers and had them asking for more. It got into the personal lives of the film stars and laid them bare. When Rajesh Khanna was ruling the roost, Stardust exposed his affair with Anju Mahendru who was also seeing cricket ace Gary Sobers. That particular story did to journalism what Prannoy Roy did to television journalism.

Completely revitalized, Stardustcame out one scoop after another. I remember reading as a child how Rajesh Khanna (then in the sunset years of his career) had molested aspiring actress Sabiha. He had made her do unprintable things. For the first time I believe any magazine took names. Stardust maintained its gumption long after Shobha took off for greener pastures (novel writing, society lady etc). In the early nineties, the magazine too off the wig of Anupam Kher?s bald pate by exposing his carnal desires for Mamta Kulkarni?s sister. Af\gain, in the eighties it featured Ms Kulkarni (hold your breath!) topless!!

I love Stardust?s penchant for taking on the biggies. It had banned Amitabh bachchan from its pages when the super star was in his prime. Similarly, anything that smells of Shahrukh Khan is prohibited within the premises of the publication. Remember, it was Stardust that first built up the Hritik mania and pitted him against SRK.

Now they are talking sex. In the previous issue Amisha patel waxed eloquently about the birds and the bees while one month earlier it was Dia Mirza. Amisha said that the egos of men will not tolerate a woman on top while Dia did admit to having being hist by lust at first sight many a times.

One of my favorite sections in the magazine is Court martial. The questions are pretty forthright and the answers trickle in the same vein.

What I love about Stardust is that they do not mollycoddle and pamper stars. Their attitude is outright frank, forthright and honest. Keep meowing cats.