Quick call? These three talents will slide into the big league in the new year

WE have it from reliable sources that 19-year-old Isha Sharwani, a trained danseuse and ballerina can do a perfect split. Her supple moves soon caught showman Subhash Ghai’s gaze who promptly signed her on for his period flick Kisna. Thiruvanthapuram-based Sharwani is paired opposite Vivek Oberoi in the eagerly-awaited film.

Ghai, who has picked a slew of new and promising faces who made it big (think Meenakshi Sheshadri, Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala and Mahima Choudhary), chanced upon Sharwani in her mother Daksha Sheth’s dance troupe where she has been performing professionally since the age of 13.

Says Ghai, ‘‘The film demands a divine dancer. I had been hunting for the perfect combination of beauty and grace and I found it in Isha. In the film, she plays a village belle Lakshmi who metapmorphoses into a wonderful dancer.’’

Sharwani has a distinct look in the film and her costumes are designed by National Award winning costume designer Neeta Lulla.

Ghai, who’s also known for his fixation with the alphabet M, tells us that he wanted to call her Misha. ‘‘I was tempted but phir maine kaha, rehne do.’’

Incidentally, Kisna also has another debutante in the film. It’s a British actress who was selected by Ghai after more than 200 auditions. Who knows? Maybe Ghai names her with an M, but till then, we are rooting for Isha!

Harneet Singh

Chhote Ustad

Kailash Kher’s oh-so raw voice has even AR Rahman excited

HE’S one of Bollywood’s blessed voices and can’t stop thanking his stars. ‘‘I think I’ve been really lucky,’’ says 29-year-old Kailash Kher, whose voice is blaring out of every radio station. Blessed because of his likeness to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his leaning towards philosophical numbers. The fact that his voice stands out amidst the din of romantic ballads and masala numbers is where luck moves in.

‘‘I chose him because his voice fit in perfectly with the Sufi overtones in the track and also because I didn’t want a regular filmi voice,’’ explains Vishal Dadlani of the Vishal-Shekhar duo who composed Allah Ke Bande, Kher’s big brush with Bollywood from Shashanka Ghosh’s Waisa Bhi Hota Hai—Part 2. Dadlani feels that Kher’s voice has a rawness that is lacking in the industry. ‘‘Everything is too polished nowadays,’’ he adds.

In fact, the hit was picturised on Kher and Arshad Warsi at Bandstand and soon people on the streets hummed Allah Ke Bande when they encountered the singer at a public place. So what if he gets a bullet in his head in the film soon after the song ends. He agrees the song was clearly his shot to fame and how! Today Kher has been signed on for three AR Rahman projects including Mangal Pandey—The Rising, Lakeer and Swades. He’s also bagged a song composed by Ustad Zakir Hussain for One Dollar Curry. Besides, he’s also doing a Punjabi solo in a crossover film Khosla Ka Ghosla, apart from films like Paisa Vasool and Sohail Khan’s I. Incidentally, Ashutosh Gowariker plans on casting Kher in his song in Swades. ‘‘He told me that I fit the bill of the character,’’ says Kher, who’s changed his appearance from a Sachin Tendulkar-babyface to the bearded and long haired fakir look.

But he’s most excited about his first solo with Rahman ‘‘It’s a track called Mangal Mangal from The Rising—it’s an indescribable feeling, the music makes you feel like you are at a temple, mosque, dargah and a church at the same time,’’ he enthuses. In fact, Sukhwinder Singh, who surpasses himself with each track, recently recorded with Kher and supposedly told him, ‘‘You’ve got that spice in your voice.’’

‘‘I don’t think I can do justice to an Ande ka funda—it’s not in my soul,’’ admits Kher. But keep your ears open for this voice. You’ll hear a lot of it in the years to come.

Lalitha Suhasini

Basic Instinct

TV Santhosh balances his world with universal impact

A LARGE canvas, a chair and a work table crammed with brushes and paints, but not much else. This spartan air in his suburban Mumbai studio best reflects TV Santhosh’s approach to life and painting.

A cup of sugarless herbal tea and he slowly picks his way through his recent journey into the limelight—although he’d rather not call it that. ‘‘My works have changed—a little, but my basic interests are the same,’’ he says. ‘‘My concerns still are to paint with a universal impact. Yet it should create a reconstructed reality which reflects my world view.’’ The Kerala-born 35-year-old, whose work reflects the burgeoning southern prowess over photo imagery, loves playing mental chess with himself. ‘‘Yes, Bose Krishnamachari, Riyas Komu and Shibu Natesan (all sons of Kerala) are concerned with reproduced imagery. But each has a distinct style,” says Santhosh.

The low-profile artist held his first solo exhibition at Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery only in August 2003. But critiques, comments and a slew of new buyers poured in. And if the market is anything to go by, there’s been a sharp rise in his pricing—his last work sold for almost a lakh at Mumbai auction house Saffron Art’s November auction where it was snapped up by an international buyer.

Naturally, gallery prices will benefit from the ripple-effect. ‘‘Santhosh is definitely one of the more promising young artists of his generation. Some of his work is disturbing, but I react well to it,’’ says collector Harsh Goenka, who’s tracked Santhosh’s work for the last two years. Others like Girish Shahane and Vickram Sethi believe he’s still finding a more mature expression, while some are sceptical about his excessive reference to images from World War II.

Santhosh is the first to admit, ‘‘There’s always room for improvement.’’ Introverted, he’s hardly Page Three material, but three dedicated years in Mumbai are finally bearing fruit. Shalini Sawhney, of Guild Art Gallery, takes care of the commercial end for the artist who never talks numbers. ‘‘His quiet dedication drew me to his work three years ago,’’ recalls Sawhney. ‘‘Now, a whole crop of buyers are interested. Besides, he’s ready for the international market,’’ she says, busy coordinating an exhibition in Lisbon. Vijay Chororia, a buyer, is smitten with ‘‘the magical, dreamy quality of his work that has thinking characters’’.

Adds Saffron Art’s Dinesh Vazirani: ‘‘His appeal cuts through nationality, young collectors love him.”

Georgina L Maddox