Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 25, 2016)
A day before his conversation with Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Ian Mckellen, Aamir Khan and wife Kiran Rao hosted a dinner for him at their Bandra residence on Sunday, May 22. The British actor popular for his role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies arrived at 8 pm with lots of questions for the Indian actor. Aamir had his own questions too but insisted that Sir Ian answer them during their interaction the following evening. The one-hour-15-minute session extended by an hour necessitating an urgent 'loo' break for Aanir who otherwise was the epitome of the curious and informed cinema buff in the presence of a master craftsman.
Ditto, Kangana Ranaut, Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Riteish Deshmukh and Imran Khan who were happy to be in the audience and just listen to the two talk. For world traveller Kangana the opening of the MAMI Film Club was a way to culturally connect with her city and she was at the NCPA for three hours from 6.15 pm. Also present was Anupama Chopra with filmmaker husband Vinod Chopra who announced the opening of the film club, Neerja director Ram Madhvani, Udaan director Vikamaditya Motwane, Kabir Khan whose wife Mini Mathur was the emcee for the evening. They laughed as Aamir admitted that he had made a lot of mistakes in his first 7-8 films and hoped everyone had forgotten their names and that after an emotional scene he feels like he has run a marathon. And they heard Sir Ian say that he was in awe of Aamir's TV show Satyamev Jayate and the worst way to discover Shakespeare was to read him as he doesn't belong in a classroom. Queen director Vikas Bahl missed the talk but caught up with the legend at the Ambani residence where Nita and daughter Isha hosted a dinner for Sir Ian and select guests.
The Brit thespian complimented Nita on her dress, making her blush, before going on to confide that this was his first visit to Mumbai and he was dazzled. Sonam and he discussed books while Rajkummar and Riteish were in seventh heaven in the presence of X-Men's Magneto.The menu was strictly vegetarian. The guest of honour too is a herbivore and only eats fish. There was a mix of Indian and western dishes and he savoured both the dhoklas and the pasta. But it was the dessert section that Kiran guided him through, from pastries to kulfi, that really interested him. And the champagne with which everyone raised a toast to the man who made Macbeth a household name.
