Midsummer madness, and it’s not even May yet!

Today’s 15 April — bang-smack is the middle of the month, and so hot Mumbai seems a furnace. Mid April can’t be called midsummer, the May monster is as yet at large, but midsummer madness is already hinting at appearances.

What else would you call this lassitude that has settled into our psyche at present? Some of it is natural, heat induced…some of it is enforced. Like for many in the television industry, big stars before, now because of circumstances, left without work. It is a ruthless world, entertainment, and television’s stars know this only too well.

The fashion world, meanwhile, can also give leeway to lassitude, being finally done with the weeks — for now. Dates for the upcoming installments have already been announced though, churning fresh dissent in Mumbai amongst some in the frat — An August fashion fiesta is a drenched one, mostly. But the rains are far away for now, in sun-somnambulant Mumbai.

Contrary to fashion and TV, B-Town, appears in wake-up mode — this quarter has the mega bucks riding on multi-starrer movies… approx Rs1,000 crore plus at stake after World Cup fever subsides. So what if womencentric roles will now take a backseat to traditional let’s-play-prop-the-hero essayings for the actresses. Making moolah is the name of the game, and besides, even cricket’s eternal pin-up, Sachin Tendulkar recently endorsed the magic of film, telling scribes that movies help him unwind.

And wake-up mode is also what the rest of us in India supposedly operate in, no matter the weather. A recent survey pegged Indians clocking in 8.1 hours in a workday, more than our Western counterparts, apparently. What actually got me thinking is another survey, a British one that emphasises how working moms, those juggling a job and parenting, have only around 26 minutes a day to themselves…!

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And speaking of Britain, more midsummer madness, to draw away from all that work and weather talk. We hosted a young British intern for a few weeks this month. Being English, it is but natural he would have an English accent. Unfortunately this proved a bit too much for some of our celebrities when he called them for stories.

In one particular instance, drolly enough a story on the horror genre, he called a male TV actor, saying, ‘I’m Christian, from DNA.’ Imagine his consternation when the TV actor, thinking someone was pulling a fast one using that thick foreign accent, snapped back, ‘…And I’m Julia Roberts!’ before slamming the phone down sharply. The plot then worsened. In sympathy with the intern, a young trainee called the celeb back, asking rather cheekily to speak to ‘Ms Roberts, please…!’ I’ll leave you to imagine the fur flying at that!