Jolly good fellow!

At the NDTV awards function earlier this week, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was asked about the last film he watched. He gave a trill of laughter (which he seldom does) and said it was about 25 years ago. “No, wait,” he said. He recalled when Sharmila Tagore was the Censor Board chief, she had asked him to watch Rang De Basanti. He was the defence minister, and she wanted him to make sure the film did not violate any rules. “I took my whole battalion — Army Chief, Air Force Chief, Naval Chief. We watched the film and cleared it,” he said.

While giving away the awards, Mukherjee, it was clear, was a little confused. He thought Sehwag was Dhoni. But watching him standing next to the solid Rahul Dravid and laughing up at the granite countenance of The Wall, was an unforgettable picture.