Category: Entertainment

{{Kevin Sharp, a country music singer who recorded multiple chart-topping songs and survived a well-publicized battle with cancer, has died. He was 43.}}

His sister Mary Huston said Sharp died at his mother’s Fair Oaks, Calif., home, at 10:49 p.m. Saturday of complications from past stomach surgeries and digestive issues.

“He had a strong heart, that’s what kept him alive, (but) I’m so happy for him, that there’s no more suffering,” Huston said through tears and exhaustion. She had cared for her brother since his return home to Northern California last Friday after 10 weeks in the hospital.

Sharp gained fame with the release of “Nobody Knows,” a single on his 1996 debut album, “Measure of a Man.” He released two other albums, “Love Is” in 1998 and “Make A Wish” in 2005.

Born in 1970 in Redding, Calif., Sharp was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, as a high school senior. He overcame it after two years of chemotherapy and radiation.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted Sharp’s wish to meet Grammy Award-winning music producer David Foster, who gave him tips to help jump-start his career.

Sharp also became a motivational speaker, a spokesman for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and wrote “Tragedy’s Gift,” a 2004 book about fighting cancer.

For the last several years, Sharp had struggled from past stomach surgery and residual issues from his aggressive cancer treatment.

“His dream came true through music, and he touched thousands of lives, and he helped heal the soul of people dealing with cancer,” Huston said.

Sharp is survived by five brothers, two sisters and his mother.

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{{When you think about it, David Dhawan’s latest comedy is more tragic than comic. In almost every frame of “Main Tera Hero”, you see glimpses of a film-maker desperately trying to restore his former glory by using the same gags in a newer, more polished setting — and failing miserably.}}

When Dhawan hit box-office gold in the 1990’s, the humour in his films was often crude and irreverent. His most successful leading man, Govinda, often played a flashy, street-smart but pudgy hero.

In “Main Tera Hero”, Dhawan’s leading man — his son Varun — has a perfectly sculpted body (which he is not averse to showing off; even the film’s credits show him flexing muscles and working out) and there are holier-than-thou lectures on how men should stop objectifying women.

Keep in mind though that 10 minutes after this lecture, Dhawan’s character Seenu (short for Srinivas Prasad) compares a girl to a pre-paid SIM card that has been registered in someone else’s name.

This is the launch film that Dhawan clearly had in mind for his son. Varun gets to do everything — fighting off villains, dancing with two women, making funny faces. The rest of the cast, it would seem, is around just to service these actions. As a college student who does everything but study, Seenu displays his buff body at every opportunity.

He falls in love with Sunaina (Ileana D’Cruz) on the first day of college, but his overtures are discouraged because Angad (Arunoday Singh), a local policeman with an anger management problem, is in love with her.

To add to the chaos, Sunaina is kidnapped by Ayesha (Nargis Fakhri), the daughter of “the biggest drug lord in Asia and Africa”. Ayesha is in love with Seenu, and is sure that kidnapping Seenu’s girlfriend would make him come after her. Why not just kidnap Seenu then, you might ask. But this is not the time and place for logic.

Thus, Seenu finds himself in a plush villa, surrounded by two women lusting after him. Ayesha’s drug lord father (Anupam Kher) and his trusty sidekick (Saurabh Shukla) keep an eye on Seenu. A wedding date for Ayesha and Seenu is set, and then Angad arrives.

There are murders; people hiding in closets; wedding songs; and long discussions between Seenu and various gods — including Jesus, Ganesha and Krishna (Jesus speaks in English; the others speak in Hindi).

“Main Tera Hero” has dialogue as puerile as, “since the time I have been in Pampers (a diaper brand), my father has pampered me.” The comedy just gets more tedious and unfunny as the film progresses. Except for a couple of jokes, nothing, and I mean nothing, is salvageable in this disaster of a film.

{(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of IGIHE)}