/> A little-known fact about Shaad Ali's lately-culminated relationship with designer Aarti Patkar is that the alliance was designed bolstered sustained and even repaired and restored by Shabana Azmi and her husband Javed Akhtar whose association with Shaad's parents Muzaffar Ali and Subhasini Saigal dates back to before Shaad was born.

Close family friends, Javed and Shabana not only helped the Shaad-Aarti relationship through rocky weather, they also hosted a lavish all-night sangeet ceremony for Shaad and Aarti at their Khandala before the wedding.

Javed wrote a poem specially dedicated to Shaad and Aarti's togetherness that he recited at the wedding. The marital couple and the guest were on tears on hearing Javed's words about a love that transcends all human obstacles.

Says a source close to Shaad, `Shabana and Javed have been close friends with Muzaffar Ali and his wife Subhasini for years. Shaad has virtually grown up in front of Shabana and Javed. They are very close to Shaad. And Aarti is Shabana's best friend Parna Patkar's daughter.

Parna and Shabana have been best friends for 40 years. Aarti is like Shabana's daughter. Aarti had also designed the clothes for Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd.

Shabana realized Aarti was the right partner for Shaad. Javed and Shabana were overjoyed when the young couple ironed out the rough edges in their relationship and decided to tie the knot. Javed and Shabana wanted to host the wedding. But they finally hosted a sangeet at their farm house Sukoon in Khandala on 4 January.


Says the source, `For Shabana, Shaad and Aarti's wedding was ghar ka bachche ki shaadi. At the sangeet which went on fron dawn to dusk Shabana danced the most, although her mom is in the hospital. `

But the piece de resistance of Javed-Shabana's filial bonding with Shaad and Aarti was the poem that Javed wrote for their wedding.

Says a prominent invitee, `When Javed read out the poem for Shaad and Aarti every couple at the wedding felt a lump in the throat. `