by Subhash K Jha

It could be an uncanny coincidence. On the other hand it could trigger off a whole chain of unexpected trends in Hindi films.

Two of our leading men do gender benders in two ready-for-release gender-reversal films to be released almost simultaneously in 2 languages.

While in the Antara Mali-directed Hindi Mr Ya Miss Aftab Shivdasani plays a roving-eyed jack who dies, goes to heaven and returns to earth as a woman, played by Antara Mali, in the Kannada film Jackpot directed by Niranjan, Sammir Dattani plays a Casanova who's transformed into a girl by black magic and returns to take on the world as the opposite sex.

By a bizarre coincidence both Aftab and Sammir tranform into characters played by actresses called Antara!! And both the films are slated for release at the same time, in the beginning of December.

What's with these twin gender-benders? Aftab protests, "Let me warn you I just have a guest appearance in Mr Ya Miss."

"So do I," Sammir chuckles.

"My role extends only to about 15 minutes of playing time in Jackpot, after which my character turns into a girl. Actually I was shooting for another Kannada film Amruthdhare when the director hijacked me away for a brief week-long spell. He was very keen that I do the role. And I was rather curious about doing it. Because when again would I get a chance to play a man who turns into a woman?"

Other Notable Gender-Benders
Kamal Haasan's Chachi 420(Kamal Haasan disguised as a nanny to be near his estranged kids)
Mahesh Bhatt's Tamanna (Paresh Rawal as a benign hijda bringing up Pooja Bhatt as 'his' daughter)
Mahesh Bhatt's Sadak (Sadashiv Amrapurkar as the dreaded eunuch pimp)
Nirmal Pandey in Daayera (as the cross- dressing traveler)