tabu

What's wrong with Tabu? No one seems to know where this increasingly reclusive actress is these days - and she hasn't even been in touch with people supposedly close to her.

Undoubtedly one of the most talented actresses in the post-Shabana generation, Tabu seems to be making herself scarce to the point of absolute inaccessibility.

Earlier this year after her luminous and lauded performances in "Maqbool" and "Meenaxi" she agreed to do debutant director Vinta Nanda's first project "White Noise" with Rahul Bose.... Only to back out at the eleventh hour when the film was all set to go on the sets.

Rahul's good friend Koel Puri (seen in his directorial debut "Everybody Says I'm Fine") stepped in to save the situation.

But now there's another chapter in Tabu's book of caprice.

For Tabu has now decided to give the elusive treatment to none other than the Tamil maverick Kamal Haasan.

This was a Hindi-Tamil project for which Kamal Haasan had teamed up with financier Bharat Shah once again after the failed but fabulous pseudo-historical epic "Hey Ram".

Already in severe trouble after Madhuri Dixit became unavailable for the other Hindi-Tamil project that Kamal Haasan wanted to make in collaboration with Shah, the actor is now in the throes of scripting and playing the lead in an unusual cops thriller which required a mature sensitive actress.

And what better option than Tabu? Said Kamal Haasan: "Tabu had played my wife in 'Chachi 420'. And we've got along since then. I thought of her immediately for this role. And when we contacted her she sounded more than willing."

But when the actor flew into Mumbai from Chennai on Tuesday to sign her, Tabu seemed to have vanished.

"She's vanished, untraceable," laughed Kamal Haasan.

"She doesn't answer her phone, doesn't seem to want to connect. It's really sad, but true.

"We're now in negotiation with a couple of other leading ladies here. It's a pity Tabu chose to be unpredictable at this juncture. It's a really meaty role, not generally open to heroines in our cinema."