Bachchans dance during Shaad Ali's wedding bringing traffic to a halt, Mani Ratnam flies down to Mumbai

50 traditional cooks were flown in to Mumbai from Kanpur to prepare Shaad Ali’s traditional wedding lunch on Sunday afternoon. Shaad Ali’s wedding with his designer-soulmate Aarti Patkar at her Bungalow in Bandra on 6 January brought all traffic to a halt. In what could be regarded as an unprecedented public display of Bollyood’s First Family’s celebratory instincts, the Big B Amitabh Bachchan, junior B Abhishek and the Bachchan Bahu Aishwarya all danced on the street for Shaad’s baaraat. Says an eyewitness, “It was a sight that brought all other activity on the road to a screeching halt. First Abhishek broke into a wild tapori jig in front of the wedding procession. Then he pulled Aishwarya on to the road to dance with him. Then the Big B decided to join them. So the commuters and passersby on the road got to see the rarest-of-rare sights of the Bachchans dancing on the road.” Apparently cars came to a screeching halt and mobile cameras were pulled out. Says the still-disbelieving invitee, “The trio of Bachchans danced for a good ten minutes. They even tried to pull Jayaji into the dancing. She refused but she smiled and egged them on from the roadside. Shaad’s wedding would be remembered as the only celebration where the Big B, his son and bahu danced together.” Shaad’s wedding on Sunday afternoon was not memorable for only the Bachchan triumvirate’s unexpected display of public exuberance. It was memorable for another entirely opposite reason. Shaad’s mentor Mani Ratnam whom the bridegroom considers his guru, flew down specially from Chennai to be at the wedding. Says Shaad’s friend, “Mani’s family jokes that the only wedding Mani has ever attended is his own. But Shaad is like his own boy. Shaad has not only assisted Mani on all his films in the last ten years, they share a very close rapport. Shaad made it clear that the wedding wouldn’t happen without Mani’s presence.” Says a source, “The wedding on Sunday at Aarti’s home in Bandra was followed by lunch. Ranveer Singh, Parineeti Chopra, Abhishek Kapoor, Baba-Tanve Azmi, Kirron Kherm,Moushumi Chatterjee, Farouq Shaikh, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar, Ali Zafar, Aditi Rao Hydari were present. Fifty cooks were flown in from Kanpur to prepare the Awadhi food for lunch. The lunch was so yummy that Farhan who has been on a special diet for his role as Milkha Singh broke his regime for the first time in six months and binged on the food like there was no tomorrow. Then in the evening Muzaffar Ali and Subhasini hosted a reception which went on until 6 am on Monday morning.”