Feud only their mum can heal

"Mere paas ma hai (mother is with me)", the classic Hindi film quote used by Slumdog composer AR Rahman in his Oscar winner's speech, also fits the ongoing feud between India's billionaire Ambani brothers.

In the film Deewaar, two estranged brothers - one a policeman, one a gangster - finally come face to face. The gangster boasts of his wealth and power, the policeman retorts that their mother is on his side.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani don't fit the good brother and bad brother slots, but their mother Kokilaben certainly matters. Last week, the two co-hosted a 75th birthday party for her, acting to all the world like loving siblings, and fuelling speculation that they could be close to a rapprochement.

According to the official reading, it was Kokilaben who stopped Mukesh cutting Anil out of the family fortune back in 2004 and 2005. And it is arguably her continued good health that keeps either from aiming a mortal blow.

This is more than a Bollywood tale: the feud is a major drag on the share prices of both sides of Reliance and, by extension, on the Indian economy. The two brothers' listed companies make up around a quarter of the Sensex stock exchange index by value, as Reliance Industries' reabsorbing its Reliance Petroleum sister reminded us yesterday.

A mother's love will always mean more than money. But in the Ambanis' case, it means both. If that love could bring the brothers' quarrel to an end, it could unlock billions of dollars.

* Jim James, head of Haymarket in India, is undaunted by the task of replacing ex-Tata director Alan Rosling as chairman of the British Business Group here. On Sunday I witnessed him, in a tail coat and pith helmet, addressing a parade of uniformed Indians.

* Lilavati Bal Thackeray, the man who renamed Bombay, is in hospital with fever. Thackeray, 82, won Mumbai's municipality for his Shiv Sena party by targeting Muslims and non-Maharashtrans. But the chances of Uddhav, his official successor, don't look great against Bal's nephew Raj Thackeray, who last year incited riots and attacks on incomer taxi drivers. So far Uddhav's best counter-attack has been the Shiv Vada Pav, a Sena-branded version of the spicy potato-burger that is Mumbai's favourite snack.