Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Sacred Games

Unconditional love
The web series Sacred Games seems to be all the rage these days. And the frenzy has resulted in fan art and a number of memes. One such piece is by Bengaluru-based artist Prasad Bhat, who created this work symbolising the unconditional love between Gaitonde, a gangster, and Kukoo, a transgender.

Prasad Bhat

"The chemistry between them is very well-scripted - who she is and where she comes from doesn't matter. It's fearless writing, and I feel that nobody has ever achieved this in Indian cinema. I am very proud of it, and that's why I decided to make this artwork," Bhat said to this diarist.

Money power
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Braun Strowman is currently on a two-city tour of India to scout for the next best wrestling phenomenon from India, after the phenomenal success of The Great Khali. While in Mumbai this week, the wrestling star - or Mr Money in the Bank 2018, as fans know him - met Bollywood star Varun Dhawan and also made a TV appearance.

Braun Strowman. Pic/Satej Shinde

What we loved the most, though, was his meeting with Special Olympics Bharat athletes, who had a great time sharing their stories with the popular wrestler at a suburban five-star hotel.

The (LGBT) colour of money
Ever since demonetisation, a slew of new notes have hit the market. But while it's not our case here to argue the logic of introducing this currency, a social media user has pointed out a curious fact about their colour scheme.

Lined up on top of each other, they bear a close resemblance to the rainbow-coloured LGBT flag (in pic, top). The user captioned the comparison, "The government is silently showing support. Well done." And though we wish that was indeed the case, it's only a tongue-in-cheek statement, sadly.

Heritage wins
July is proving to be a particularly good month for heritage conservation efforts in the country. It began on a celebratory note with the news of Victorian and Art Deco buildings in the Fort precinct and Marine Drive being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And now we hear that Sahapedia's India Heritage Walk Festival, organised across the country in February, has won the PATA Gold Award 2018.

The award, announced by the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok, has been presented to Sahapedia under the Heritage-Culture category. The cultural and educational enterprise - which had organised the festival for the first time this year to encourage citizens to explore the tangible and intangible heritage of their cities and towns - plans to make the 2019 edition a bigger and more broad-based one.

Back to their roots
Raja Kumari and DIVINE realised back in 2016 that they can form a formidable hip-hop collaboration, when they released the song, City Slums. The track has raked up over 8 million hits till date on YouTube alone.

And now, the two of them are looking to capitalise on that success with a new offering, titled Roots. The duo co-wrote the lyrics, and as is often the case with the two artistes, the words focus on where they come from and what they stand for. That, after all, is what the lyrical essence of hip-hop is all about.

In the wink of an eye

On a day when the wink made headlines after a flutter in Parliament, Makarand Deshpande keeps with the theme, saving one eye from hairspray ahead of the premiere of his 50th play, at Juhu's Prithvi Theatre. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

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