Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Dharmendra

Hawa hawai
Tabu makes an attempt to tame her lustrous hair before the photographers at the promotion of her new film in Juhu on Friday. Pics/Ashish Raje

Boy Toy turns dancer
Ankur Rathee, who played the cocky young lover of Kirti Kulhari in Four More Shots, is a completely different character on Instagram. The actor, who shuttles between New York, LA and Mumbai, is a pretty nifty dancer as well.

If you spend a little time on his account, you realise he has some fancy moves. In fact, his sister, Sonia, is a dance teacher in New York, and it's fun to see the brother-sister dance up a storm in one of the videos. There is one video shot with Bandra fort in the background, and anyone seeing it would be inclined to sign Rathee for a dance movie, right here, right now.

From Burma, with love
The city's authentic Burmese restaurant, Burma Burma, is all set to serve its patrons an all-new Thingyan menu. Interestingly, one of its owners Ankit Gupta and chef Ansab Khan went on a 10-day trip to the country to curate this special menu that will be served starting May 17. When this diarist spoke to Gupta about his journey, he said, "We went to south and central Burma and stayed with locals in the villages where we were introduced to the concept of community-style dining.

(Left) Chef Ansab Khan and Ankit Gupta

This is what gave rise to the 'Village Set' concept in this menu as well. We have also imported over 22 ingredients from Burma, ensuring our diners get the most authentic experience possible." Thingyan is a holistic menu comprising street food, tribal dishes, community meals, from different parts of Burma such as Bagaan, Mawlamyine and Taunggyi.

Same name so no pain!
Unfortunately Jhye Richardson (shoulder) out of Aussie World Cup squad. Only a subtle change on back of shirt as Kane Richardson is his replacement." Former swing bowler Damien Fleming, who was part of Australia's victorious 1999 World Cup-winning squad, tweeted this the other day.

Bob Taylor, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson

The fate of the two Richardsons (both fast bowlers) reminds this diarist of what happened in 1976 when England announced their team for their 1976-77 winter tour of India. Bob Taylor was chosen as understudy to regular wicketkeeper Alan Knott, but had to undergo surgery on his ear.

This ruled him out of the tour and the selectors picked Roger Tolchard. The kit manufacturers didn't have to make a last-minute change inscription for Tolchard's kit since he and Taylor had the same initials - RWT (Roger William Tolchard and Robert William Taylor). Interestingly, Tolchard was part of Tony Greig's playing XI as a batsman in four of the five Tests of that series which the Englishmen won. And in the current context, Aussie Kane will be hoping his skipper Aaron Finch needs him in all the games for Australia to defend their World Cup crown.

In the mojris of Rekha
After Mughal-e-Azam, another iconic film is getting a stage adaptation. Pratibha Singh Baghel is set to play the lead in and as Umrao Jaan, with music by Salim-Sulaiman. Director Rajeev Goswami says, "It took us around three years to adapt Umrao Jaan from a book and make it come alive onstage. With the help of some talented writers, we made it a crisp stage musical.

We chose the choreographer was purely on the ability to choreograph Kathak. I was fortunate enough to team up with Salim-Sulaiman, and the leads had to be good dancers and actors, but most importantly, brilliant singers."

A filmy comeback
It's hard to imagine singer Anup Jalota performing anything other than bhajans or ghazals. But on May 18, the singer will channel his inner Kishore Kumar at Yashwant Natya Mandir, Matunga.

"I was part of a Hindi music band in college and known as junior Kishore Kumar. But I realised I couldn't make a career aping a legend, so I gravitated towards ghazals and later bhajans," he says.

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