Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

The Serendipity Arts Festival

A sunshine fest
The Serendipity Arts Festival, which takes place in Panaji this December, will host a curtain raiser at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai this month. The new curators of the multi-arts festival include the who's who and the who's that.

There's Rahaab Allana and Ravi Agarwal for photography, Ranjit Hoskote and Subodh Gupta for visual arts, Leela Samson for dance, Atul Kumar and Arundhati Nag for theatre and Aneesh Pradhan and Sneha Khanwalkar for music. The curtain raiser will also be accompanied by a Bharatanatyam performance of The Dark Lord by Rukmini Vijaykumar's Raadha Kalpa Dance Academy.

Riding the market
We have said this before, and we say it again. Regardless of how good, or bad, Chetan Bhagat is as a writer, he is a marketing maverick. And if you have any doubt about that, name any other Indian author (or even an international one) who has tied up with a taxi aggregator to promote his book.

Chetan Bhagat

Struggling? Well, Bhagat has, for his new book. Here's the deal: If you book a ride with the aggregator between September 10 and 25, you get an additional 15 per cent discount on the pre-order of the novel. No wonder Bhagat's books fly off the shelves at rapid speed.

This EP isn't duur from releasing
The number of Indian indie bands singing in Hindi is slowly, but surely, growing. But the one band that has cemented its position as number one on the list is Ankur and the Ghalat Family. For close to a decade, the five-member outfit has been scoring soulful numbers in the vernacular, although with a completely western instrumental aesthetic.

Ankur and the Ghalat Family

And now, the band is ready to launch its latest offering, a three-track EP named Duur. They stick to form with it, because the songs embody the same melodious sonic sensibilities that the members have built their fan base with. The EP releases tomorrow, and there is also a launch gig planned for later this month. Keep your eyes peeled on these pages for further news about it.

A sweet Bappa
Every year when Ganesh Chaturthi arrives amid pomp and festivity, we have people lining up to break a host of records with the idols they create. So this time, Bhagyashree Deshpande, a paper-quilling artist, has made a five feet tall statue with paper strips only, in an attempt to enter the Limca Book of World Records.

Bunty Mahajan

And then there is chef Bunty Mahajan, who has made a 5'5" tall statue with edible fondant. But the question is, will someone get to have a taste once the festival wraps up?

Singing all the way to Toronto
Rima Das seems to be putting Assam on the national, and global, filmmaking map with every movie she makes. It started with The Man with the Binoculars, her debut film set in the state, in 2016. Then came the immensely successful Village Rockstars, which also had an Assamese village as its setting. It brought her the laurels she deserves, including a National Award last year, and a preview at the Toronto International Film Festival. And now, Das's latest offering opened on the same stage, playing to a packed audience.

Rima Das

Bulbul Can Sing is, again, set in Das's native state, and tells the coming-of-age story about a girl whose father hopes to see her become a successful singer despite her thin voice. The story also explores the strict moral code prevalent in the idyll setting of rice fields, with Bulbul's mother advising her that "girls should be modest" and her gay friend struggling to come out of the closet. Let's wait and see how this film fares in our country, now that Section 377 is history.

No ducking the camera

Shaan gives the mid-day photographer a look as he and son Shubh head to the launch of a song for a Walt Disney cartoon, in Juhu on Wednesday. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

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