Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Bridging the Gulf
The weekend saw the staging of Lillete Dubey's 9 Parts of Desire, which tells the poignant tale of the sufferings of Iraqi women, caught in the Gulf conflict.

Held at G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture, it featured Dubey's daughter Ira as the sole performer on stage. And the production left at least one illustrious member of the audience - Shabana Azmi - with a sense of fulfillment.

"In 9 Parts of Desire, Ira is just wonderful. Lillete's work is also wonderful and I am very deeply moved by the performance," we overheard Azmi say.

A slice of Mumbai in New York
In his short life of 56 years, Raghubir Singh married Western modernism with his keen eye for capturing the Indian milieu in a manner that lent a unique touch to his photography. In his words, his distinct style was, "on the Ganges side of modernism, rather than the Seine or East River side of it."

A Wedding Party, Jodhpur Jaisalmer Road, Rajasthan, 1988

A pioneer of colour street photography, Singh died in 1999, but his prolific work continues to resonate with the art world. The fall 2017 retrospective of New York's Met Breuer, Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs, will feature 85 of his works in counterpoint with the work of his contemporaries, and with examples of Indian court painting styles that inspired him.

Ganapati Immersion, Chowpatty, Bombay, Maharashtra, 1989. Photographs copyright © 2017 Succession Raghubir Singh

What would be of interest to the city's art connoisseurs is the fact that Singh's work on Bombay in the early 1990s marked a turning point in his stylistic development. No wonder then that this picture of Ganesh visarjan, along with at least five other frames from the city, will feature in the exhibition, which will be on view from October 11.

No 13 knocks on Mumbai's door
Ranked Asia's 13th Best by San Pellegrino on the prestigious Asia's 50 Best List for 2017, SÜHRING - a Bangkok-based award-winning restaurant that dishes modern German fare - will pop-up from September 13 to 17 at The Taj.

Led by twin chefs Mathias and Thomas Sühring, who reflect on childhood memories of food, the restaurant was the first to win the title of Bangkok's best restaurant in its first year of opening.

If you want a taste of their fare, be ready to shell out '12,000 per person for a slice of the good stuff.

Pic/Sameer Markande

Laughter therapy
Something seems to have cracked up Hema Malini and the lensmen photographing her at a cultural event at a Juhu five-star yesterday.

A trip down memory lane
Well-known photographer Jitendra Arya's retrospective, which opened amidst much fanfare over the weekend at the National Gallery of Modern Art, saw a special guest in attendance.

Veteran actress Kamini Kaushal, who is remembered for her roles in Neecha Nagar, Biraj Bahu, Ziddi and Do Bhai, was seen soaking in Arya's frames from the 1950s and '60s. When she came across Dev Anand's photographs, she remarked that his first movie was with her.

"He was awfully shy then and used to keep to himself," Kaushal said, recalling how the first Filmfare cover featured her. The 90-year-old is seen here with Arya's portraits of her, captured in the '50s.

Take a virtual tour, book a table
Wouldn't it be convenient if you could do a virtual walk-through of a restaurant before deciding which table you want to reserve? Well, for at least at a handful of city restaurants, you can now do exactly that.

Bandra's retro-themed resto-bar Door No 1 is the latest to jump the bandwagon led by virtual reality reservation venture Dinomeals, which allows diners to book a table after going on a 360-degree virtual tour. All you have to do is use the Facebook app and access the page of the restaurant, then click on the Book Now button.

Take the tour and select a table and the date on which you'd like to visit. Click book and the restaurant receives a confirmation. Some other restaurants you can reserve by using this feature (on your web browser) are Capital Social and Veranda.