Mumbai diary: Thursday Dossier

Taapsee Pannu

EK LADKI BHEEGI BHAAGI SI

Tapsee Pannu is caught in the Wednesday rains while exiting a Juhu salon. Pic /Satej Shinde

Bringing back the glory days

Gustad Dinshaw

One often sees beloved old Mumbai restaurants lose their shine, and crumble as time passes, mainly because the owners don't see a point in spending money on renovations when they aren't earning big bucks. An anomaly in this scenario of the old Bombay restaurant scene is Opera House's Café Dela Paix, one of the 10 winners in The Surviving Irani Café category of The Guide Restaurant Awards 2019. Several regulars, such as The Welfare for Stray Dogs' Abodh Aras, recently discovered that owner Gustad Dinshaw is busy giving the café more than a fresh coat of paint and shared this image with mid-day. This made us wonder if Dela Paix's interiors and menu are getting a makeover.

Pic/ Abodh Aras

"The café was screaming for a spruce up, we had not painted it in many years. I am not changing anything. The essence of the café will stay, as it is very dear to my father, and I have to keep in mind the heritage value. We are just refurbishing the place to bring it closer to what it looked like. I have painted the cafe in colours I have always liked, changed the lighting, completed necessary masonry work. The wall-to-wall Burma teak panels are getting polished, and whatever furniture can be restored and made functional and beautiful to look at, is being taken care of. We aren't changing the menu, for now. It's just baby steps," Dinshaw tells this diarist.

Earning their stripes

Just around 3,890. That's the measly number of tigers left in the world, and 2,226 of them are in India. It puts the onus on us as a country to do our bit to ensure that the magnificent animal doesn't go extinct. And one of the country's leading wine producers has taken on that responsibility, ahead of International Tiger Day,which falls on Monday. The firm has launched India's first "wine for a cause", where each bottle of one of their brands features the big cat on the label, and a certain part of every sale is donated towards tiger conservation. Now that's a worthy initiative that we hope becomes a roaring success.

The recipe for success

What is the kind of friendship that could possibly transpire between a widow and a young tight-rope walker? That is what chef Vikas Khanna set out to understand when he wrote The Last Colour in 2018. Adapted into a film in January this year, it has created quite the ripple, following rave reviews from critics and viewers alike. The film, Khanna's directorial debut starring veteran actor Neena Gupta, has travelled to several countries for screenings and is now en route to Australia for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, 2019 in August. As a cookbook writer, TV show host and now a successful filmmaker, it's clear that this chef can don many hats. So, what's your recipe for success, Vikas?

Magic meets rock in Parikrama video

When one of the oldest and hardcore rock bands in the country, Parikrama, who were pioneers in the genre, decide to drop their first music video in 19 years, it has got to be grand. That's exactly what the seconds-long teaser of Tears of the Wizard seems to be pointing to, with powerful guitar riffs painting the perfect background for the six members to walk into the frame - dressed in dark, flowing coats. Their look for the video has been styled by Mumbai-based Indrakshi Pattanaik Malik. Shot in the Mechuka village in Arunachal Pradesh, the song is inspired by the Lord of the Rings character, Gandalf the Grey. "The Arunachal government had invited us for a show two years ago and when I saw the mystical place, it reminded me of LOTR. We decided that if we ever made a video of the song, it would be here," founder and pianist Subir Malik told this diarist.

Rushdie's booked, again"

After winning the Man Booker Prize for his second novel, Midnight's Children, in 1981, British Indian writer Salman Rushdie was awarded the Best of Bookers i.e. the best of all the winners in 1993 and 2008. And now, he has once again been included in the prize's latest longlist that features eight women and five men, for his upcoming novel Quichotte - described as "Don Quixote for the modern age". Rushdie is up against another strong contender for the prize - six-time nominee, Canadian author Margaret At­wood. And although his book is expected to release in September, it looks like it's certainly going to send people flocking to the bookstores be­fore the final winner of the Booker is announced on October 14.

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