Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

While he was sleeping

In between the daily rush, a porter sleeps on his cart at the busy Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

New knight of the order

Mishra receives the award from His Excellency, Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India

For any fashion designer, France holds a special place. For Mumbai-based designer and haute couturier Rahul Mishra, it just got more special. Mishra was conferred with the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) last week by His Excellency Emmanuel Lenain, who until recently was Ambassador of France to India. "His [Mishra's] dedication to craftsmanship, sustainability, and the fusion of Indian and French design sensibilities is truly commendable. Through this award, France honours his outstanding achievements and contribution to forging a deeper connection between our two nations," the Ambassador noted. Calling it a special honour, the designer dedicated the award to the many artisans he worked with through his career. "The honour also creates confidence in us going forward. Since our inception, we have believed in sustainability as an environmental practice and are always looking at natural technologies to create slower fashion, while also empowering creators," he told this diarist.

Homing in on Bengaluru

Music platform Little Sounds is moving south, and in a good way. The curation just celebrated its debut in the city of Bengaluru. Founder Romel Dias (below) shared, "We were always working towards the new IP in Bengaluru, and it worked out this year. It was a fantastic gig with artiste, Anisha Lakshmanan." The new IP, titled The Big ticket, will focus on ticketed concerts for an audience of 50 to 60 people. "The idea was to expand while keeping the focus on the artistes. We are looking at more such performances in Bengaluru. From December, we will have a clearer idea," said Dias, who shuttles between Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Ever dream of a city that floats?

Prateek Arora's artwork of floating houses. Pics Courtesy/Instagram

As Mumbaikars, we know that space is luxury. The city seems to be moving vertically - buildings, parking spaces, real estate cost and rent. Artist Prateek Arora, who was house-hunting recently, realised the absurdity and found a unique way to express it. He created AI-generated artworks that depicted floating houses around the city. "I wanted to recreate something that reflected this absurdity. It also has the element of wanting to rise above the chaos - construction, rains, traffic snarls. It led me to think of flying apartments above the city skyline - absurd, quirky, but somehow relatable," Arora told this diarist.

Reel-y serious

Anagha Kamble (right) Ruby Maloni

At a time when cinema's role in social conversations is under the scanner, the book launch at the Literary Club of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai today, seeks to shed light on the art of cinema through the perspectives of social sciences, history and academic criticism. It won't be boring though, promised editor Dr Anagha Kamble. She added, "The idea is to go beyond the filmmaker's intent and examine the films and the period in which they were made." The book, Critical Social Science Perspectives on Indian Cinema by Anirudh Deshpande and Anagha Kamble (editors), features articles and essays that shed light on facets such as historical filmmaking, partition cinema, gender and non-normative portrayal and caste and class; perspectives in Indian cinema that will be discussed at the panel talk that follows the launch. "We are historians and social scientists, and want to look at cinema through that lens. The idea is to raise cinema studies from just a popular source of entertainment to a serious field of academic research," said professor Ruby Maloni, who has contributed her work on filmmaker Satyajit Ray as a humanist to the book.

Historic Vikhroli church gets 3D avatar

An earlier picture of St Joseph's Church, Vikhroli under renovation. Pics Courtesy/Instagram

Standing tall near the Vikhroli railway station, St Joseph's Church has been a famous landmark for commuters and passers-by since 1910. The church was recently renovated and this change was documented as a 3D model by church parishioners and 3D printing artists, Androse Fernandes and Abner Remedios, also known as A&A 3D. "The roof of the church has a new exterior look and the interiors received a facelift with a gilded altar, similar to the ones you would see in Goa or churches in Vasai," Fernandes shared, adding that they were contacted by the church to create the models as mementos.

The 3D model

"We created 30 such models that were distributed to guest priests and dignitaries on the day of the inauguration on September 17. The best part is that we used an environmentally-friendly material called PLA [Polylactic Acid] to create these replicas. We had only 18 days to prepare these. One model takes 12 hours to be ready; we completed all models by the 16th day. This was a challenge because the one thing that's certain in 3D printing is print failures. But it seems as if divine intervention helped us wrap up this project," he told this diarist.