Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

It's been a hard day's night

The setting sun casts a silhouette on construction workers at an under-construction site in Airoli.

Read his lips

It is inevitable, really. If you consistently stay at the top of a volatile industry, people are bound to notice. Especially, if you show up wearing rose-tinted Tom Ford sunglasses, indoors after dusk. On Monday evening, jack-of-all-trades Sabyasachi Mukherjee chose an unbuttoned black sherwani, a buttoned-down white shirt, a dainty necklace, and a film star smile at the by-invite-only launch of yet another collaboration with a global brand. Sabyasachi, the Kolkata couturier and his brand of bridal wear, high jewellery, eyewear, home furnishings and decor, has grown fast by staying close to the customers.

Models wearing Estée Lauder x Sabyasachi Limited Edition Collection (right) Sabyasachi Mukherjee at the launch

Hit rewind on the L'Oréal Paris x Sabyasachi collab in 2018, and the Indian customers tsk-tsking over Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan's crimson pout comes to mind. The latest synergy, Estée Lauder x Sabyasachi limited-edition lipstick colours - gilded in 24K gold plated accents and emblazoned with the Bengal tiger monogram - is informed by learning what the beauty community wants, not just from tones and shades but names too. Bombay Berry is an ultra-matte deep berry; Muslin Tea, a satin matte caramel nude, and Coffee Masala, an ultra-matte warm brown.

Bengal, the couturier's home state gets two shades as a salaam: an ultra-matte blue-red called Calcutta Red, and Rouge Bengal, a satin matte warm red. The make-up station on the second level of Sabyasachi's Horniman Circle flagship address hosted a full lipstick range, surrounded by chattering guests: actor Manushi Chhillar, makeup artists Mitesh Rajani, Sandhya Shekar, Marianna Mukuchyan, the couturier's model-muse Varshita Thatavarthi, a few cast members of 2023 thriller, Class, and beauty influencers.

The guests pecked on hors d'oeuvres, and while most sipped on Dom, the rest - still on an extended Dry January reset including this diarist - nursed a tall glass of tepid sparkling cucumber water. "Saada pani" was nowhere to be found. Someone chuckled, "You need to know insiders to get a bottle of still water."

Cutting at the katta

Street furniture gets apt and aesthetic at Shivaji Park

It is the cup that cheers, truly. A Shivaji Park pavement has a cutesy, colourful chai spot or chai katta, to give it a local name. The space, on a footpath which is the proverbial stone's throw away from the Shivaji Park maidan, is buzzing late morning and after, as students, office workers and the general public walks by or sits around, cup of chai in hand. There are conventional benches too, but amidst those, a giant tea cup seat is an aesthetically apt addition to all the street furniture. Importantly, this katta leaves place for pedestrians to access the pavement. The cup makes a perfect bench, where any and everybody can sip ‘chaha', and exchange ha-ha with companions. The graffiti on the giant cup, with its Mumbai themes and local flavour, makes one say: When it is tea, I would rather have it in Dadar.

Values at your fingertips

A volunteer shows off her finger puppets made at the workshop

Children of the Nehru Nagar settlement in Andheri East learnt a valuable lesson in co-existence last Sunday, thanks to a finger puppet storytelling workshop by city-based women and child empowerment organisation, Serve With Shraddha. As part of their Naitik Shiksha campaign, the organisation makes weekly visits to the underprivileged areas, finding interactive ways to inculcate values in children. "This weekend, our volunteers narrated a story of five friends and the strength they find in unity, using finger puppets," Shraddha Singh (inset), its founder shared, adding that the children were able to grasp the concepts and even asked follow-up questions to the narrators. "The idea that these [underprivileged] children are not open to being educated, is a misconception. We must use the right language; one that speaks directly to them," Singh concluded.

Rooms of fantasy in Worli

Patni's works will feature as part of the immersive exhibition that will also have actors performing and interacting with the audience

Photographer and visual artist Tejal Patni is putting a new spin on the narrative that artists are strange creatures. Patni's latest immersive exhibition Vichitra, that opens at Snowball Studios in Worli this Saturday, will bring together live actors and the worlds of fantasy and surrealism. "The exhibition of eight rooms [artworks] is inspired by the word ‘bizarre'. The idea was to create and show a world that is fantastical, humorous and whimsical," said the artist.

While he has worked on projects with big-ticket brands, Patni (right) remarked that some of his greatest influences have been children's stories or works of avant-garde theatre makers and filmmakers like Tim Burton. "From a visual standpoint, I was trying to experience the feeling of having seen a dream, and recreate it in the visuals. That is the experience I hope to give visitors," he told this diarist.