Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

Aamir Khan with wife Kiran Rao and former wife Reena Dutta (right) at the launch of the water conservation event at Sahyadri state guest house yesterday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Stars, smiles and a worthy cause
It was early last year when Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao set up the non-profit, Paani Foundation, with an aim to a create a drought-free Maharashtra.

To popularise the already existing models of watershed management in villages like Ralegan Siddhi, Hiware Bazar, Hiware, Jakhangaon and Nalawadewadi in the state, the organisation soon launched the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup - a competition between different villages to see who could do the maximum work for water conservation in a certain period.

The second edition of the water cup was launched by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday. Others who attended the event included actors Atul Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, filmmaker Nagraj Manjule among others. Over a hundred villages from across Maharashtra will compete for a prize of '50 lakh. Here is one competition with no losers.

Thinking like Chanakya
Professor Radhakrishnan Pillai, who coordinates Mumbai University's flagship leadership science degree course, has been engaged in a rigorous study of Chanakya's economic principles for over 15 years now.

He has also authored books on the topic. Yesterday, he launched his third book, Chanakya in Daily Life. Through the title, Pillai decodes and simplifies the visionary king-maker's principles to provide solutions for the personal and professional aspects of life.

Rohan's still a Bengal tiger
As the Mumbai cricket team were working their way to the all-important first innings lead over Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semi-final at Rajkot yesterday, it was time for a change in the commentary box.

Before Rohan Gavaskar and Amol Muzumdar took over the microphone, a commentator from the previous session introduced the two, highlighting their Mumbai connection - Amol, who represented the 41-time champions for most of his first-class career and Rohan, who played club, inter-collegiate and inter-office cricket in the city except the Ranji Trophy for Bengal.

Gavaskar rarely misses an opportunity to indulge in some banter and was quick to stress that had Mumbai clashed with Bengal, he would have supported the eastern giants. No hard feelings, Rohan. After all, Bengal gave you an opportunity that Mumbai couldn't despite your performances back in the 1990s.

In praise of Sairat
A Special Jury/Special Mention Award at the National Film Awards, the first Marathi film to gross over '100 crore, remake plans in six Indian languages - the accolades keep pouring in for Sairat. And now, it's topped the list of the best Indian films from 2016, on Screen Anarchy, a popular Canadian website that covers and reviews international, independent and cult films.

"This incredibly bold film is a masterpiece from start to finish. A story of caste politics and star-crossed lovers, Sairat transcends the boundary between popular and art house film in a way that is bound to leave you gasping for breath by the end," wrote writer J Hurtado, who compiled the list. The other films that have made the cut are the serial killer thriller Raman Raghav 2.0; Dangal; Aligarh; and Kammatipaadam, a Malayalam- language film, among others.

A national award for Jiggs Kalra?
In an online article uploaded yesterday, columnist and food writer Sourish Bhattacharyya has put out a plea for Jiggs Kalra to be awarded a Padma Bhushan.

He believes that the doyen of food impresarios and the inspiration behind his son Zorawar Kalra's hugely successful Masala Library and Farzi Cafe restaurants, has been denied his due. He was, after all, responsible for getting the world to respect Indian food and for the industry to give chefs the status that was eluding them.

Through his restaurants - Dum Pukht (and celebrity status for chef Imtiaz Qureshi), Aangan, Singh Sahib and the catering company Bawarchi Tola, Kalra was responsible for popularising local food and making it known outside the cities of origin.

Bhattacharyya, who details Kalra's entire food journey in the piece, credits him with the resurgence of regional cuisines, a trend that is now lionised and called the next big thing. Jiggs Kalra, he writes, did it back in the 1980s and 1990s.