Shabana Azmi is not the only one who has spoken out about the unease felt about the Cannes Film Festival and the French Riviera becoming a fashion red carpet
Madame Jeanne Augier
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Shabana Azmi is not the only one who has spoken out about the unease felt about the Cannes Film Festival and the French Riviera becoming a fashion red carpet, and jet set circus for the rich and idle. Ever since its inception, there has always been a divide between what insiders describe as the 'starlets and the stars' of the Riviera.
Recently when we were there, we were witness to some of this sniffy disdain from the locals about the philistine image surrounding their beloved Cote d'Azur.
Salvador Dali
We had visited the legendary Negresco, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, in neighbouring Nice, a hotel overlooking the iconic Promenade De Anglais, whose every square inch was stepped in art, ideas and culture. It had been acquired five decades ago by Madame Jeanne Augier, an impassioned art patron, whose startling collection spanning five decades permeated its every corner, and whose friends like Miro and Salvador Dali, were said to have routinely spent their summers in its rooms...
(Woody Allen's 'Magic in the Moonlight' is just one of the films shot here)
A picture of the Negresco
Besides these outstanding art works housed in a National Historic Building, and a two-star Michelin restaurant festooned with goblins and rococo furniture in a riot of pink, lime, lemon on its premises, this priceless jewel on the Riviera's crown had kept a deliberate (and sniffy) distance from the tamasha of the red carpet gala and yacht attending hoi polloi. "Mercifully they leave us alone, not knowing where the Riviera's real jewels lie," said one of its exquisitely red plume-hatted doormen. Our Indian jet setters and red carpet actresses should take note.
Ana Singh and Heetika Shah
New-age healing
Good to catch up with Ana Singh, the pioneering Bollywood costume designer, who says she is back to full-time designing for films again. Singh also happens to be amongst the city's growing practitioners of alternative healing. "I am a 'light worker' and help spread light and positive energies that heal. It is the purpose of my life, besides design," she said, by way of inviting us this weekend to the launch of a new organic salon and clinic in Bandra, run by young naturopath Heetika Shah, who uses fresh, hand-crushed fruits, herbs, and oils to create personalised products and treatments for those weary of commercial brands. "She's the daughter of my dear friend, Lara Shah, a psychic healer. Tanya Deol will do the honours of launching the place," said Singh, adding, "Bhavana Pandey, Ayesha and Krishna Shroff, Sussanne Khan, Kiran Rao, Lara Dutta and Kim Sharma will all be there."
Rana Ayyub
Acts of courage
It is seldom that a Facebook post contains such a searingly moving, and deeply edifying message. Friends of author (The Gujarat Files) and journalist Rana Ayyub, have been moved by her account of a recent event in her life which took place in Bhiwandi this week, at the release of the Urdu edition of her book, attended by over 700 of her admirers.
"The tears started brimming the moment they invited my father to speak," says Ayyub. "A celebrated writer, I have always seen Abba on the writing table with a notepad and a pen, so I knew this was the beginning of a very emotional evening," she says.
And it was. Rather than talk about his daughter's indomitable courage in writing her book and standing up to the powers that be, Ayyub Waquif spoke from his heart about her tremendous courage in triumphing over her personal challenges which included trysts with childhood polio and a bout of debilitating depression.
"The Rana that you know fights for others; with the world, with those in power… the Rana we know fought with herself for two decades of her life," he narrated to not a dry eye in the house. "No word can explain the intensity of the moment," said Ayyub when we spoke yesterday. "Ayyub Waquif is not my father, I am his proud daughter. He is and always will be my hero."
Dattaraj and Dipti Salgaocar
A birthday and a safari
Word comes in that our friend, the Wharton-educated industrialist, Dattaraj Salgaocar, turned 60 this week. But unlike other industrialists of his ilk, the art and culture patron, and doting family man, decided not to throw a big party at one of his sprawling Goa properties (he hails from Goa's illustrious Salgaocar family and is the son-in-law of Dhirubhai Ambani), but to spend the special occasion in the wilderness, amongst only family, on a safari at South Africa's famed Kruger National Park. Perhaps there was work thrown in too. Salgaocar is an avid wildlife photographer whose pictures have appeared in many of his corporate communiques.
Chef Himanshu Taneja
Pack up your truffles
"He was always a non-conformist, and we were batch mates and roommates in catering college, a long time ago," says Chef Himanshu Taneja, Culinary Director at the St. Regis, on his colleague, the famous Chef Gaggan Anand from Bangkok. "Coincidently, he had asked me to come with him to El Bulli before opening his restaurant. It wasn't the right time in my career and I have no regrets," he continues, as we catch up with him at Yuuka, the modern Japanese fine dine restaurant he now oversees.
The soft-spoken chef was brought in to innovate the hotel's F&B offering. And the first of his innovations was to introduce a summer truffle festival at the restaurant. "We brought down three kilos of black truffles from Italy," he said, explaining what went into the menu which included dishes like Alphonso mango maki rolls with truffles, truffle avocado rolls, and even a chocolate truffle mousse topped with truffle ice-cream! "The standalone restaurants have raised expectations and standards in the market and we all have to step up," he said. One more stirring of Mumbai's legendary melting pot of cuisine!
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