Is Bollywood going soft? Once famous for its alleged extra marital affairs, this weekend at the IIFA New York, it appeared that the stars were well and truly in love – with their wives!
Zenobia, Boman Irani, Shahid and Mira Kapur
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Is Bollywood going soft? Once famous for its alleged extra marital affairs, this weekend at the IIFA New York, it appeared that the stars were well and truly in love – with their wives! Not only did Shahid Kapur dedicate the Best Actor award which he'd won for Udta Punjab to wife Mira Rajput, but the ever gallant and multi-talented Boman Irani posted a picture of his wife Zenobia on social media accompanied with the words: 'Talking about awards...here's mine ...my lifetime achievement' Obviously this time in NYC love was in the air!
Citizen Jain
We have known Aadar Jain since he was only a gleam in his parents' eyes. And we have watched him grow into the dapper young man he has become today, on the verge of debuting in the upcoming film Qaidi Band, produced by Aditya Chopra, which has already given him a legion of young fans.
Aadar Jain
But even though he was born into the first family of Indian films, and his relatives include most of Bollywood today, Aadar was always a quintessential SoBo boy, who grew up away from the film industry, went to school at Cathedral and hung out with non-filmy friends.
Discovered by a production house's casting director Shanoo Sharma, who signed him up before anyone else, today, he is being mentored by one of the industry's most powerful men, like Ranveer Singh. Earlier this month, we weren't able to make it to his media launch, where he was introduced by his cousin Ranbir Kapoor, but as we watched its replay, we couldn't help thinking that though the young man was sharing the stage with a far more experienced star, he'd managed to hold his own, in what must have been a nerve-wracking experience.
And yesterday, when we watched the trailer of his upcoming movie, which had opened to good reports, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the banner had cast him against type as an unshaven and gritty undertrial, a far cry from the stereotypical chocolate boy-love story debut afforded to new actors. And Jain appears to have risen to the occasion, getting his teeth into his character with flair. Giving every impression that he's here to stay. Enter, Citizen Jain.
Of hellos and goodbyes
"Someone told me at one of the various farewell gatherings over the past few days, that leaving is actually a form of arrival. It really feels like that: a sloughing off of one skin for another, a movement from one epoch into another, the end of an era, the beginning of another," says artist Sharmistha Ray, who is on the verge of moving back to New York after over a decade in Mumbai.
Anupa Mehta, Sharmistha Ray, Shireen Gandhy and Vasudha Ruia
"Bombay, like New York before it, inspired an ardor," says the artist who's had two successful, high-profile solo exhibitions within the past year in Mumbai and Kochi. "Both cities have nurtured me, seen me through periods of intense awakenings of the spirit, of personal and professional growth."
Ray plans to live and work out of Manhattan. "My painting studio is at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in the Garment District,' she says. It also houses many artists she admires like Shahzia Sikander and Toyin Ojih Odutola, so she'll be in good company. As for future plans, they include a few exhibitions in the pipeline in 2018.
For now, she's caught up in a profusion of farewells thrown in her honour by the likes of gallerists Anupa Mehta and Geetu Hinduja. "All good things must come to an end, or find a new beginning," she says wistfully. Going back to New York after more than a decade in India, mostly spent in Bombay, feels like an arrival to a new shore. It's the old New York, but it's a new me, ready to step into a new skin.
Reason to celebrate
It was a veritable gathering of the tribe this Sunday evening at the Royal Opera House for Gallerie's 20th anniversary. From Dolly Thakore, Sangita Kathiwada, Meera Devidayal, Nancy Adajania, Baiju Parthan, Sunil Gawde, Chennai-based Ranvir and Nandi Shah, to Tara Lal and Mortimer Chatterjee, they were all there, the city's culturati, to celebrate the unthinkable: an independent and progressive arts magazine that has not only survived two decades (and 40 issues), but appears to be flourishing as well!
Lubna Salim, Bina Sarkar Ellias, Gulzar and Salim Arif
Editor-publisher Bina Sarkar Ellias, who along husband, art photographer Rafique Ellias, was the force behind this, was commended for it by many including Gulzar and actor Nandita Das, throughout the evening. And the celebration ended with the Ellias' daughter Yuki perform 'The Elephant in the Room,' which received a standing ovation.
London's art beat
Our friend, the artist and interior designer Kahini Arte Merchant, is currently in London feasting on the city's vibrant art scene. From Anish Kapoor's disturbing 'Unborn', at The 249th Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, to Brian Shield's 'Archipelago', at the National Portrait Gallery, Merchant has been soaking it all in, including London's abundance of egalitarian street and public art.
Kahini Arte Merchant with Kalpana Shah
"On my agenda to see is 'The Encounter'; drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt, currently on at the National Portrait Gallery, though I will typically spend more time in Room 3 savouring my favourite works from the Tudor and Elizabethan period," she said, adding, "Not to forget the vibrant "public art", thoughtfully and cleverly displayed at museums and galleries, which attracts ordinary everyday citizens, unlike the small, closed "club" of collectors and art snobs in India."
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Broadway bound
"Monsoon Wedding doesn't have any defined plans as yet," says actor, funny man and perennial Bandra boy, Javed Jaffrey, about the Mira Nair directed musical based on her movie of the same name, in which he essays the role played by Naseeruddin Shah.
Javed Jaffrey
Jaffrey, who returns to India at the end of the month after a successful run of the play at California's Berkeley Repertory, says bringing the musical to India is not on the cards as yet. "Broadway is the next target," he said, when we spoke this week.
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