Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Celebrating Alyque

It was a veritable festival of the late advertising and theatre genius Alyque Padamsee on Tuesday at the Royal Opera House, when his producer-daughter Raell Padamsee

It was a veritable festival of the late advertising and theatre genius Alyque Padamsee on Tuesday at the Royal Opera House, when his producer-daughter Raell Padamsee presented ‘The Best of Alyque’, an assemblage of his greatest hits on what would have been his 88th birth anniversary. With performances from his critically-acclaimed directorial ventures like Evita; JC Superstar; Cabaret; A Street Car Named Desire and The Death of a Salesman, it featured some of the city’s most iconic theatre veterans like Gerson da cunha; Sabirra Merchant and Farroukh Mehta, with singers from his musicals like Sharon Prabhakar, Shiamak Davar and Devieka Bhojwani, who reprised the role of the Virgin Mary in both Padamsee’s original offering in the 70s and his later one, a few years ago, for an audience comprising the showman’s friends, fans and family. We spotted the likes of director Shyam Benegal, industrialists Niraj Bajaj and Yusuf Hamied, thespian Vijaya Mehta, dance critic Sunil Kothari and filmmaker Ayesha Sayani in the star-studded audience. The show shone with rare jewels such as octogenarian Gerson da Cunha reprising his role of Petruccio in The Taming Of The Shrew, first performed in 1954, and the little seen Davar, now one of Bollywood’s most successful choreographers, regaling the gathering as the emcee of the Kit Kat Club from the musical Cabaret, singing the memorable, ‘If You Could See Her’, with a person dressed in a gorilla suit; and Dolly Thakore and Mehta in the poignant graveside scene in Death of A Salesman that left many in the audience with a lump in their throat. Equally riveting were the archival, behind-the-scenes footage of Padamsee, directing his various casts over the decades, which eerily afforded the audience with the full impact of his omnipresent, larger-than-life persona, months after his passing. The Best of Alyque is one of those rare gems, a production that offers theatre-goers an insight into the oeuvre of one of the country’s most celebrated directors in bite sized pieces; equally tailor-made for today’s ADD Millennials and also their nostalgia-ridden parents, wanting to relive those halcyon days when theatre was a big deal in Mumbai. Raell plans to have many more shows and for anyone interested in theatre, it is a must watch. Still to be added of course are Kabir Bedi’s performance in Padamsee’s seventies hit Tughlak and Shabana Azmi in his Broken Images, more recently. Perhaps, these will be rolled out along with the rest, in the show’s revival on April 20?

Gerson da Cunha and Sabirra Merchant

Urban Grunge And Rock Royalty

Arjun Khanna

“It’s a sort of urban grunge, rock, royalty and eclectic,” said menswear designer Arjun Khanna, about his new atelier soon-to-open its doors in Parel. We had been intrigued by Khanna’s teaser posts about his new store, for which, he’d gone virtually underground, working round-the-clock to get it ready. “It almost is. I am soon to schedule a date for next week,” he said, when we spoke yesterday, adding, “It’s a labour of love and it’s AK 2.0!” We had been a frequent visitor to Khanna’s older atelier, nestled in the most interesting bit of Old Colaba. Full of retro swag, biker beauty and vintage flourish, it embodied his unique aesthetic and style: old fogey melded with new age chic. His new location, housed in an old chemical factory space which he has converted, would be more stylish, he said. “An atelier in the true sense of the word. You will see lots of vintage, retro, lots of biker influences in the interiors,” he said, adding, “I like to call it urban grunge with remnants of the past and royalty!” And serendipitously, the new place also celebrates 30 years of Khanna’s label. “It’s one of the many things to come this year - to mark the significance of the label’s big 30,” he shared.

Pseud’sCorner
“Women have suffered in the past, but luckily, we are living in an age where women are being given equal rights and freedom. The time is changing and now equality and freedom does not just define equal rights for education and freedom to work, but has larger connotation. Though women have largely taken to the primary branches of the profession and sports, there are still some unconventional fields which unfortunately are still considered ‘male-dominated’. Be it bartending, firefighting, golf, car racing or poker, women are still trying hard to maintain the balance and fit into these fields.” (sic)
-Typical PR spiel, generated for the upcoming Women’s Day annual shenanigans.

Horsing Around

Leia Sadanah with her horse Taurus.

If a certain section of the city’s yummy mummies (and daddies) have been preoccupied with breeches; boots; socks; helmet; dressage and jumping shirts; long whips; short whips and carrots and jaggery, you can be sure their kids have just emerged from the almost nine-day long Mumbai Horse Show 2019 at the RWITC Turf Club at Mahalaxmi. Always a hobby of the city’s equestrian crowd, recently, the circle appears to have widened with many more parents actively encouraging their progeny to take up riding seriously. As Lisa Sadanah aka Helmet Girl, the road safety activist and mother of Leia Sadanah of the Oberoi International School who walked off with a gold, silver and bronze for jumping and dressage, said about the non-stop, early morning activity, “It’s been an exhilarating experience, but I have to say, I need to catch up on my sleep now!”