Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Double-billed celebration

Noted artist Sunil Padwal talks about the joyous double-billed event that saw him bring in his 50th birthday and celebrate the 25th anniversary of his marriage to designer Tanuja Padwal

“Honestly, I wasn’t keen on celebrating because I was so busy with work, but my friend, Raj Shanani, and others put together an impromptu party for us,” said noted artist Sunil Padwal about the joyous double-billed event that saw him bring in his 50th birthday and celebrate the 25th anniversary of his marriage to designer Tanuja Padwal this Saturday night. The occasion, hosted on the rooftop of a popular party venue, saw the couple’s family, close friends, fellow artists and even parents of their son’s friends, meld together in a happy mix of music laughter and dancing. The evening had begun with jazz, retro, and a little bit of funk, ending as most parties do, with much freestyle grooving to Bollywood beats, with the couple on the floor by popular demand for most of the evening. After his successful showing at a recently concluded show, Padwal had dispatched a series of his works to the Miami Basel Art Fair 2018, even as he prepared for his upcoming solo this January in Delhi. “I’m also equally busy with an interesting project with a reputed Gallery in Majorca, Spain, to open next March,” he said. As for Saturday’s celebration, which lasted till the wee hours of the morning, he says one of its highlights had been Tanuja’s 94-year-old grandmother dancing with abandon with the one-and-a half-year-old daughter of the couple’s friends. Nice.

Sunil Paswal and wife Tanuja at the celebrations over the weekend.

Supporting the Arts

(From left) Kalyani Chawla, Natasha A Poonawalla, Feroze Gujral and Ruchika Mehta

We have been following the work done by the Delhi-based couple Feroze and Mohit Gujral’s art foundation with interest over the past ten years since its inception. The son and daughter-in-law of legendary artist, Satish Gujral, the dapper architect and his stunning supermodel and philanthropist wife, are said to be making a significant contribution to art appreciation and knowledge. This week, the Gujral Foundation will be presenting Art Induct, as part of its Knowledge Program, at Delhi’s new cultural nerve centre, Bikaner House. Structured as a day-long master-class on art appreciation, speakers will include art historian Gayatri Sinha, cultural historian and author William Dalrymple, artist duo Thukral & Tagra, and auctioneer Mallika Sagar, amongst others. “All of us today have access to information, not all of have the knowledge to support it. Our aim is to provide you with the knowledge to best use the information that you have for the vast spectrum of Indian contemporary culture,” said Feroze about her foundation’s latest initiative. incidentally, one of Satish Gujral’s early works, a painting from 1972, will be coming up for auction in Mumbai the day after the programme.

A Magical Milonga

The Milonga underway at the Shroffs’ cottage in Juhu (Maxie Cooper)

As we have reported before, Mumbai has an enthusiastic community of tango lovers who meet often to celebrate and practice the elegant dance form said to have originated in the 1880s between Uruguay and Argentina. Drawn from all walks of life, the city’s tango dancers look for opportunities to get together at what are known as ‘Milongas’, and word comes in that this Sunday, a sparkling Milonga was held at the exquisite 90-year-old Juhu cottage of practicing lawyer and thespian, Darius Shroff, and wife Sonja, both avid tango lovers. “Our friend, the artist, photographer and fellow tango lover, Maxie Cooper, had a visiting friend from the US and she asked if there was any Milonga happening, and Sonja said come home, we will do it, just like that,” said Shroff. “People wanted to dance and immediately and infectiously put their names on the group chat,” he said when we spoke yesterday, adding with pride, “My wife is extremely talented, with a fine eye and everything we have at home has been done by her.” The Shroffs’ cottage, nestled in one of Juhu’s verdant colonies, was built of wood and asbestos with a tin roof. “It’s three inches of cement on top of sand, and the floor is just cement. No tiles. No marble. No granite,” says Shroff, adding, “But the floor is so smooth and beautiful to dance on. And when you step into the garden, it’s as if you were transported to a hill station.” The Shroffs, who have been married for nearly 39 years, are one of the suburb’s much-loved institutions. “We love dancing, are bohemian in spirit and with both kids settled, we can do whatever we want,” he signed off.

And The Show Went On

Quasar Padamsee with mother Dolly Thakore, at his father’s funeral on Sunday. (Bhushan Koyande)

Word comes in that one of the weekend’s house-full sessions at a litfest was the one devoted to the bi-annual Sultan Padamsee Award. That’s because this year’s session was dedicated to Alyque, the brother of Sultan, who had passed away just the day before. “The theme of the afternoon was Alyque’s favourite line: “The show must go on”, and so, the session carried on as planned with a reading of prize-winning plays by well-known actors such as Sabirra Merchant, said Anil Dharker, the founder of the litfest. The session had begun with Dharker’s tribute to Alyque Padamsee. “The usual thing in such cases is to observe a minute’s silence,” he’d said, adding, “But since Alyque Padamsee was such an unusual man, the usual should be dispensed with and instead, let us celebrate his life with three cheers.” Instantly, we are informed, the Godrej Theatre had reverberated with full-throated shouts of “hip hip hooray”. What’s even more apt was the fact that, after just a day of his dad’s funeral, Padamsee’s theatre director son, Quasar, is said to have reported back to work at the festival, where he and his team are its event managers. Indeed, the show must go on.