Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Flying High

Industrialist Ratan Tata, who served as Tata Group chairman for over two decades and is the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, turned 82 this Saturday.

Industrialist Ratan Tata, who served as Tata Group chairman for over two decades and is the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, turned 82 this Saturday. On the occasion, the business icon, who has a passion for flying, shared an image of himself in the cockpit of an F18 Super Hornet aircraft which was taken in 2011, an event he described as one of his favourite moments of the past decade. “I look forward with excitement to the new decade ahead, which is a great time to be relevant, to stand for causes you believe in, to create something from scratch, make special connections, laugh, and write a little bit of history” read his accompanying text.

The picture shared by industrialist Ratan Tata.

The past year had seen the reclusive India Inc statesman make his debut on Instagram, in order to “exchange stories…with a diverse community” with 7,57,000 followers to date. Interestingly, his birthday month was also witness to news that the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) judgment had been for the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons, which is said to have once more sent the country’s most powerful corporate brand into turbulence; but going by his social media messaging, the newly minted 82-year-old appears to be firmly in the pilot’s seat.

TRUELIES: Here’s Looking At You

At a recent high-powered summit attended by business leaders in the capital, which featured a keynote address by one of the country’s tallest leaders, sources say that the audience was in for a tense couple of minutes when the said speaker pointed out that it was offering only a lukewarm response and weak applause at crucial moments of his speech. When the situation repeated itself, the irked leader is said to have looked pointedly in the direction of a handful of India’s richest industrialists and said they were not applauding because his government had stopped the crony capitalism activities of the past and that as a result they were unhappy that they could no longer pay-off babus and bureaucrats to swing decisions in their favour. And given that the group contained a steel magnate once said to be close to 7 Race Course Road and a flamboyant infrastructure tycoon with humongous bank borrowings, it was not hard to see why they had visibly winced at his words, or been the cynosure of all eyes during this part of the address.

What’s in a Name?

“My New Year resolution (is) to alienate the word Bollywood from our vocabulary,” posted film producer, writer and director Zunaid Memon on his social media timeline this week. ‘I hate people addressing the Indian film industry as Bollywood. You don’t deserve to be my friend. Either I will remove you from my friend list or I will not accept your request,” he thundered.

Memon is only the most recent in the long line of film folk, starting with no less than Amitabh Bachchan, who have expressed similar reservations over the moniker, a lazy nod in the direction of the industry’s sister world of Hollywood. The objections appear to be predicated on the fact that the world’s biggest film industry deserves to be referred to with a bit more standalone respect. Memon even helpfully suggested other names that this rose could be called by (“It’s Indian Film Industry ‘IFI’ or Indian Entertainment Industry ‘IEI’. Pick whatever suits you but not the abuse called Bollywood.”).

Now, whereas we have nothing against banishing the name that has caused so much distress, we would like to make a further suggestion: Call it the Indian Film Industry by all means while referring to its worthy good and the great like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy and Raj Kapoor, but another name is definitely required to describe the selfie-obsessed party hearty brand and body flaunting boys and girls we currently have. Our proposal is to refer to the starrier, zingier and lighter aspect of Bollywood with the name Flim-Flam starting from today. Members of the Flim-Flam and readers are welcome to send in their responses to this suggestion along with their own suggestions.

Portrait of a City

The picture shot and shared by Chirodeep Chaudhuri.

“We had come all the way from Thane to South Bombay. The plan was to have an outing on a Sunday when the journey would be comfortable, smooth and with relatively less traffic…” said celebrated art photographer and photo-journalist Chirodeep Chaudhuri, about this evocative portrait that he shot yesterday. Chaudhuri, the creator of the delightful ‘Life and Death of Ordinary Objects’ series on Instagram, shot on his OnePlus A3003 mobile phone, described the quotidian, 9.30am Mumbai morning with an artist’s precision. “We’d parked opposite the Oberoi hotel and began walking. Joggers and walkers went past us. The lovers were out early. The stray dogs were snoozing. In the middle of all this, I spotted this man, sitting, his chin resting on his arm, looking towards the sky. I was struck by the amount of luggage he was surrounded by. I thought I would ask him. But chose, instead, to leave him to his thoughts. He continued sitting...chin resting on his arm...lost in thought...like a statue.”

And that gentle reader, is how this striking image of an ordinary man, perhaps symbolic of every Mumbaiite weighed down by baggage while staring longingly at the sky, came into being.

Next week, after 23 years of shooting reshooting and developing, Chaudhuri’s exhibition showcasing the 81 public clocks that he has lovingly captured across the city will open at the Max Mueller Bhavan.