Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Sleepless in Palm Springs

Neena Gupta shot with Khanna over a few intense months in Varanasi and had bonded deeply, not only with the charismatic Khanna but also his mother, who he’s said to be closest to.

Talking to Neena Gupta, whose performance as a middle-aged pregnant woman in last year’s sleeper-hit Badhaai Ho won the 59-year-old actress the Best Actor Critics’ trophy at a high-profile award show last month, is always interesting. Especially if it’s 4am for her in Palm Springs and she’s jet-lagged, excited and nervous all at the same time, on the eve of the premier of her latest movie ‘The Last Color’. Directed by Michelin-star Chef Vikas Khanna, the film opens this week at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Gupta shot with Khanna over a few intense months in Varanasi and had bonded deeply, not only with the charismatic Khanna but also his mother, who he’s said to be closest to. “My husband Vivek and I came to America a few days before New Year to spend it with his family. Then we, along with Vikas, his mother (who is an accomplished pilot herself) and his business partner, flew in a private aircraft for lunch to the Hamptons and after refuelling, we’ve just got in to Palm Springs,” she said, adding, “To tell you the truth, it was exciting as well as scary as I’m quite nervous of small planes…” About the success of Badhaai Ho, Gupta says she is “still numb”. “It’s like I am in a daze, I have to tell myself to be happy, I don’t know how to react. Getting the Best Actress award, that too at my age and for such an offbeat, unusual film, is the most amazing thing. What’s more, the film’s success means that others will be encouraged to make more such movies, with better scripts and offbeat themes…” In The Last Color, based on Khanna’s novel of the same name, Gupta plays Noor, a widow who yearns to play Holi after a Supreme Court ban forbidding widows from touching colour is lifted. Like Badhaai Ho, it is a film that Gupta says was close to her heart from the beginning. Will it give Gupta’s booming career another fillip — this time internationally? From early reports, the film is already garnering rave reviews and favourable notice as a rare gem. No wonder a few hours before its premier, Gupta is wide awake at 4am!

Neena Gupta, chef Vikas Khanna and his mother arriving in Palm Springs.

Art for Legacy’s sake

The Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum in Ahmedabad.

Two years ago, when the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum, the brainchild of Sanjay Lalbhai, the chairman and managing director of Arvind Mills and his wife Jayshree, opened its doors in Ahmedabad, it was hailed as a landmark moment for the city’s art and heritage movement. And now, later this month the museum, housed in the family’s century-old ancestral home to showcase its legacy and considerable art collection is all set to launch its most cherished division, Arvind Indigo, described as a ‘one-of-a-kind indigo museum’ from ‘the land that gave the world indigo’. As is known, Lalbhai‘s Arvind Mills is India’s largest producer of denim and the world’s fourth-largest exporter of the iconic indigo-dyed textile, and the venture is seen as an organic extension of the family’s business and artistic interests. Ahmedabad is also home to another of the country’s private museums, the Sarabhai foundation-backed Calico Museum of Textiles, set up in 1949, and said to be one of the most comprehensive in its field. In general, private museums are a rarity in India though Lekha Poddar and Kiran Nadar in Delhi, and Rajshree Pathy in Coimbatore, have pulled their establishments off, not a lot of action has been seen in Mumbai.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai/

The late Jehangir Nicholson’s wish that his staggering collection of modern Indian art, established as the JN Art Foundation, in collaboration with Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, hosts rotating exhibitions for the public’s enjoyment; meanwhile Sangita Jindal’s plans to create a museum for the company’s vast collection, either at the erstwhile Jindal headquarters at Peddar Road or at BKC are awaited; as is word that an ambitious Ambani world-class museum will be housed at the Reliance International Convention Centre at BKC. Mumbai can certainly do with a lot more spaces for art and heritage though.

WTSWTM:

WTS:

“James Bond has said if it happens once, it is happenstance, if it is twice, it is a coincidence and if it thrice, it is a conspiracy.”

--- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ad-libbing from James Bond during a recent debate on the Rafale deal in the Lok Sabha

WTM:

“If it happens once, we can put it down to anti-incumbency, if it happens twice, we can cite farmer distress and middle-class’ demonetisation-GST disillusionment, but if we lose in three states during Assembly elections, then what else can we say but that it is enemy action.”

Winter Chic

The Mirpuris with the Poonawallas.

The chilly weather in Pune is said to have been the icing on the cake at Yohan and Michelle Poonawalla’s end-of-year party, according to Mumbai’s party hearties in attendance. It was also the ideal place to spot examples of Winter Chic, with most amongst the hundred or so gathered sporting jackets, faux fur collars, boots and chic capes. Hosted for a hundred or so of their close friends at their sumptuous mansion, the evening featured bonfires, where guests could warm their hands, fireworks, jugglers, violinists and other performances, before a DJ took over and had all the guests dancing to retro Bollywood hits. As to be expected, the elaborate spread of food and desserts served in the dining area overlooking the couple’s landscaped gardens was sumptuous, with the lobster and the pasta counters finding many takers. Many of the guests had attended the Sunburn festival at Oxford Valley, where they’d been afforded a prized view of the international EDM stars from the Poonawalla’s exclusive lounge, so the party, following on its heels, gave them the impression of a seemingly endless magical mystery tour. Seen bringing in the New Year were some of Pune’s leading lights like Sagar and Shribala Chordia, Prasan Firodia, Sabina Sanghvi, Ritu and Arun Nathani, Atul and Varsha Chordia, and Maheka and Amrit Mirpuri and Arti and Kailash Surendranath from Mumbai and politician Tehseen Poonawalla from Delhi.