The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pablo Picasso
Remembering Picasso
Few artists held sway over the world of arts in the 20th century like Pablo Picasso did. The legendary artist from Spain, who spent much of his adult life in France, was also a sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, poet and playwright, and many countries of the world issued stamps, coins and currency notes in honour of this multifaceted personality.
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Yesterday was Picasso’s 134th birth anniversary, and a Mumbai-based online museum for vintage stamps and currency notes released a docudrama chronicling his life, works, the distinctive periods of his evolving styles and the honours bestowed on him. It also features a stamp issued by the Indian government in 1982 on the occasion of Picasso’s birth centenary, which has his artwork, Three Musicians, on it.
The docudrama, which is more like a video stitched together using Picasso’s works and photographs with a commentary, still serves as a good beginner’s guide to the master. We hear there are more such videos in the pipeline, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled.
Vidya's on auto pilot
Pic/Atul Kamble
Keeping up with unconventional promotions for her new film, Vidya Balan chose to hop into an autorickshaw to arrive in Juhu for the trailer launch yesterday.
10-year switch
The news caught this diarist by surprise yesterday, especially since the person had been recently quoted in this newspaper for taking a positive stand to publish a bio on cricketer Shahid Afridi.
V Karthika
After a decade at one of India’s biggest publishing houses, V Karthika, publisher at HarperCollins India, stepped down from her role, stirring a buzz in the circuit. Karthika has been credited to bringing in some of the finest names in fiction and non-fiction to the firm, including Kiran Nagarkar, Sarnath Banerjee, Upamanyu Chaterjee, Anuja Chauhan, Nayantara Sehgal and Nilanjana Roy.
Murmurs conjecturing to a complete change in strategy at the publishing house are doing the rounds as the reason for her exit. That she might go the Chiki Sarkar way, a la, start a new publishing venture is also being suggested by literary ears. We’d love to see how this untitled page-turner turns out.
Asia will be on the plate
Here’s another one joining the bevy of Asian restaurants in the city. Not that this diarist is complaining. To be launched by Speciality Restaurants (yes, that’s how they spell it), Asia Kitchen and Bar — believed to be a more edgy version of the group’s existing Asia Kitchen — will open its doors at Sakinaka in Andheri in the first week of November.
Interiors of the space
The restaurant will replace the first outlet of Mainland China, opened by the group founder Anjan Chatterjee back in 1994.
Anjan Chatterjee
Expect South East Asian dishes on the menu including Smoked Duck and Asparagus Fried Rice, Truffle Fish Dumplings, BBQ Shenjiang Bao, Duck and Orange Gyoza. Wash them down with sake sangrias and other Asian-inspired concoctions.
Shuttle service for football
For the thousands of football fans who chanted “BFC, BFC” at Bengaluru’s Sree Kanteerava Stadium last week and saw their team making it to the finals of the 2016 AFCâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Cup, there was another pleasant surprise in the stadium.
Ashwini Ponnappa
Ace shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa was part of the cheering crowd, and as expected, when they spotted her, they couldn’t resist requesting her for selfies. Sporting a cool pixie cut, Ponnappa obliged and even retweeted some of her fans’ posts. Quite a day for the Bengaluru fans, that!
For old times’ sake
If you are still wondering whether it’s really 15 years since Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein was released, we have some more anniversaries — Gulzar’s Maachis turned 20 yesterday. It was filmmaker Hansal Mehta who marked the milestone on Twitter expressing his gratitude to Gulzar, Vishal Bhardwaj and RV Pandit for beginning his life in films.
Hansal Mehta
Mehta met Bhardwaj during his struggling days, who in turnintroduced him to Gulzar and Pandit. Mehta ended up editing all the trailers and promos of Maachis. His work was liked, things began to fall into place and there was no looking back — except for occasions such as these.
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