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Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Updated on: 16 October,2017 09:43 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Team mid-day |

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

A Brecht musical brings London to life on stage
A slice of London will arrive in Bandra next month as Naseeruddin Shah's Motley theatre group brings to life Bertolt Brecht's musical, The Threepenny Opera.



The plot revolves around a family that lives in a poor part of the British capital. The daughter has fallen for a bandit who's notorious in the area. So, the parents do everything in their power to get the bandit arrested. The production has an ensemble cast, with Arunoday Singh (in pic, right) playing the bandit.


Imaad Shah (left) has directed it, and says, "As I discovered the play itself and studied various versions of it, I felt more and more that the characters mirrored a lot of things we see in our society today." What he's getting at is the divide between the rich and the poor, something we Mumbaikars will know as well as residents of any other city.


Pics/Suresh Karkera

To Mumbai, with love
Veteran actor and writer Gerson da Cunha arrives at the launch of photographer-filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala's book, which chronicles 40 years of her photographing the city.

A regal slice of history
Despite the bustle and din that greets you as you enter Colaba, the familiar marquee of Regal cinema, and its imposing Art Deco motifs make it hard to miss.

Last weekend, on October 14, this landmark completed 84 years since it opened to the public as India's largest cinema hall at the time. Built as the country's first ever-exclusive cinema for films, it ushered the arrival of the Art Deco movement in the city. The 1,200-seater, history books tell us, was cooled by India's first ever air-conditioning system.

It was designed by renowned city architect FW Stevens' son, Charles, while celebrated Cubism exponent Karl Schara is believed to have played a role in the interiors. The brainchild of Parsi entrepreneur Framji Sidhwa, he wanted to build the 'Best cinema east of Suez [Canal]'. It must have been a spectacular opening, as the city's page 3 set from the 1930s, decked to the hilt, showed up for its first screening - the Laurel and Hardy flick, The Devil's Brother. Ah, that Bombay state of mind.

Varun goes green
The ban on the sale of crackers in Delhi-NCRâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088has split opinions down the middle, and the BJP is no different. While Minister for Environment Harshvardhan deleted his tweets welcoming the ban, MP Varun Gandhi - who has differed from the official party line quite often in the recent past - minced no words about how his Diwali is going to look like this year.

"As a father of a little girl with pollution-induced breathing issues, I'll be planting 15 trees this Diwali instead of bursting firecrackers," he tweeted, while urging his followers to be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Sub-Saharan tunes come to the city
It's news like this, which gives a heart-warming assurance that India's music scene is truly a vibrant one. Tinariwen, a Grammy-Award winning group of musicians from sub-Saharan Africa, will be touring India next month, starting with Mumbai. The band was formed in 1979, and is known for its blues and rock-infused Tishoumaren style of music, which is native to North Africa. But what sets Tinariwen aside is that they have seen conflict up close, which reflects in their art.

This one's for the young guns
India's first music festival dedicated to teens, Totem Pole Music Festival 2017, saw several exciting performances over the weekend.

The environment-friendly festival's second edition saw Nicolas Galat, who has graduated from The School of Magical Arts of Bogota, pull several tricks on stage, inviting some excited youngsters to participate.

The Stage winner Sharvi Yadav and Mihir Joshi discussed music in India. Popular 11-year-old dancer Nicole Laeno (in pic) got the crowd grooving with her energetic dance performance. Other international artistes included Theo Jones aka Theolodge, and pop and R 'n' B artiste Xavier Keyz among other teen sensations.

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