The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Aâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088still from Sing
Hungarian tunes
It's been only four months since Sing, a Hungarian film set in the '90s, won the Oscar in the Short Film category, but the city can already look forward to watching the movie by the month end. Shamiana, the short film club, has acquired screening rights of the movie, which revolves around a child, who is part of a choir.
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Cyrus Dastur
"After the Mumbai screening, we will be taking the film to Delhi, Bengaluru and Kochi among other cities," Cyrus Dastur, the club's founder, told this diarist. Other best short film nominees of the year including Ennemis Intérieurs and Bon Voyage are also likely to be brought to the city soon.
You go, girl
After her 2014 debut with the book The Gypsy Goddess about caste, poverty and violence in southern India, Meena Kandasamy made a searing comeback with her second title, When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife.
A fictionalised story of a newly-wed writer who experiences violence at her husband's hands, the book draws on Kandasamy's experiences of an abusive marriage. Just two months old on the bookshelves, it is already creating ripples.
The author, who was invited to the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2014, will be back at the fest in August to speak about her latest work. We'll be tracking that for you, readers.
Fawad as Aladdin?
It has taken four months and auditions of nearly 2,000 actors but Disney still hasn't found its lead pair for their live action Aladdin musical. When this news broke recently, Twitter users took it upon themselves to offer suggestions.
While Pakistani-American stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani reacted by asking sarcastically if he was 'chopped liver', others went as far to suggest Zayn Malik get the role (oh no!). Our favourite response, of course, was the united call by many Indian users demanding that Pakistani actor Fawad Khan be considered for the role.
They backed up their claim with some pictures and gifs of the dapper actor, besides talking about his stellar role the Disney production, Khoobsurat. While we aren't sure whether Khan can sing, we know he can shake a leg and his acting is top notch. Disney and Guy Ritchie, are you listening?
Pic/Atul Kamble
Not Udhas for the selfie
Ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas poses for a selfie with daughter Reva at a music event at a SoBo five-star yesterday.
Of radio sets and black and white TVs
"After he would pull down the shutters of the shop, my father [Nanu Gupta] would visit customers who had bought black and white television sets from him, and give them a demo, starting with telling them how the TV took some time to come on to adjusting the volume," recalled Nilesh Gupta, the second-generation proprietorof Vijay Sales, arguably the city's first multi-brand electronic store.
On its completion of 50 years yesterday, Gupta took this diarist on a trip down memory lane, which gave a glimpse into the history of Mumbai's tryst with electronics. "We started out with a 100-sq ft shop in Khar, selling sewing machines, fans and radios.
In 1972, came the black and white TVs, followed by refrigerators and colour TVs in '82. By '87, washing machines had entered the market," Gupta recalled. "Back then, buying an electronic device was a big decision, which was rarely made in a day." When we requested Gupta for an archival picture, he told us that the 2005 deluge had unfortunately destroyed the memories.
For the love of indie
We heart indie artists who support each other. Singer Jasmine Sandlas (in pic), who rose to fame with the song Yaar Naa Miley from Kick, recently lent her support to Starchild. It's an indie, sci-fi film up for crowd-funding on Wishberry to help the team sail through post-production.
The short film features her OST, Baddal. "When I heard the song, I was drawn to its vibe and lyrics... When we told Jasmine about the film she was intrigued by its idea. She even allowed us to use the song for free," shared director Terence Fernandes.
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