The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Cabana cool
In scorching summer, rooftops may not be the place you want to chill at, but a stunning view of the city, cool cocktails and designer cabanas may be enticing enough.
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Asilo at The St Regis Mumbai is going to sport a designer avatar again. Last year, designers Amit Aggarwal, Payal Singhal, Anand Kabra, Krishna Mehta and Maheka Mirpuri gave the cabanas a fashionable makeover.
Narendra Kumar and the moodboard for his cabana, Nachiket Barve, Falguni and Shane Peacock
This edition will feature concepts by Narendra Kumar, Falguni & Shane Peacock, Nachiket Barve and Nitya Arora in synergy with a signature Grey Goose cocktail handpicked by each designer.
From lush velvet to the freshness of love stories, retro and disco vibes to the white sands of Cape Town, we’re pretty sure this will be one heady, stylish way to slip into the Mumbai's summery nights.
Lighting up the stage
Sonam Kapoor with Sir Ian McKellen during the opening of the Kashish Film Festival at Liberty Cinema, Marine Lines.
The seventh edition of the festival will be held at three venues in the heart of South Mumbai — the iconic art deco Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan. For more pictures from the event log on to www.mid-day.com. Pic/Shadab Khan
Web shocks for Dia Mirza
The web is where the action is, clearly. After romance, comedy and thrillers, it is now time for an Indian horror series titled, Shockers. It will feature Dia Mirza in one episode.
Mirza, who has had a versatile career working for the Indo-Iranian project, Salaam Mumbai and her solo travelling series, Ganga — The Soul of India, is excited about the episode, The Good Wife, a short film that deals with a supernatural presence in the protagonist’s house.
“As an actor it is exciting to be part of different mediums of storytelling. Short films as a format are exciting, because in a limited period of time a lot can be conveyed. Samaira’s story, in The Good Wife could be anyone's experience. It is real and extraordinary,” she says. Looking forward to online goosebumps.
The Sushant-Sush connect
Besides offering a plethora of world cinema to Mumbai on a platter the seventh edition of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, which opened yesterday, has a special performance up its sleeve.
Sushmita Sen and Sushant Divgikar
Sushant Divgikar, who represented India in Mr Gay World 2014 contest, will croon a medley of Sushmita Sen’s hits at the finalé on May 29. “I am star struck only by two women from the Hindi film Industry — Rekha and Sushmita. I chose to sing Sushmita’s songs because she also celebrated 22 years of winning Miss Universe on May 21, so this is a tribute to her achievement,” says the ex-Bigg Boss contestant.
Tomorrow, the fest will also witness a documentary screening of My Child Is Gay And I Am Happy, featuring the actor-model’s parents, who talk about his coming out story and their unconditional support, along with four others. “My dad (Pradeep Divgikar) is often touted as the father of all LGBT children in India because very do you find fathers accepting of their gay children. Every parent should learn a lesson or two from them,” he reminded this diarist.
Classroom shocker at SRFTI
All is not well at Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute as news of a sexual harassment complaint spills.
But more than the complaint, in which two faculty members were found guilty by an internal complaints committee, the shocker is the condemnation of the complainants on social media by some students.
A complainant told this diarist that this was prevalent on campus since the complaint was lodged last year, where they were accused of bringing disrepute to the institution and making a big deal out of nothing.
However, “opinions” surfaced after a student shared a video on May 22 of one of the accused faculty in a drunken monologue in a hostel room with male students. This was done after the institute decided not to act on the sexual harassment committee’s verdict.
The video has found support in filmmaker Nishtha Jain (in pic). She writes, “I feel that the institute is scared to take action against these criminals. I am releasing a video of one of the accused professors to give you an idea of what he was doing in this place.
He said that he believed classes were not possible in classrooms and it could be taken only in such booze-weed sessions with him.” In the video, the wise professor decides to openly dissect the sex life of a female student, peppered with cliché wisdom on life.
He is even brave enough to be filmed. The students in support of their ‘friendly’ faculty have said that it was unethical to upload the video because it was just “camaraderie;” and he was only acting for a documentary. Acting for a documentary?
The call matters
With the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) results announced yesterday, student and parents were in tizzy over results.
The helpline works in association with TISS. Representation pic
Stepping in to play counselor was the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) initiative iCall — a telephone and e-mail based service that offers counseling to students about their future.
This free service scores above the rest since it offers help in six languages —English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Konkani, Punjabi and Malayalam. Paras Sharma, programme co-ordinator told this diarist that they don’t simply look into concerns of distressed students but also, often, their parents who need to speak to counselors.
A further assurance came when he added, “The counselors are all applied psychology or clinical psychology masters programme students from TISS.” With 150-300 calls and e-mails per month that rise to 1,000 calls and emails during exam season, it’s a godsend for Mumbaikars.
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