Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla host glitzy Diwali bash

There was a profusion of beauty at leading designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khoslas Diwali bash at their home on Friday night and whats best of all it was not restricted to the women Exquisitelyattired swannecked dreamyeyed young men clad from headtotoe in the designers finest Indian traditional ensembles competed with the gorgeous female stunners that evening many of whom were legends in the good looks stakesShweta and Navya Naveli Nanda at Sandeep KhoslaAbu Janis Diwali bashFrom Dimple Kapadia to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to Sridevi to Natasha Poonawalla and Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Navya Naveli Sara Ali Khan Kaykashan Patel Gayatri Oberoi Sonali Bendre Twinkle Khanna and Anu Dewan the persquarefoot beauty ratio was arguably the highest that evening in the wellappointed ground floor flat in Juhu than anywhere else in the world And all this in a space already suffused with an array of beautiful art objects lights flowers and fabricsSandeep Khosla with guests at the party PicsSandeep Khosla InstagramWe spotted Abhishek Bachchan Adar Poonawalla Tanya Godrej Karan Johar Ashiesh Shah Lubna Adams Gautam Seth Prateek Jain Pratima and Gaurav Bhatia Akshay Kumar Masaba Gupta Bhawana Pandey Divya Thakur Neeta Sinha and many others partaking in the general mood of cheer and bonhomie fuelled by some excellent bubbly and wine and the households famous noshBut the night belonged to one person Shweta all brooding eyes and long lissome silhouette in a moonlightwhite breath of a sari worn with minimal jewels looking like shed traipsed off an Amrita Shergill canvas From Jaya to Shweta and now to Navya Naveli we have stayed relevant and dressed them all said Abu Jani to us at one point in the evening Sometimes even we cannot believe thatThat spirit of MumbaiSoonis book is a winner on many levels said actordirector and humanitarian Rahul Bose when we bumped into him at the launch of Sooni Taraporewalas Home In The City her excellent book of photographs on FridayFirst if like me you are a Bombayite through and through then the panoply of photographs that she unveiled over four decades is the classiest trip imaginable down memory lane Overarching that of course is the classic Sooni eye for the moment measured layered often times ironical but always suffused with the empathy and humanism great artists invariably have he saidTaraporewala is that rare artist whose work span many genres but which is always as Bose points out imbued with her signature empathy and humanism Whether it is the iconic Salaam Bombay the screen play of which she wrote with her longtime creative collaborator Mira Nair or Little Zizou the film she directed or the photographs of Mumbai in her latest book she manages to capture the much talked about spirit of Mumbai which in spite of all the challenges that almost break its back still mercifully and miraculously existsPlay timeThis is a really special show Its a whole group of very creative people from Jaipur some of whom never show who are coming to my store because they share our headspace and because they also like to think that they make special things by coming from a special space They have fun with what they do and they truly believe that play is very important said Srila Chatterjee curator and space stylist whose Everyday Play A Little in collaboration with an art gallery from Jaipur at her furniture and home store we managed to catch on its last day last hour after its 12day successful run in MumbaiSrila ChatterjeeThe show is two things Firstly a presentation of eight great design centers said the erstwhile ad film maker and aesthete whose home is on the cover of a design glossy this month But more importantly it is a reminder to everyone that no matter what we do it is important to never forget that there must be time in our lives to just play she said These were not idle words Stepping into the vibrant quirky intensely creative dolls house that had been created we were instantly enchantedSo setting aside a carefully assembled evening plan we found ourselves surrendering for the next hour to the shows abundance of riches and being persuaded by Chatterjee to try our hand at spinning a handmade wooden top the way we used to as a child And we are happy to report that not only did our top spin perfectly on our first throw itself but it happened to be the most important spinning we had done that entire weekThe family geneIn March we had dropped into a walkthrough of a show flat designed by designer Simone Arora where we had met both her mother Zarine Khan and sister designer Sussanne This Saturday though we could not make it to the preview of a sample flat in the same building a prominent builders new property this time designed by Sussanne we could well imagine its aesthetic appealHrithik Roshan with Hrehaan Hridaan and friendsThe Khan daughters Simone Sussanne and Farah Khan Ali who designs jewellery have inherited their aesthetic sensibility from their mother and though each has a different style of her own somehow the family gene shines through This is not the only thing the Khans have in common Being a wellknit and close clan they share more or less the same friends circle and given their multifaceted talents one finds many of the same faces at their eventsSussanne KhanSaturdays preview saw proud mom Zarine Sussannes former husband Hrithik Roshan with their sons her sisterinlaw Malaika and brother Zayed Khan Sonali Bendre Dia Mirza Kunal Kapoor Zeba Kohli and Krishika Lulla and many others attend what were sure must have been a glittering eventReflections on a Saturday afternoonI think we owe every work of art as much thoughtful and empathic attention as we can afford to give it Hasty dismissal deprives us of aesthetic experiences It was artist Jaideep Mehrotra on site at his Reflections in Mercury at Worlis spacious and airy Tao Art Gallery where we had dropped in on Saturday evening on the invitation of his wife SeemaJaideep MehrotraThe culmination of over seven years of research and experimentation and composed of a combination of metal paint and various mixed media on canvas the collection of striking abstracts with their reflective surfaces afforded a meditative expanse reflecting the changing colours of the days rainy sunset at Haji AliArt is a reflection of its surrounding culture said Mehrotra as we walked through his work Metallics reflect everything surrounding them and deflect any allusions to the artists interior And after wards we drank coffee and nibbled at bespoke handmade dark chocolates spiced with sea salt and dates