SRK's cosmic shrug

gtgt Let us close our eyes for a moment and meditate on the phenomenon that is Shah Rukh Khan last spotted the superstar was delighting a select crowd of Mumbairsquos lsquopeople who can read without moving their lipsrsquo at Shashi Tharoorrsquos book launch with his easy wit before that cocky hat slung low he was checking out Farrah Khanrsquos abs and showing off his own and before that attempting to fly off a railing when his team won the final match of the IPL Articulate urbane secular sexy intelligent selfdeprecating and garrulous this motor mouth has brought wit and a certain cosmic shrug in to the national narrative ldquoThis is who I amrdquo it appears SRK has been trying to tell anyone who will listen ldquoGood bad ugly charming disgusting dimpled or obnoxious Deal with itrdquo IllustrationAmit Bandre We have been SRK watchers for a long time now We have met him at his home Mannat on the roof of a shack in Goa at a palace in Jaipur amongst many other meetings and much of what he said to us lsquoeven when Irsquom in bed Irsquom on stagersquo has passed in to the public domain And we can see this is Shah Rukhrsquos most interesting phase mdash an intense period of selfactualisation So our question is mdash what will SRK do as a second act Already he appears to have transcended the limits of Bollywood he goes through the motions but appears to be phoning it in His face has acquired a certain haggard vulnerability and his stringy lean boyman body resembles those of the two other Peter Pan epochal stars in our constellation Jagger and Jackson Never has SRK looked handsomer or more intriguing So what will he do for a second act This one appears too easy for the Badshah of Bollywood International artist showing gtgt The international artist curator and academic Avantika Bawa returns to Mumbai after her successful show last year at the Gallery Maskarau00a0This time the artist who has been trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda brings another solo show titled Another Documentation to the same venue ldquoThrough the choice and placement of works Bawa presents the gallery as a lsquoconstructionsitersquo where notions of the everyday that may otherwise go unnoticed are put into creative orderrdquo says the flyer Avantika Bawa with her art installation ldquoI am interested in the conversations between drawing sculpture and architecturerdquo says Bawa an assistant professor of Fine Arts at Washington State University Vancouver ldquoThis show is giving me a stage for these conversations to occur in different ways the expected and unexpected the functional and the futile playful yet paired down The rich landscape of Mumbai is loaded and constantly growing The city really can trigger one sense and evoke various responses in a multitude of waysrdquo she says Emperor has no clothes gtgt Amidst all the hype and hoopla of LFW it takes the likes of a Mahabanoo ModyKotwal to declare the emperor has no clothes Recently the feisty actress who is chipping away at the urban Indian narrative on sexuality with her production of The Vagina Monologues posted a comment on FB dissing one of the shows ldquoHad an incredible experience at a fashion show Need an antidepressantrdquo she wrote ldquoA bunch of terribly dressed people watching even more terribly dressed models strutting about to horrible music The models were walking as if they were wearing shoes with broken heels and desperately trying to keep their shoes onrdquo adding ldquoDonrsquot get me wrong The models were not wearing skimpy clothes these were just tacky illfitting and looked like my local darzi does in a hurryrdquo No wersquore not telling who the designer was Super model super mom gtgt OK So she married an Italian ice cream magnate lives in Italy and has had a baby a beautiful daughter named Indira but for those who still miss the presence of Indiarsquos first super model Madhu Sapre herersquos an update a gorgeous picture of the earthy model that could give Sophia Loren a run for her money Mama Mia was never more appropriate LFW Gripes gtgtu00a0u00a0Who is the designer who seems to have riled a couple of top models at LFW with her unprofessional maneuvering to try and get them to walk her ramp for free As one leggy beauty puts it ldquoLook we do a lot of shows pro bono to encourage new and up and coming designers but this lady is not only an old hand but also reportedly loadedrdquo Tch Tch We donrsquot like Foodie talk gtgt Camellia Panjabi who knows more about the restaurant business and food than arguably anyone else on the planet shersquos the lady who launched some of the Taj hotelsrsquo most successful FampB outlets and now runs over 10 of her own in London is celebrating her birthday today mdash with what else mdashdinner at a Mumbai restaurant About Mumbairsquos booming restaurant scene the bestselling author of Great Curries of India says ldquoA few specialty Indian restaurants like Urban Tadka and Soam are really celebrating and innovating Indian foodrdquo Wersquod put them on our list immediately u00a0