The Weekend Guide

'Scene 6' by Timothy Davey.

FOOD
Thanksgiving Specials
Holidays and eating are likely to top any poll of Indians’ favourite things. Never mind that the only Indians one usually associates with Thanksgiving are Native Americans; if it’s a food-centric holiday, we will celebrate it. In this spirit of inclusiveness, a host of Mumbai restaurants have planned special spreads for Thanksgiving weekend, which will be celebrated in the US from today. You can take your pick from Butterball turkey at Indigo Deli; roast turkey served with jasmine rice and wasabi mash at Shiro; or a turkey breast tartine at Le Pain Quotidien.
When: From Thursday, November 24 to Sunday, November 27.
Where: See here for details.

ART
Project India
In this collaboration between British non-profit 1%-ers Art Collective and Mumbai consultancy Asia Art Projects, eight artists from the UK and four from India have created a series of “interventions” inspired by their host city (that would be Mumbai) and their surroundings. The resulting works—spread across three venues, Studio X in Fort, False Ceiling in Bandra and Kala Ghoda Cafe—prompt an intriguing debate on the role of the artist versus the artisan as well as notions of Eastern and Western culture. Other works at the various spaces include a series of photographs and paintings at False Ceiling and Kala Ghoda Cafe, and signage at Studio X, which reads simply “This message is a sign from above” (if you happen to visit Blue Frog, keep your eyes peeled for a second, equally mysterious message outside the venue).
When: All three shows run until Saturday, December 10. The show at Kala Ghoda Cafe opens on Saturday, November 26.
Where: Studio X, Fourth Floor, Kitab Mahal, D. N. Road, Fort. False Ceiling, opposite IMMPA House, Ambedkar Road, near Pali Naka, Bandra (West). Kala Ghoda Cafe, 10 Ropewalk Lane, Fort, near Trishna restaurant, Kala Ghoda. Tel: 2263 3866. For timings and more information, visit 1percenters.co.uk.

FILM
The Help
If the thought of watching the Twilight saga’s penultimate film this weekend sends you shrieking in the opposite direction, consider instead The Help. This critical and commercial success has already garnered Oscar buzz for its heavy hitting cast of women including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Mary Steenburgen. Set in the 1960s in sweltering, segregationist Mississippi, the story explores racial tensions when Stone’s character Skeeter decides to record the stories of various domestic help. Though “short on style”, the movie makes up for its technical shortcomings with its “deeply touching human story filled with humor and heartbreak“.
When: From Friday, November 25.
Where: At cinemas across the city.

ALSO AROUND TOWN
• Watch six city-based stand-up comedians—Varun Thakur, Aditi Mittal, Karan Talwar, Amogh Ranadive, Azeem Banatwala, Karunesh Talwar—get a bunch of stuffed shirts to loosen up when they perform at Starboard, the bar at the Taj hotel on Friday, November 25, from 8.30pm. The Taj Mahal Palace, Apollo Bunder. Tel: 6665 3366.

• This Saturday, November 26 and Sunday, November 27, metalheads and classic rock lovers will assemble at the annual congregation known as Independence Rock, the Mumbai music festival that is now into its twenty-sixth year. Among the acts that the crowd will mosh and play air guitar to are such mainstays as Demonic Resurrection and Bhayanak Maut, who will perform on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The line-up this year also features the return of Brahma and Parikrama as well as the I-Rock debut of popular city-based cover band The Other People. Gates open at 4pm on both days; you can watch the gigs live on MTV and Vh1 between 5pm and 9pm. Chitrakoot Grounds, behind Fun Republic, off Link Road, Andheri (West). Visit www.mtsredenergy.com/irock to see the full line-up and to download a free pass.

• If you read our review of The Convert, then you’ll want to hear author Deborah Baker speak about her critically-acclaimed biography of a 28-year-old American Jewish woman who chucked up a life in America to become an Islamist writer in Pakistan. The event will be held at 6.30pm on Saturday, November 26 at art gallery, Project 88. B. M. P. Building, Ground Floor, N. A. Sawant Marg, near Colaba Fire Station, Colaba. To RSVP, email asiasociety@asiasociety.org.in. The event is free for Asia Society members; there is an entrance fee of Rs200 for non-members.

• Baul singers, qawwali groups, and whirling dervishes will perform at this year’s edition of annual Sufi music festival Ruhaniyat, which will also showcase such mystic art forms as devaram, waee and jikir-jari. The two-day event will be staged, from 6.30pm, on both Saturday, November 26 and Sunday, November 27, at the Horniman Circle Garden. See here for details. Horniman Circle, near the Asiatic Society Library, Fort.

• Adventure travel company The Blueberry Trails is organising a weekend expedition of kayaking on the Kundalika River in Kolad, a three-hour drive away from Mumbai, from Saturday, November 26 to Sunday, November 27. To sign up, call Sudeepta on 98209 25721 or visit www.theblueberrytrails.co.in. The registration fee is Rs4,200 per person, inclusive of accommodation, meals and activities.

• Catch global innovators, like the chap behind the Aakash tablet and 15 others, talk about their snazzy inventions that are changing the world in the latest installment of TEDxGateway, this Sunday, November 27, from 9am to 6pm, at the NCPA’s Jamshed Bhabha Theatre. See here for more details. National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point.

• Ditch your car this Sunday, November 27, and go mobile by participating in a walk-a-thon or bike-a-thon to celebrate Car Free Day. The global initiative, which will see a 20kms stretch of road from C. S. T. Station to Girgaum Chowpatty being cordoned off to traffic until noon, is intended to help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. See here for more details.

• Hit the art trail this Sunday, November 27 when galleries in Colaba and Fort will stay open from 11am to 5pm as part of their monthly Art 4 Sunday initiative. To download our art map and see what’s happening at galleries around town, see here.