FILM
‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’
“Seven Brits go to India” might sound like the beginning of a hackneyed plot, but consider which Brits these are: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy are among the stalwarts who star in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which has been called a “charming celebration of aging”. The seven retirees find their way to Jaipur, where they occupy a ramshackle hotel and grapple with the daunting realities of old age while adapting to life in India with varying degrees of cheeriness. Such is the acting prowess of the cast that despite the occasional fumble, they nail “every nuance in this comedy laced with genuine emotion”.
When: From Friday, May 18.
Where: At cinemas across the city.

ART, FILM
Project Cinema City
In Project Cinema City, an ambitious multi-disciplinary exhibition mounted at the National Gallery of Modern Art by cultural centre Majlis, it’s not just Bollywood but Indian cinema in all its glorious, kitschy entities that is addressed by a multitude of artists and art students. Atul Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta, Tushar Joag, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani and Pushpamala N. are among those who have re-interpreted 100 years of Indian cinema (which incidentally we celebrate this year) via photos, installations, paintings and videos.
When: From Saturday, May 19 to Friday, June 29. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm; Monday, closed.
Where: National Gallery of Modern Art, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall, M.G. Road, Fort. Tel: 2288 1969.

THEATRE
‘The Comedy of Errors’ at Prithvi Theatre
With the setting changed from ancient Greece to contemporary Kabul, this Dari language adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays promises to show us a side of Afghanistan that seldom makes the headlines. The Antipholuses become Arsalans and the Dromios become Bostans in the classic farce of mistaken identity, adapted by Afghan theatre company Rah-e-Sabz and directed by French actress Corinne Jaber, who also helmed a production of Love’s Labour Lost in Kabul in 2005. The Comedy Of Errors, which will be staged, with English subtitles, at the Prithvi Theatre on Saturday, makes its way to Mumbai en route to the UK for a performance at London’s Globe Theatre where it’s part of a festival of Shakespeare’s plays in over 30 different languages.
When: Saturday, May 19, at 6pm and 9pm.
Where: Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Juhu. Tel: 2614 9546. Tickets are priced at R300 per head.

ALSO AROUND TOWN
• Delhi-based artist Arun Kumar H. G. turns Mumbai Art Room into a forest of sorts, with an on-site installation of leaves and seeds that address the importance of conserving biodiversity. Until Friday, July 6. Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 7pm; Sunday, closed. Pipewala Building (entrance through the back gate), opposite the Navy Children School, Fourth Pasta Lane, Colaba. Tel: 97699 50136.

• Cash in on big savings at the Bungalow 8 sample sale, which will be held from this Friday, May 18 to Sunday, May 20, from 10.30am to 7.30pm, when men and womenswear, including dresses, tunics, shirts and trousers, will be up to 50 per cent off. Grants Building, First, Second, and Third Floor, 17 Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba. Tel: 2281 9880.

• Attend a concert by Indian jazz-fusion supergroup Silk, which features pianist Louiz Banks, singer Shankar Mahadevan, percussionist Sivamani, mridangam player Sridhar Parthasarathy and bassist Sheldon D’Silva, at the Shanmukhananda Auditorium this Friday, May 18, from 7pm. Tickets for the show, which will help raise funds for the Swayamsiddh Parental Organisation for Mentally Challenged Children, are priced at Rs250, Rs500, Rs750, Rs1,500 and Rs3,000. Shanmukhananda Auditorium, behind Gandhi Market, Sion (East). Tel: 2407 8888.

• Sightsavers, an organisation that works to raise awareness about blindness, hosts an exhibition of photographs by ten visually-impaired children, on Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20, from noon to 6pm. St. Xavier’s College, 5 Mahapalika Marg.

• Sign up for Wandering in Worli, Beyond Bombay’s two-hour walking tour of the Worli fishing village that will be conducted this Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20, at 7pm on both days. The registration fee is Rs700 per person for the walk, which will start from the parking lot near INS Trata at 4.45pm. Call Shriti Tyagi on 98677 64409 or email beyondbombay@gmail.com to register.

• Listen to fusion music group Rajeev Raja Combine and Hindi rock band Paradigm Shift at Dadar Chowpatty this Saturday, May 19, from 5.30pm in what is the penultimate concert in this year’s series of Bandstand Revival gigs. There is no entry fee. Dadar Chowpatty, behind the Mayor’s Bungalow, same lane as the HP Petrol Pump, near Shivaji Park, Dadar (West). Call 98196 89544 for further details.

• Hear author and journalist Jerry Pinto read from his new critically acclaimed novel Em and the Big Hoom at Kitab Khana on Saturday, May 19, from 6pm. Somaiya Bhavan, M. G. Road, near Flora Fountain, Fort. Tel: 2204 3247.

• Dance to the music of DJs Arnold from Mumbai (aka Arnold Misquitta), Ash Roy, and Anil Chawla and Dale Anderson at Blue Frog this Saturday, May 19, from 9pm, at Techno Takeover, a gig organised by the UnMute Agency, a Delhi-based electronica-centric artist management and booking agency. The entrance fee is Rs500. Blue Frog, Mathuradas Mills Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel. Tel: 6158 6158.

• Participate in the creation of the Tata Housing Development Company’s Mumbai Wall Book, where participants will get to paint and decorate the stretch of wall on Tulsi Pipe Road in Mahim on Sunday, May 20, from 7am. Call 086526 75485 or 086526 74816 to register.

Photo via Daylife.com.

This year, with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan rumoured to be giving Cannes a ditch, the red carpet belongs to fellow L’Oreal ambassadors Freida Pinto and Sonam Kapoor. Kapoor, who rocked a Jean Paul Gautier creation last year, will walk the last day of the film festival this year. In the meantime, Pinto, seen here in a beaded gown by Michael Angel, was one of the first stars to arrive at the opening ceremony, alongside Eva Longoria. While we love Pinto’s elegant up-do and make-up, the beaded candy pink gown is considerably less dramatic than we’d hoped from a young star known to usually nail big-ticket events. There’s something vaguely 1980s about the colour swirls on the beaded bodice and the peplum style gathering at the hip. What do you think? Does the slit provide enough of a teaser or is it all too fussy and aging for the 20-something ingenue?

“IITians are the best gals can EVER get,” wrote one avid fan, “Be it money,looks,intelligence or anything !!! And There’s nothing wrong in a gal being attracted towards such a ‘divine’ species.”

Divine indeed! Thanks to the combined efforts of Chetan Bhagat and Aamir Khan, surely Indian girls have finally been convinced that the average IIT-ian is—as another commenter put it—a “heroic combination of Peter Parker (the quintessential geek), Bruce Wayne (shits money) and The Incredible Hulk (‘Amma says make him angry just before bedtime’).”

Flash forward four years, and voila! We have DateIITians.com, a new social dating website premised on this much-vaunted desirability of the IIT/IIM suitor. “Many Girls think that they must have IITians, IIMites, Businessman, Industrialists as their life partner and they want to meet them where they get the chance, isn’t true? I think so it is true,” declares its founder Layak Singh, an IIT-Kharagpur grad.

True it may well be in a country infatuated with all things IIT—be it degrees, husbands, or sperm.

And yet…why then does the site that sells itself as “a new world of social dating” appear to be marketed by and for the boys.

The home page, for instance, is littered with photos of pretty young things—and many look like stock photos of models as opposed to real members. Some have been posed with flirty little lines, as in “Will you be my date?” and “What’s up buddy?” My favourite is a screen with photos of three girls with the caption, ‘Meet your soulmate’, and accompanied by this mysterious bit of insight: “You may admire a curvy girl on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up some new angles.”

No less mystifying is the ‘About’ section which claims that DateIITians is “based on the philosophy of a beautiful relationship which begins with buddy-ship (friendship) and results in developing and maintaining a meaningful relation, of course with the modern world definitions”. But right after comes an inadvertent confession: “It is an endeavour to make it easier for the geeks out there in finding their perfect life partner.”

More demoralising—to any IIT guy—is the media coverage which reaffirms the age-old stereotype of the desperate dude:
So you are stuck attending your mechanical engineering lectures for the better half of the day and the girls in your class are more interested in quantum physics than you. You need to brush up on your pick-up lines and you are tired of hugging your pillow. If you ended up nodding in agreement while empathising with the situation, then dateIITians might be the brainchild that will rescue your love life from doom.

And then there is this damning (and charmingly self-deprecating) quote from Rachit Gupta, general secretary of the student council affairs at IIT Delhi: “I’m interested in it ’coz yahaan par IIT/IIM se baahar ki ladkiyaan bhi toh aa sakti hain, like those who’re interested in dating an engineer. Otherwise, in our normal life, people have this sad image of us, ki IIT ke ladkey super-geeks aur gadhey hote hain…only hooked on books. If this portal helps us shed that image, it would be great.”

Three years after Aamir Khan immortalised the sexy geek on the silver screen, a great number of IIT boys seem to be still desperately seeking the ladies. And it speaks volumes about how little has changed for a certain kind of Indian male in new India—the kind primed from day one to focus on academics to the exclusion of all else.

“The academic slog for them is long and disproportionate,” says ‘Malini’, a friend who dated a “perfectly nice” IIT guy. The result, she says, is a type of arrested development which expresses itself as a lingering discomfort in the company of the opposite sex. The lack of experience or “socialisation” with girls is exacerbated when they hit college. The IIT-bound boy remains—in the midst of changing sexual and social mores—mostly chained to his textbooks, only to end up in college campuses where women are a tiny minority.

A minority that is often disdained. “They call them ‘non-boys’,” she says, “They talk about them in a certain way, don’t treat them as equals.”

The greatest resistance to the site comes from men unwilling to date IIT girls, like ‘Dheeraj’, who says: “I’d rather not look for an IITian to date; she can be boring and unbearably geeky. Look, most of my friends in IIT have girlfriends from Delhi University, who are not into professional courses at all. That’s how the preferences vary.”

Okay, so IIT boys think their “unbearable” geekiness is no bar to their desirability, but is a big turn-off when it comes to their female peers? The double-standard aside, that kind of attitude is hardly going to endear any man, IIT or otherwise, to a woman.

The problem is not that these IIT boys don’t have girlfriends, but that they lack experience with girls as friends. This is why DatingIITians often reads like a socialisation manual: “Moreover, everybody knows that good relationships begin with friendship only, so when you first become friends and then gradually start liking each other, then only you can say that your relationship is developing and getting meaningful.”

And it also explains why its creators—two of whom are IIT students—offer these arrows to shoot at a romantic target: “I give my smile to everyone. But I think, to you, I give my heart”; “You are the first person who has been able to make my heart beat slower and faster at the same time”; “Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I pass by again?”

Modern relationships between men and women are based on an ease and familiarity with the opposite sex. We no longer view each other as an alien species, to be courted with trite pickup lines, or appeased by giggling at the right moments. Perhaps this is why Malini argues IIT grads truly come into their own after they leave the monk-like confines of campus, after they’ve gone abroad for graduate school, worked in different environments, and grown more comfortable in their own skin.

“At 35, he is much more well rounded, where his geekiness is just one part of his life,” she says. Her message: date IITians, later.

This story by Lakshmi Chaudhry was originally published on Firstpost.com.

• Fuel Price Hike. The prices of petrol and diesel are likely to increase after the parliament’s budget session, which ends on Tuesday, May 22. The cost of petrol is expected to go up by Rs4 to Rs5 per litre, and that of diesel by Rs3 per litre. There could also be a Rs50 hike in the price of cooking gas cylinders. [Times of India]

• Rupee Stumbles. On Wednesday, May 16, the rupee slid to a record low of 54.51 against the dollar, as a result of debt-laden Greece’s imminent exit from Europe’s common currency, the Euro. The depreciation of the rupee has made it the worst performing currency in Asia this year, and is likely to result in an increase in the prices of home appliances, consumer electronics and cars. [The Times of India]

To know about the next Wine Wednesday event, subscribe to their mailing list by registering on winewednesday.in or email social@indianwinelist.com.

• Air Charge. Domestic carrier Jet Airways and its budget arm Jetlite will begin charging passengers Rs50 if they don’t bring a copy of their e-ticket to the airport. The move has led to outrage among passengers, many of whom use soft copies on their smart phones in lieu of a print-out. Jet caters to more than one-fourth of domestic fliers in India. [Hindustan Times]

• IPL Suspension. Five cricketers caught in a sting operation on match fixing conducted by news channel India TV have been suspended from playing in the ongoing season of IPL. The five players include TP Sudhindra, Mohnish Mishra, Amit Yadav, Shalabh Srivastav and Abhinav Bali. The Board of Control for Cricket in India will also investigate the accusations made by the TV channel. [Reuters]

Violinist Sanjeev Nayak, drummer Montry Manuel, percussionist Pavan Kumar KJ, vocalist Vasu Dixit, guitarist Varun and bassist Jishnu Dasgupta. Photo: Avinash Shetty.

Swarathma is arguably one of the most popular indie rock acts in the country. But each of the six members of the Bangalore-based folk-fusion band, which plays Blue Frog this Wednesday, May 16, as part of their ten-city tour to promote the release of their new album Topiwalleh, has his own definition of success. “Each show is a success,” said vocalist Vasu Dixit somewhat philosophically after listing out a few milestones in the group’s career.

Dixit’s list included the band’s triumph at the rock competition organised by FM channel Radio City in 2008 which landed them an album deal with music label EMI; their being selected as one of the four Indian acts chosen by star-producer John Leckie to be part of a British Council-funded compilation album and tour called Soundpad in 2009; and their 2011 collaboration with renowned singer Shubha Mudgal on The Dewarists TV show. Percussionist Pavan Kumar KJ, on the other hand, recalled a moment when he thought the sight of a huge billboard featuring the group was a sign that “we are getting somewhere”. For drummer Montry Manuel, receiving a phone call from a friend who told him he read an article about Swarathma in a newspaper in Kerala, a state they have yet to play, was something of an achievement. They each forgot perhaps to mention their clean sweep of the popular choice categories (for Best Band, Best Album and Best Song) at the 2010 edition of the JD Rock Awards.

To us however, their most recent feat is that Topiwalleh is one of the strongest ever sophomore efforts by an Indian indie act. The ten-track set is not only more varied than their stellar 2009 debut—everything from ska (“Topiwalleh”) and metal (“Koorane”) to disco-funk (“Naane Daari”) and Led Zeppelin (“Aaj Ki Taaza Fikar”) is given the trademark Swarathma treatment—but also shows off the sextet at its slickest yet. It’s the result of years of constant touring that has helped the group get tighter with each subsequent show, combined with the inputs of Topiwalleh sound engineer Chimnay Harshe and veteran Hindi film music director Loy Mendonsa who co-produced the album with the band. “No matter how much we all say we hate Bollywood, we have to agree they have the best production,” said guitarist Varun.

However, unlike Indian Ocean’s Amit Kilam who produced their eponymous debut album, Mendonsa focused on the music and not the lyrical content of their songs. He did not get “into what is this song about, what is this subject you’re talking about”, said Dixit. Swarathma’s lyrics, at least half of which are co-written by Dixit (with the rest contributed by friends and long-time collaborators such as Hitesh Kewalya), have garnered attention for their frequently satirical take on the important socio-economic issues of the day. The tunes on Topiwalleh touch on such topical matters as consumerism (“Kooraane”), sensationaism (“Aaj Ki Taaza Fikar”), communalism (“Yeshu, Allah Aur Krishna”) and corruption (“Topiwalleh”).

The title track was in fact written a couple of years before Anna Hazare decided to launch his anti-corruption crusade, and has became a de facto anthem for the Jan Lokpal movement, with TV channel CNN-IBN using the song to soundtrack a show on the proposed bill. The video for the tune is a montage of news clips of Indian politicians in some of their least photogenic moments. Rare for an Indian indie band, Swarathma is not afraid to take a political stand but make clear that “our support for the movement is not [support] for a person or a group”.

That said, Swarathma is the sort of act to put their money where their mouth is. In 2010, they started a series of “Action Replay” gigs where they perform one free concert for an NGO or charity for every sponsored show they play. Over the past couple of years, they’ve entertained audiences at a leprosy and HIV rehabilitation centre in Bangalore and a school for visually impaired children in Pune, to name just two, and have partnered with organisations working in the areas of domestic violence prevention, environment conservation and poverty alleviation.

They’re also one of the few bands that can not only be regularly spotted attending and participating in music conferences such as Baajaa Gaajaa and Un-Convention, but also seem to be the only one taking notes. Whether it’s learning or sharing how to connect with fans by doing such simple tasks as seeking email addresses from audience members or giving away free tracks from their album, Swarathma’s success story is a ready-made case study for any fledgling India indie act. But the biggest lesson that they’ve learned is that the secret to any group’s success is really more simple than most think. “We must stay together,” said bassist Jishnu Dasgupta. “We must invest in the relationships within the band so that we continue to create music happily. That’s the only way that this band will continue to grow.”

Topiwalleh by Swarathma, Only Much Louder, Rs150, will be available for sale at their gig at Blue Frog.

The margherita, with a garlicky tomato base and basil, was by far the best of their pizzas, which is not saying much because it was akin to the one from popular (and decidedly non-gourmet) chain Smokin’ Joe’s. The Genovese, with French beans, potato slivers and globs of pesto, was certainly unusual but not entirely successful; the French beans and potato crisps were weighed down by oil and seemed to contribute nothing by way of depth of flavour. The peri-peri chicken pizza, with green onions and spicy chunks of meat, suffered from the generous drizzling of an eggy lime and coriander mayo, while the breakfast all-day pizza, with wilted rocket (just one measly leaf per slice), an over-cooked sunny side-up egg and chicken sausage, was curiously entirely devoid of flavour.

Of the desserts, the tiramisu cupcake was a mushy espresso-drenched concoction which, like most tiramisus here, was egregiously made with whipped cream instead of mascarpone. The Gianduja loaf, a yeasty-smelling block of pav slathered with Nutella, and the Bomboloni alla cioccolato, a doughy bun filled with chocolate sauce and cinnamon sugar, could have both used a few more minutes in the oven. Francesco’s Pizzeria is not short on the right terminology—“heirloom tomatoes”, “thyme flavoured mushrooms” and “Lombardi peppers” make up the ingredients, but in going from page to pie, something went woefully wrong in translation.

Prices start at Rs125 for a seven-inch margherita pizza. Free home delivery offered from Haji Ali to Walkeshwar, and up to Worli and Marine Drive for bulk orders.

To register, call 99302 60748 or write to info@whitecollarhippie.com. The last day for registration is Thursday, May 17.

We’ve noted before that one of our favourite parlour games is to debate the veracity of rumours floating around Antilia, the Ambanis’ behemoth of a building on Altamount Road. Among the many speculations are that it might be as large as Versailles, has floating pools and temples, and enough staff to service the whole of Malabar Hill. The Ambanis have been notoriously reticent about confirming or denying details of their cosy abode, something no publication has been able to get them to do, except until now. US magazine Vanity Fair’s June issue profiles Nita Ambani, or “corporate India’s first lady” as she is apparently known, and says they’ve finally gotten her to open up about Antilia, with pictures to boot. While the Vanity Fair website has only an excerpt and two measly pics of the sari-decked missus swaying on Antilia’s terrace, the full article does dish considerable more detail than anyone else has gotten before.

For a start, the largely gushy piece, which says Nita Ambani is now the more glamourous of the two Ambani daughters-in-law post weight-loss, is mostly a profile of her business and philanthropic endeavours and how she came to be Mrs. Mukesh Ambani. “Nuclear-treaty-level negotiations” for the interview and photo shoot, however, did result in a few scant revelations, like for instance: the Ambanis have indeed moved in; the house really is every bit as pimped out as you’d imagine (expansive views of the sea, a seemingly maidan-sized ceiling installation); the all-veg household offers its guests the option of only wine during cocktail hour (meals are alcohol-free). Perplexingly, the mag is asked not to disclose the location of the photo shoot, even though it’s quite obviously one of the garden terraces at Antilia. And for those who wonder if the Ambanis are ever able to invoke their once-humble beginnings, filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra attests that the billionaire family is not above taking in a film (and buying popcorn!) at a public cinema (even if said trip first involved flying to London for one of their kids’ birthdays).

The Talk of Mumbai [Vanity Fair]

• No Laughing Matter. After successfully calling for the removal of a cartoon depicting B. R. Ambedkar from a textbook, MPs are demanding a ban on the use of cartoons in all such educational material. “We believe textbooks are not the place where these issues (cartoons) should be influencing impressionable minds,” said Human Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal on Monday. “That is our position…I found many of the cartoons in textbooks offensive.” [The Times of India]

• Not Cricket. The Board of Cricket Control in India has said it will investigate the footage of a sting operation conducted by news channel India TV in which Indian Premiere League players allegedly admit to being paid more money than they are entitled to as per BCCI rules by franchise owners who want to retain or lure them for their teams. The same footage also contains allegations of spot-fixing during the IPL. [Hindustan Times]