Small Talk

Pose for a cause
The Pune Boutique Fashion Week held last week,at the Pyramids swimming pool at Koregaon Park was a perfect blend of glamour and fashion. A three- day fashion week organised to raise aid for Hemophilia Society of Maharashtra (HSM) Pune Chapter,the event aimed towards creating an awareness about hemophilia,a rare blood disorder. Through this fashion week,HSM brought to Pune for the first time,an opportunity for boutiques to showcase their clothes and accessories,which are trendy and yet affordable. 12 boutiques from Pune showcased their work. Each boutique was allotted a stall for all three days to display and sell their designer wear. A fashion show was held on all the three days,with four boutiques displaying their collections on each day. “Normally at fashion shows,the clothes are not designed for common people. But at our show,the clothes were not only wearable but affordable too. On each day,over a 1000 people came and enjoyed the fashion show,” says Danish Shaikh,marketing manager and event organiser. The fashion wardrobe on display complimented every facet of a woman’s lifestyle – a wide range of smart and elegant western formal wear,consisting of tops,shirts,trousers and jackets exclusively designed for all kinds of corporate events and board meetings,jeans and tops for leisure-wear,gowns for party-wear and sarees and lehengas for weddings. Exclusive variety of designer wears for men were on display too.

Shake a leg
Magic sparks from his sticks whenever it beats the drums. But what was different in percussionist Sivamani’s performance this time was that the magic was unveiled by the maestro despite having a wounded leg. Sivamani rocked the stage with his unbelievable panache of playing music with any instrument at the Hotel Sayaji on its first anniversary. He performed with three other musical maestros like Rajiv Mahavir (Tabla player),Chintu Singh (Guitarist) and Parasnath (Flutist). The show began with Mahavir’s slok followed by his outstanding performance by a unique instrument called Slit Drum. The audience had a marvelous experience when Mahavir asked Parasnath,famous flutist and created an incredible musical jugalbandi. Singh was introduced after Mahavir- Parasnath’s performance. They played Alla Ke Bande,Chappa Chappa and many more with different style. Three of them had a fabulous time on the stage,which could be seen by audience’s reaction. And eventually when Sivamani entered,the audience went crazy. Sivamani started with playing on steel plate. But the most interesting part was when he created music using a brief- case and a tray. Mahavir and Sivamani’s performance was another USP of the show.

Right click
The grand finale of War of Fashion Photographer 2010 was held on Friday at Vertigo Lounge,Wanworie. The event was organised by punemodels.com. Talking about the event,Deepak Bajaj,managing director,punemodels.com says,“We wanted to do something for the fashion industry in Pune,which has a lot of potential. Particularly the photographers in Pune are really talented. We organised this contest in which around 11 photographers from Pune and Mumbai participated. They were given 15 female and 15 male models with whom they had to do outdoor shooting and the dressing theme was white for summer. Photographers submitted 10 of their best pictures,which were exhibited during an exhibition at Vertigo.” Along with choosing the best photographer,Miss and Mr Summer Queen and King were also adjudged based on the photographs taken. Samanth Patil from Mumbai was given the best photographer award. Best angle photographer award went to Richie Dreaver,while best creativity 2010 went to Rasheesh Sughnadi. The photographers award was given out to Abhijeet Gujar. Among the models,Nikhil Salve was declared Mr Summer King and Mayuri Das was adjudged Miss Summer Queen. Lovely Singh bagged the Miss Summer Hottie award,while Mr Summer Hottie award went to Tanish. Tanuka Laghate was Miss Photographers’ Choice and Prasad was Mr Photographers’ Choice.

Stepping stone
Amritanjali School of Bharatanatyam,headed by Shashikala Ravi recently inaugurated its new Amritanjali Dance Studio at Viman Nagar. The studio was inaugurated at the hands of renowned Bharatanatyam exponent Sucheta Chapekar. Speaking on the occasion Sucheta Chapekar said,“I am very happy to be present here. This part of the city required a cultural place. This dance studio has a beautiful ambience and I am glad it will be promoting classical art. The studio with a seating capacity of 100-120 people is completely sound proof making it an ideal location to learn the beautiful dance form maintaining its pristine purity.”