Small Talk

A winners’ fest
The Pune Festival is treating the city to a number of memorable performances. Amidst the flurry of activities,the Festival also gave a chance to city women to compete for the Mrs Pune 2010 title on Saturday. This pageant saw 100 participants in the two categories of age groups 25-35 and 36-50. They were finally down to 16 finalists in the first group and 19 in the second. The winners were crowned by actress Esha Deol. Deepa Bafna stood first in the 25-35 age group category,followed by Dr Tejaswini Arvind and Shradha Vaidya. In the second category,the winners were Sharvari Naik,Seema Rathod and Rohini Tilak. Sharvari Naik also walked away the Mrs Pune 2010 title. Other prizes included Best Smile,best Personality and Best Photogenic Face.

Cultural melange
To bring in a unique blend of culture and colour,the Kolhapur Festival was,for the first time,made a part of the Pune Festival. So with a beautiful mix of Maharashtrian culture,dance and art,the Kolhapur Festival was inaugurated on September 19 with a bouquet of performances right from Mardaani–Khel,Tutari,Halgi,Pheta,Gurhal to Laavanya Sandhya and even acrobatics. Other attractions were cultural programmes like lok sangeet,including Bhupati,Jatyavarchi Ovi,Gan-Gavlan,Vasudev,Bhalari,Shetkari-geet,Powada,Gondhal and Bhajan.

Dance beats
Music and dance are two faces of the same coin – they can never be separated. On Sunday,Ultravoice performed for the first time in the country at Stone Water Grill,Koregaon Park. Totally committed to his music,the the artiste said,“Music is something to which people can move,however,it is just tunes without a good party on!” Born Avi Levi,the Israeli artiste performed here ahead of the release of his latest album,Star Aliens Number 3,which will come out next week.

The balancing act
Racegoers were in for quite a treat on Saturday. Apart from enjoying the excitement of the horses racing to the finish line,they also took in the afternoon sun at a party hosted there. The highlight was definitely the African Acrobatic Show put up by ‘Shadows’ a Tanzanian troupe. Their excellent and rather unusual performance,which included the formation of human pyramids,stunned one and all. Those spotted at the event were Sabina Sanghvi,Jitendra Mali,Gauri Naiknavare and Subhash Sanas among others.