Out & about

After the film, there was a party at Fire & Ice, the city’s most happening night club, where the celebrities joined Lara Dutta (who besides being the new Miss India is also the spokesperson for Longines watches, which is a sister brand to Swatch), Ashraf Patel (his company Watches of Switzerland will be marketing Swatch in Mumbai), and Shah Rukh Khan (he swung into action on the dance floor with his very pregnant wife Gauri). Juhi Chawla (firmly claspedonto the arm of hubbie Jai Mehta) took time off from the floor to say hello to every guest. Leaving director Aziz Mirza to bear the brunt of irate viewers who hadn’t recovered from the movie! It seems that because of the Swatch tie-up, he had to give them time of the day.

Celeb cooks

Have you picked up your copy of Rashmi Uday Singh’s?r Launched at a brunch hosted by the Oberoi’s Sanjiv Malhotra, the party brought alive the pages of the book. Celebrities like Shobha De, Sunil Shetty, Madhu Sapre, Jamuna Pai, Namita Punjabi and Swati Piramal — all of whom have given their favourite recipes for the book — showed up to lend a helping hand. Writer Shobha De even went behind the buffet table to serve her fish curry with rice (which was a great hit). Held at the Brassiere, the spread of food and the bubbly were nearly as heady as the crowd. Which included Jules Fuller, Farzana Contractor, Czaee and Suketu Shah, Kavita Khanna, Suresh and Devika Bhojwani, Lisa Ray and Anil Dharker. The brunch wound upat tea-time as the Brasserie was turned in to a day-time disco. If this is the response the book gets at its launch, imagine what it could do to your social life. Did we mention that the book has a 150 recipes which include a cross-section of foods from all over India, including rare recipes from palaces in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, handed down from generation to genreation? It gets better and better!

Price: Rs 500
Available at leading bookstores.

Designer cut

Here’s another millennium offer. Well, before you shrug it off, it is a collection of 45 contemporary designs in earrings, pendants and rings — that too, in De Beers diamonds and natural coloured stones. From the house of Gitanjali Jewels, Gili, promises to "bring out a fresh, never-before collection for the millennium" in different categories — Time Lapse, Faces of the Millennium, Numerical Depiction of 2000, Alphabet M and On Love, Unity & Togetherness, among others. And the designs are created bystudents of SNDT College. The idea was to let each student express his or her interpretation of the millennium in design. In fact, Gili has been a promoter of young designers, with a collection almost every year by students from different design institutes of Mumbai. And well, their creations could well be the pendant or earrings you’ve been looking for!

Price: Between Rs 1,600 and Rs 8,500.
At Asiatic, Akbarally’s, Crossroads, Shopper’s Stop and other outlets across the city.

Arabian waves

The scent of Arabia is here. Amouage (`waves of emotions’ in Arabic), one of the most exotic perfumes the world over, was launched by Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, last week. It was unveiled by none other than the beauty queens of the moment — Miss India Lara Dutta, and runners-up Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza. The concept of the fragrance goes back to the Sultanate of Oman in the ’80s. The idea took concrete shape in the form of Amouage when Guy Robert of France created it.Floral and fruity, the dominant fragrances are of rose, jasmine and lily-of-the-valley mingled with apricot, lime and peach and accentuated by silver frankincense, myrrh, rock rose and sandalwood — a blend of 120 ingredients to last throughout the day. Amouage comes in exclusive falcons designed by Asprey’s of London in sterling silver, gilded with 24-carat gold — inspired by the Omani Khanjar for the men’s fragrance and traditional Omani designs for the women’s fragrance, with a minaret as a cap. Sounds like exotic stuff?

Price: Between 4,500 and 7,500.
At TBZ & Sons, Opera House.

Music calls

On Sunday afternoon, if you were lucky, you were able to enjoy a sneak preview of scenes and songs from Boney Kapoor’s Pukar. Not surprisingly, the film’s looking great. Later, at a lunch do at the Sun & Sand hotel, one chatted endlessly with the Kapoor brothers (Boney and Anil) and then talked shop with director Rajkumar Santoshi. All eyes were at the door, patiently waiting foran entry by the film’s stunning heroines Madhuri Dixit and Namrata Shirodkar. But both stayed away! Ho hum… Anil Kapoor, meanwhile, made up for their absence, as did charming Danny Denzongpa, both of whom took pains to pose for pictures and speak endlessly to camera crews about their roles in the film. As for the music of the film, yet another surefire hit from A R Rahman, look out for a handful of refreshing tunes including the chart-busting `Que Sara Sara‘ number which features Ms Dixit with Mr Flexible (Prabhu Deva) himself!

Price: Rs 45 for the cassette.
Available at leading music stores.

First cut

The French Fashion Week got a taste of India when three desi designers won the Oscars of the diamond world, the De Beers Diamond awards for the year 2000. Twenty-nine winners were chosen from all over the world, with India emerging as a true winner. And last week when all the recipients were in Paris to receive their awards, things could not have looked brighter for theIndian design world. The winning pieces included a multi-string diamond choker by Mumbai’s Khiyam Jaliwala and very innovative necklace covering the shoulder by Delhi’s Reena Thakur. But all eyes were on the youngest winner, 22-year-old Kriti Soni. The daughter of Poonam Soni, a well-established name in the jewellery business, Kriti is a graduate from SNDT. Currently, she is working with her mother running Jewel Inn, at Altamount Road. "It was an amazing feeling to win this award. I was not sure how my piece would look on the ramp." And her design was unusual — based on a square."This is a form that really interests me. I wanted something that was futurstic. It had to look bold."

Dream dance

The Integrated Dance and Exercise Academy (IDEA), a brainchild of Anita Shivdasani and Sunita Kapoor, found a novle way to congratulate the newly crowned Miss Indias — Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza. The IDEA family had done up the gym with loads of balloons and glitter. Adding glamour tothe event were Anupam Kher, Anil Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Esha Deol as well as ex-Miss Indias Sakala amd Kavita Singh .

Later an aerobics trainer had everyone walking Egyptians. It seems it was a precursor to IDEA’s happy hour — every Saturday, between 7.00 pm and 8.00 pm where they will teach Egytian, Salsa and Tribal African dance. This Saturday kicks off with Egyptian dance.

At IDEA, 29 Kohinoor, Hughes Road. Ph No: 380 4981.

Film news

It was thoughtful of ubhash Ghai to cancel his birthday celebrations on Monday. The film-maker, who announces each of his films on his birthday, chose to make the announcement in a small and quiet way this time round. Following the attack on the life of Rakesh Roshan, Ghai thought it might be in poor taste to host a party so soon after the tragic event. Of course, it came as no surprise that for his newest film, Yaadein, Ghai has signed up Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, alongwith Jackie Shroff, to play leading roles. Anu Malik, will scoremusic for the movie, while Kabir Lal will helm the camera again. Seems like Ghai is keen to continue making youthful movies like Pardes, Taal and now Yaadein. This man just refuses to grow up. And we’re definitely not complaining!

Art within

Art within the home / nation’ — how much do you know about it? Well, here is a chance to know even more. The first issue of The Art News Magazine of India, out on the stands of bookstores and art galleries, takes up the related theme of Home/Nation vis-a-vis Indian art. The lead story, by Ranjit Hoskote, selects 12 important paintings from the last 100 years — from Raja Ravi Verma and Abanindranath Tagore to Vivan Sundaram and Atul Dodiya — and discusses the ways in which they have represented India giving an insight into how art has acted as a mirror of socio-political trends in India. Among the other features, Geeta Kapoor’s overview of trends in Indian experimental art through the 1990’s and Karin Miller-Lewis’s account of theflourishing art scene among South Asian expatriates in North America are must reads for the serious art connoisseur. Profiles of Zarina Hashmi and A Balasubramaniam, who have recently held solo shows, and a one-on-one between Gieve Patel, whose one-man exhibition opens in February, touch issues as varied as the artist’s inner experience and occupational hazards. A section on photography and Art India‘s eye on the market make the issue attractive and well worth Rs 100.

To take the theme of this issue further, Art India has organised a discussion, `Art and the Nation’ — as part of the Kala Ghoda Festival.

`Art and the Nation’ on Feb 5.
For further information, call: The Information Desk, Kala Ghoda Association at 284 2520/282 115.

Pure Adaptation

I wish you did not think of me as a woman," said Charlotte Bronte to critics, when it was revealed that she authored Jane Eyre under a male pseudonym, Currer Bell. "Now, you will keep measuring me by some standard ofwhat you deem to be becoming in a woman." This emotion is all over as one leafs through Bronte’s Jane Eyre. "And in its stage enactment by the Shared Experience Theatre," claims the British group’s associate director Polly Teale about the musical. "The power of a novel is the intimacy the reader developes with its characters. A characteristic seldom found in adapted versions — very few can go beyond the surface of the names, deep into their sentimentality and memories. Our Jane Eyre is one of them," challenges Teale, who gave every other adaptation a miss so that she wasn’t influenced.

Not including all the print details in the award-winning enactment, while Teale has angered the purists, she says most have accepted the contemporarily adulterated interpretation. "Everyone knows the classic. But good theatre is what makes you feel again, think again and go back to the novel," says Sean Murray, who is playing Mr Rochester. "So y underplaying the regular, I have tried to bring out the rebel inJane, the passionate woman in Bertha, and above all the connection between the two. For, it’s the loud behaviour that gets both of them locked up, literally," says Teale. And that is also Bronte, a Victorian woman frustrated with the limitations imposed upon one of her sex, and social postion (she was from a middle-class family).

"While I show Jane Eyre’s guard coming down with Rochester, who is wonderfully complicated, and Bertha loked up in the attic, I also show that everyone of us has parts shut away from ourselves," says Teale about the variant. "I am sure if Bronte had been alive she would approve of my Jane Eyre," concludes Teale.

— MEETA BHATTI

The Shared Experience Theatre’s Jane Eyre, at Jameshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA. On Jan 28 & Jan 29. Time: 7.00 pm.