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Journalism of Courage
Mega magic
Intel threw a mega bash at the Oberoi last Wednesday to announce its tie-up with Ketan Mehta8217;s Maya Magic Shop and the launch of the Intel Centre for Advance Cinematics. Mehta8217;s futuristic science-fiction serial Captain Vyom, featuring the gorgeous Milind Soman in the title role, already uses Intel8217;s advanced PCs for its hi-tech computer graphics. The Centre was inaugurated by John E Davies, Vice President, Intel Asia Pacific.
Brunch munch
Brunches at the Oberoi were obviously the in-thing this weekend. And if you were not invited to at least one of the two repasts that took place, then you can consider yourself persona non grata in Mumbai8217;shigh society. On Saturday, Mid-Day celebrated its 19th anniversary in style, with a brunch at the Oberoi rooftop.
And most of Mumbai8217;s movers and shakers braved the storm to congratulate Tariq Ansari. His bash, as always, was simply elegant. Among those spotted were Shobha De dressed to kill in a red sari, Nana Chudasama, Devika and Suresh Bhojwani, Harsh Goenka, Gita Piramal, Simi Garewal and so on.
Pretty much the same crowd showed up at the Oberoi on Sunday. This time the celebrations were part of the Hotel8217;s 25th anniversary and the end of their specially-hosted art camp. The affair was fairly relaxed with artists dancing away on a Sunday afternoon 8212; relieved to have finished their work.
Bubbly 8212; and champagne-laced cocktails 8212; helped everyone really let down their hair. And spotted shaking a leg were Rashmi and Chander Uday Singh, Nina Pillai, Devika Bhojwani and Neerja Shah. The more sedate got a chance to admire, at close quarters, the works of Anjolie Ela Menon, Manu and Madhavi Parikh,Jaideep Mehrotra and Satish Gupta.
Star show
While on celebs who really know how to shake a leg, we really must make a mention of our columnist Nina Pillai. Socialite, writer, mother, activist Nina makes history again. On the small screen. For the first time Simi Garewal is re-telecasting an episode of Rendezvous 8212; the one where she and Nina had a heart-to-heart chat. In fact, it was also the first time a subject seemed to get beneath the poised Ms Garewal8217;s reserve. So much so that she seemed moved to tears by Nina8217;s frank account of her loss. If you missed this episode last time, make it a point to catch it this time 8212; on Friday, on Star Plus.
Model do
EVERYBODY told us that the party at Raj Anand8217;s Club Abyss was being thrown to celebrate their engagement. But when we asked the pair themselves Noyonika Chatterjee and her beau TV8217;s Gurpreet Bedi they just said, quot;Go get a drink.quot; And that8217;s how the party progressed. Noyonika floated about in a slinky, ethereal Shahab Durazicreation and bopped away with designer Rocky-S. In between, she ticked off Anna Singh for showing up but not showing up in black and plastic and James Ferreira for not making any clothes for her.
Gurpreet made niceties with invitees Zeenat Aman who was whispering sweet nothings to her 22-year-old beau, Jackie Shroff, Moon Moon and Riya Sen. Also setting the night to music were the model brigade 8212; Shyla Lopez back from vacation from Singapore, Himanshu Malik being chased all over the dance floor as usual, Akashdeep Saighal and Sadhna Singh. When we left at three am, they were still at it. And yes! Black cocktail numbers are passe. Everyone present displayed their tans in skimpy whites. Either a pure coincidence or a sweeping change in style.
Incidentally, don8217;t try and find Noyonika to thank her for the party. A couple of days later, she left for New York to do a ramp show there.
Glossy games
Both Verve and Oomph hit the stands, this month. And as always, Verve is full ofinformation on fashion, culture and the high life.But that doesn8217;t mean that Kamlesh Shah8217;s Oomph should be overlooked. This glossy is also full of information on the fashion industry and has great pictures taken by Rafiq Sayed, Ashok Salian and Atul Kasbekar.
The pictorial is complimented with text by Cory Walia and Riyad Wadia 8211;another Express columnist. Shah also promises that his quarterly is going to be more regular now. So competition between the glossies is bound to hot up.
Rain dance
Come rain or shine, Mumbai8217;s youngsters just cannot stay at home on a Friday or Saturday night. On Friday, Copa Cabana and Fashion Bistro were so jam-packed that you could not get in no matter who you were. But the two MTV veejays who managed to make their way into Copa were Amrita Arora and Shernaaz Treasurywala. It8217;s nice to see two girls from the same industry putting the competitive spirit aside, out just having fun. Amrita, by the way, seems to have lost a bit of weight maybe like sister Malaika wewill now be seeing her on the ramp?
Anyway, this duo were back at the Copa on Sunday night. Shernaaz chose this hot spot to throw her birthday bash. As you can imagine, the place was packed and again, standing by the birthday girl through the evening was her pal Amrita. The two really seem to be thick these days. But today8217;s glam gals don8217;t seem to have a rivalry problem. Lots of models turned up, including Amrita8217;s sister and fellow veejay, Malaika.
Music news
On Friday, MTV organised a day-long music forum. Apart from luminaries like Subhash Ghai, supercop Julio Rebeiro, Paresh Kamani, Vijay Lazarus who addressed the gathering, several bigwigs from the music industry attended the forum. So, singers Colonial Cousin Hariharan, Anaida, Mehnaaz and video directors Ken Ghosh and Kunal Kohli rubbed shoulders with representatives from all the leading music cassette companies. We think mega deals must8217;ve been struck.
And finally8230;.
It is no secret that Bipasha Basu is dating Dino Morea.But it seems Bipasha thinks it should be kept that way. She is now going around saying that they are no longer together. The reason: She does not want too much media attention on the relationship.
Perhaps, now that Bipasha is becoming a film actress, she does not want the masses to know that she has a man. Really, whatever happened to the enlightened 8217;90s? Look at Shah Rukh Khan 8212; his being married has come in the way of being a pin-up boy.
