Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Sairat zhala ji
Jhanvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter hug it out with director Shashank Khaitan at the song launch of their upcoming film in Lower Parel on Wednesday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

A scene from Evening Shadows

Shadows fall on Sri Lanka
The Indian queer community is thriving more than ever before. We found out that Colombo Pride 2018 has launched a unique and exciting film festival this year called Abhimani European Film Festival which will include a selection of LGBTQ-themed films. For this, the feature film Evening Shadows, directed by Mumbai-based Sridhar Rangayan has made it into the list of films being screened at the festival.

Rangayan who is all set to head to the island nation said, "I am thrilled about this, especially because India and Sri Lanka have so much in common."

Sridhar Rangayan

The film which was cleared by the Sri Lankan Public Performances Board is themed around the bond between a mother and a son, and the way it changes when the latter comes out to his mother.

The cast includes Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi and Arpit Chaudhari. Incidentally, Chaudhary has a special connect with Sri Lanka because he played the lead role of Prince Siddharth (Lord Buddha) in the Sri Lankan film Yashodhara. Since its first screening in February at the Mardi Gras film festival in Sydney Evening Shadows has already been screened at 18 international film festivals and has bagged two awards - Celebration of Courage award at Out Here Now: Kansas City LGBT Film Festival and the Free To Be Me award at Roze Filmdagen, Amsterdam.

New elastic sound
Mumbai-based electro-disco duo Madboy Mink have reappeared on the musical horizon after quite a break. And in the lead up to the release of their upcoming EP, PERSONS.ELASTIC. SUPERIOR.FANTASTIC, funksters Imaad Shah and Saba Azad have released a new single titled Comets. A groovy track that catapults you back to the euphoria of the '80s, Azad and Shah have us dancing uncontrollably once again.

Doggo Oscars
Recently, Voice of Stray Dogs - a one-of-a-kind dog sanctuary that is home to 800 dogs called for nominations for India's Best Dog Rescuer. Founder Rakesh Shukla says, "We thought it was incumbent on us to create an impartial system and platform where the best dog care service providers including NGOs and independent rescuers nominate and are recognize their peers." So hurry and nominate your galli's doggo saviour.

Not the right sound?
Last morning, Mumbai-based writer and journalist Lalita Iyer woke up to a rather upsetting start when she learnt that a video review of an environment book - Let's Talk Trash: The Kids' Book About Recycling, which was posted by her eight-year-old son, was taken down by Facebook. The review, she was told, "Didn't follow community standards."

"I am so pissed. What exactly is defying community standards? Saying humans are trashing the planet? This is beyond absurd," Iyer shared in a post. While The Whole Shebang writer couldn't figure what about this otherwise harmless video had caused the swift crackdown, she later informed this diarist that when she had gone back to listening to the video, which she had recorded at her home in Mumbai, she could hear the azan from a nearby mosque in the background. "I put two and two together, and figured it could have been the reason," shared Iyer. It appears that Facebook would rather not affect religious sentiments, when discussing Mother Nature.

London calling
Curator Diana Campbell Betancourt's extensive work in the field of South Asian art has reflected in the various positions she has held over the years - she has been on the board of trustees of city-based Mumbai Art Room (when she visited India with a classmate from Princeton, she felt so drawn to the region that she decided to relocate here from New York City and lived in Mumbai for six years), and is now chief curator of the prestigious Dhaka Art Summit. Campbell Batencourt will also oversee projects under Frieze, the media and arts company that has publications, international art fairs and an academy under its umbrella. Her responsibility, we hear, will be to "open up experimental possibilities" across the company's artist award and film section. We wish her good luck for the new role.

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