Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

You are my best friend, ya
Rani Mukerji, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol reunite at a Juhu five-star over kisses as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai turns 20. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Back to make hearts pop
Last year, when popular K-Pop band Lucente came to Mumbai to judge a competition hosted by the Korean Consulate, they left fans in the city gobsmacked with their vocals and raving across K-Pop forums online. Next weekend, they will get to witness the same again. The six-member band is set to perform at a SoBo venue as part of the Korean Cultural Festival. They're as excited as us, as is evident in a Facebook video.

Marching on together
As the list of sexual predators being called out on social media continues to grow longer, the fight to seek justice stands against a list of 97 legal counsel. But hope translates into reality once we use our collective voice. And this December, NGO Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan (RGA) that helms a nationwide campaign for dignity and the eradication of manual scavenging, will organise a 60-day march against victim-shaming led by survivors of sexual violence. The initiative will start off in Mumbai on December 20 and will cover 19 states in major cities including Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata with New Delhi being the final stop on February 22.

A friendship that still keeps sailing
Comedian Anu Menon took to Twitter yesterday to celebrate the birthday of journalist Sandhya Menon, one of the biggest voices of the #MeToo movement in India, by posting pictures of the two that melted our hearts with a warm caption. It read, "I've known @TheRestlessQuil [Menon's twitter handle] since I was 17 years old. Through college, relationships, work, kids and loss. The Muscat Malayali in her and the Madras Malayali in me have grown up since that first picture. Happiest bday Sandae. May your spirit always be restless."

Sparks fly in Andheri West
Contrary to the literal meaning of its name, Andheri West has been declared the most right-swiped neighbourhood in Mumbai, according to a report released by Tinder yesterday. The survey was conducted across seven major Indian cities and analysed the rate of right swipes received by a user. Other locations that made it to the list included Bandra West, Worli, Juhu, Versova, Powai and Malabar Hill.

An old photograph of Regal cinema

Eight decade-old showreel
"Regal se lena," is a line that this diarist, like any other kaali-peeli user would use a million times to instruct the cabwallahs. The cinema, a landmark in itself, like the area around which it was build, 85 years ago, celebrated another birthday last Sunday. Opened by the then Governor of Bombay, Sir Frederick Hugh Sykes in 1933, it was the go-to cinema hall for the rich and the famous of the city. It augured the arrival of the Art Deco movement in India.

Some of the attractions coming to Regal cinema from 1953. Brochure and Pic Courtesy/Abodh Aras

And Parsi entrepreneur Framji Sidhwa wanted to make it 'The Best Cinema East of Suez.' The 1,200-seater was India's largest, cooled by India's first ever air-conditioning system. The 65-feet-long steel balcony provided for unobstructed seating and was built by Tata Iron & Steel Company. The auditorium structure covered India's first underground car park. On that night of October 14, the Laurel and Hardy flick, The Devil's Brother was screened inside the plush venue, writing a new chapter in the city's cine-viewing history.

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