Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Shadab Khan

I'll be there for you

Rekha shared a warm moment with fashion designer Manish Malhotra when she dropped by his home to condole him on his father's passing. Pic/Shadab Khan

Who's the snollygoster?

It's no news that Shashi Tharoor is perhaps one of the country's greatest wordsmiths. And that's why, in light of Maharashtra's eventful "Pawar" twist that the city and India woke up to, Twitterati culled out a two-year-old Tharoor tweet where he suggested "snollygoster" as the word of the day.

The term implies a shrewd, unprincipled politician and it sent people in a tizzy. While some poked fun at the ruling party and opposition, our favourite was the comment that described the present state as "The chicanery and skullduggery dwarfed democracy." As the political circus continues into this week, who knows, Tharoor might just hit us with another gem from his word cabinet.

Playing their part right

There are hundreds of farmers in our state who have either taken or lost their lives due to the agrarian crisis that gripped the state, leaving their wives to fend for themselves. The latter recently received a helping hand from a charitable organisation called Habitat for Humanity, which is committed to building homes for the underprivileged. Last week, the NGO put together a play reading of Sultan Padamsee's Watching You at a Mahalaxmi venue, which starred high-profile personalities like veteran actors Sabira Merchant and Gerson Da Cunha, and television personality Cyrus Broacha.

The proceeds from the play will go towards building homes and sanitation units for the widowed wives of the farmers. Speaking about the initiative, Merchant told this diarist, "I was overwhelmed by the response we received from the audience. They came by to support the cause of restoring dignity to the lives of the families who have lost their only earning member."

Head to a new festive high

Musician Angad Katari has converted a holiday home for the Katari family in Sirori, Uttarakhand, into an artiste residency.

It was most recently home to Pune-based band The Easy Wanderlings. Come December 20, and Roohaniyat will be the venue for a unique one-day festival, which you can access for R3,500. Called Sounds in Silence, it will feature artistes from around India, including Lifafa and Corridoors, besides Katari himself, and will see instrumentalists try out their solo acts.

"The idea is to give people a rich experience in terms of listening to the arti­stes while enjoying the res­idency in the hills. There will only be 80 people to keep it comfortable," Katari told this diarist.

A waist of beauty

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and cousin Parineeti Chopra featured in the promo for the children's film Frozen II. But the Instagram page Diet Sabya noticed an issue - the appearance of both actors seemed to be heavily retouched.

"So now we are promoting feel-good, empowering movies like #frozen2 by setting unrealistic body standards? Really?," it asked. And people voiced their agreement in the comments. Actors Girija Oak Godbole and Shruthy Menon pointed out how their waists were tiny while some defended them explaining that either they could've lost weight, worn a corset or spanx. We'll have to wait to hear the full truth.

Sound to our ears

Last week, we had reported in this paper about a special mass where some of the city's musicians were to come together on the feast day of St Cecelia, the patron saint for musicians.

Musicians across age groups in performance. Pics/Bipin Kokate

This celebration took place at Bandra's St Peter's Church over the weekend and going by the photographs and eyewitness accounts, it was a melodious, packed gathering.

Popular music maker Merlyn D'Souza was spotted at the service

The evening service resonated all around as musicians and instrumentalists across age groups played from the pews and were arranged in different sections of the church
to ensure everyone was in sync.

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