thursday discussion, friday movie

the night at samiras place with a selection from the young architectural community of the city. samira, kapil, pinkish, shilpa, rajeev, kilawala, his wife, sameep, karen (from coop himmelblau – doing her research on young asian practices), prasad, rupali and me. a strange meeting amid the nail polish varnished floor and wooden furniture, where awareness of the ‘common man’ was spoken about. awareness of what- one was not really sore- and who the common man was, in the case of the kalaghoda art festival, was even more suspect. it turned out that everyone merely wanted to have a party in the first place. by the end of the meeting, the rebels gave up their purported cause and decided to party on nevertheless. prasad, rupali and me watched bemused high on sake, sushi and the fina alcohol at the bar.

i think madhu really might have made the definitive bombay film. at a screening yesterday at majlis, i was moved at some points to tears and laughter. its all that the script was promising it to be. a paean to a mad city – terrifying and beautiful- told through documentary and fiction interjected with each other. madhus writing of the manto and chugtai characters that frame the film through the seven episodes is spot on; and mukuls photography amazing. rahul said at the end that its strange to a city so over-photographed seen in a new way. its true.