Gosh! This has been a week filled with 'Fun' Cinema, 'Pun' intended, and parties, dinners and endless celebration for me. The closing ceremony of MAMI last night has not exactly ended the season of frolic because so many folks have reconnected and rounds of dinners with different mixes of friends are on the cards for the next whole week. I also have one in my house on Sunday night where Subroto, an old friend Soni and I connected with after ages at Cinemascapes organized by the Producers Guild of India, where various states of India and foreign countries were exibiting their offers for Indian Movie Makers to shoot their films, has promised to cook the most awesome mutton curry and land up at my place to feed a whole gang of hungry us.
Such like the list of get togethers goes on and on .....
One also realized and discussed at the closing ceremony how the support of BIG Motion Pictures to MAMI has finally brought an Indian Film Festival the prestige and scale of an International Event where the atmosphere for the first time was charged with an energy unimaginable.
Finally Film Events are getting it right as Tina Ambani takes centerstage managing the proceedings personally and Amit Khanna supports her with his vision. You can see 'Bollywoodism' slip out and 'class' replace it across the board, as proffessionalism and seriousness becomes the idiom with a no nonsense approach where technology largely drove processes, and serious film makers were aknowledged and rewarded for their works and where there was not much of the usual appeasement of the who's who going on.
I wouldn't like to criticize the compering at most events which were otherwise so well handled by young and old proffessionals who ensured a seamless quality to the proceedings despite some unrehearsed hosting by 'STARS'.
Other than when the event was opened and closed by Shyam Benegal who was dignified and stood tall as the only true star amongst all, the compering could have been better.
I wonder why all our comperes are unrehearsed at all our events, specially when they are celebrity/star hosts?
Obviously they have no time for rehearsals which is why they land up at the last minute, reading lines and fumbling with names and pronunciations of names, essentially of our foreign guests which is so insulting to them.
When the busiest musician and composer AR Rehman could be in LA for 40 days to rehearse the Oscar Awards event, why can't our organizers take a tough stand as well and make sure that only those available for rehearsals get selected?
Why do we have to get so desperate to have 'stars' on stage that we are ready to compromise our entire event for it?
I can bet you that each one of them would leave all their crazy schedules behind in distress to accomodate an International Event outside the country, specially if it is the Oscars, for rehearsals for as many days as was required, but giving grief to Indian organizers and being inconsiderate to their proceedings goes unnoticed by them. Once this attitude of the Star performers, hosts and comperes changes, our events will be class apart which we so yearn for them to be.
The hosts at MAMI were a lot better, but Aman Varma at the Miss Mumbai show at Royal Palms on the 1st of November was pathetic. A brilliant show choreographed by Nisha Harale Bedi and organized by Dr. Anuj Saxena and Deepak Chopra for Maverick Productions was awfully hosted by the TV Star who obviously couldn't care less what his silly tomfoolery and witless humor to an otherwise seamless show was doing.
Instead of motivating the young pretties and making it a night to remember for them, he not just deliberately made them nervous but even bungled up with the stage design. However, the panel of judges comprising Dipanita Sharma, Udita Goswami, Prasad Biddapa, Praveen Dabas and others, carefully handpicked by Anuj himself, made the night memorable and gave it credibility. Pankti, the chosen one looked particularly fabulous as she shashayed across the ramp in the gown designed by Salim Asgarally.
While the gowns by Salim Asgarally were extraordinary and made the girls look stunning, some of Nisha Merchant's bridal wear also dazzled and made the beauties shine. Ishq Bector was entertaining and proved that he is the next big thing for the world of music to watch out for.
Ranjit Rodriks my friend, then insisted we gather for another dinner party at Yellow Tree which he hosted the day after, where the most beautiful and talented couple I have met in recent times Nisha Harale Bedi and Adam Bedi, Janice Pearl Sequiera and Santhal Chowdhury, the two Reality Show participants from Fear Factor who chose appropriate times through the dinner to tell us about their experiences with yuck and muck and creepy crawlies which they had to take in their mouth to keep their ratings up, Ranjit, Colin Rodrigues, Salim Asgarally and myself met, to be looked after by Roy and Nicky, who made sure that we were fed the best Salads, Shepherds Pies, Steaks and Pastas, so none of us are complaining.
The desserts at Yellow Tree are to die for, so whoever reads this blog of mine is advised to go there and feast on them and perhaps make a meal of desserts if they don't care about the calories.
Nisha and Salim kept everyone laughing with their tales about the crows who hound Salim and the owls that chase Nisha, while Adam was all about his underwater experiences as well as his connect with dolphins. When it came to Salim calling my dog Charlie, whom I love to death, a goat, I just had to stop all and go into raptures about my lovely four legged friend who is the best looking black creature on earth!!!
Meanwhile Ranjit ensured that the gang must leave while wanting more, and succeeded in planning a night out to watch 'This is it' and then huddle up in one or anothers house to drink ourselves silly enough to carry on about the crows, the owls, the dolphins and my dog Charlie.
Tonights another mad night you'll hear about tomorrow I suppose :)
Such like the list of get togethers goes on and on .....
One also realized and discussed at the closing ceremony how the support of BIG Motion Pictures to MAMI has finally brought an Indian Film Festival the prestige and scale of an International Event where the atmosphere for the first time was charged with an energy unimaginable.
Finally Film Events are getting it right as Tina Ambani takes centerstage managing the proceedings personally and Amit Khanna supports her with his vision. You can see 'Bollywoodism' slip out and 'class' replace it across the board, as proffessionalism and seriousness becomes the idiom with a no nonsense approach where technology largely drove processes, and serious film makers were aknowledged and rewarded for their works and where there was not much of the usual appeasement of the who's who going on.
I wouldn't like to criticize the compering at most events which were otherwise so well handled by young and old proffessionals who ensured a seamless quality to the proceedings despite some unrehearsed hosting by 'STARS'.
Other than when the event was opened and closed by Shyam Benegal who was dignified and stood tall as the only true star amongst all, the compering could have been better.
I wonder why all our comperes are unrehearsed at all our events, specially when they are celebrity/star hosts?
Obviously they have no time for rehearsals which is why they land up at the last minute, reading lines and fumbling with names and pronunciations of names, essentially of our foreign guests which is so insulting to them.
When the busiest musician and composer AR Rehman could be in LA for 40 days to rehearse the Oscar Awards event, why can't our organizers take a tough stand as well and make sure that only those available for rehearsals get selected?
Why do we have to get so desperate to have 'stars' on stage that we are ready to compromise our entire event for it?
I can bet you that each one of them would leave all their crazy schedules behind in distress to accomodate an International Event outside the country, specially if it is the Oscars, for rehearsals for as many days as was required, but giving grief to Indian organizers and being inconsiderate to their proceedings goes unnoticed by them. Once this attitude of the Star performers, hosts and comperes changes, our events will be class apart which we so yearn for them to be.
The hosts at MAMI were a lot better, but Aman Varma at the Miss Mumbai show at Royal Palms on the 1st of November was pathetic. A brilliant show choreographed by Nisha Harale Bedi and organized by Dr. Anuj Saxena and Deepak Chopra for Maverick Productions was awfully hosted by the TV Star who obviously couldn't care less what his silly tomfoolery and witless humor to an otherwise seamless show was doing.
Instead of motivating the young pretties and making it a night to remember for them, he not just deliberately made them nervous but even bungled up with the stage design. However, the panel of judges comprising Dipanita Sharma, Udita Goswami, Prasad Biddapa, Praveen Dabas and others, carefully handpicked by Anuj himself, made the night memorable and gave it credibility. Pankti, the chosen one looked particularly fabulous as she shashayed across the ramp in the gown designed by Salim Asgarally.
While the gowns by Salim Asgarally were extraordinary and made the girls look stunning, some of Nisha Merchant's bridal wear also dazzled and made the beauties shine. Ishq Bector was entertaining and proved that he is the next big thing for the world of music to watch out for.
Ranjit Rodriks my friend, then insisted we gather for another dinner party at Yellow Tree which he hosted the day after, where the most beautiful and talented couple I have met in recent times Nisha Harale Bedi and Adam Bedi, Janice Pearl Sequiera and Santhal Chowdhury, the two Reality Show participants from Fear Factor who chose appropriate times through the dinner to tell us about their experiences with yuck and muck and creepy crawlies which they had to take in their mouth to keep their ratings up, Ranjit, Colin Rodrigues, Salim Asgarally and myself met, to be looked after by Roy and Nicky, who made sure that we were fed the best Salads, Shepherds Pies, Steaks and Pastas, so none of us are complaining.
The desserts at Yellow Tree are to die for, so whoever reads this blog of mine is advised to go there and feast on them and perhaps make a meal of desserts if they don't care about the calories.
Nisha and Salim kept everyone laughing with their tales about the crows who hound Salim and the owls that chase Nisha, while Adam was all about his underwater experiences as well as his connect with dolphins. When it came to Salim calling my dog Charlie, whom I love to death, a goat, I just had to stop all and go into raptures about my lovely four legged friend who is the best looking black creature on earth!!!
Meanwhile Ranjit ensured that the gang must leave while wanting more, and succeeded in planning a night out to watch 'This is it' and then huddle up in one or anothers house to drink ourselves silly enough to carry on about the crows, the owls, the dolphins and my dog Charlie.
Tonights another mad night you'll hear about tomorrow I suppose :)
Comments