Best Hindi film: "Peepli [Live]"
Beautiful people, big budgets, bouncy beats, booty thrusts -- "Peepli [Live]" had none of these. Yet, this tiny Aamir Khan production about one of India’s ugliest truths (farmer suicides), turned out to be the most attractive film of 2010.
Sure, it may once again put India’s poverty in the global spotlight -- "Peepli [Live]" is India's official entry to the Oscars -- and it was accused of being inspired by Hollywood flick "Mad City," but no one can naysay the smart script laced with dark humor and outstanding performances by a band of fresh, talented theater actors.
Made on a meager budget of two crores and raking in about 28 (according to The Hindu), "Peepli [Live]" is the big small film we all wanted to get behind.
Best drink: Café Goa's Feni margarita
Goa in a glass, this feni margarita seems to be made with two parts beach, one part sun and a dash of sea salt.
Dreamed up by ad exec and Café Goa owner Theron Carmine the cocktail is inspired by the popular Goan liquor and is not even on his restaurant's menu. It's served to those who know of this slushy secret, whispered in circles of regular patrons.
“This citric-sweet drink is a great chaser to food," says Carmine. "The perfect way to wash down spicy Goan sausages.”
Here’s how to make it: Put 30 ml. tequila, 15 ml. feni, raw cane sugar extract to taste, baby mint leaves, one tsp. lime juice and crushed ice in a blender. Pour into a margarita glass. Substitute tequila with white rum for a more chilled-out version.
Cafe Goa, Agnelo House, off St John Baptist Road, near Mount Mary Steps, Bandra (W), +91 (0) 22 6629 9167 / +91 99 2091 9110; www.cafegoabistro.com
Worst Rajinikanth joke: Check this out
Did you hear the one about Rajinikanth and the bank? No? Well we aren't going to tell you. Someone has to put a stop to the incessant forwarding/BBMing/Whatsapping of jokes inspired by the South Indian superstar’s 2010 Tamil release "Endhiran" or "Robot."
We may now be scowling at the jokes that went from hilarious to senseless and then just completely unnecessary, but the movie is reportedly being the second-highest grossing Indian film (earning 62 crores on opening weekend). Alright, alright, if you must know, this is how it goes: Rajinikanth once wrote a check and the bank bounced.
Best Bollywood export: Anil Kapoor
It’s the hair. It’s got to be. As most of his contemporaries deal with thinning careers, actor Anil Kapoor continues to thrive not just in the thick of Bollywood, but in Hollywood, too.
After his role in Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire," where he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award with co-stars for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Kapoor wowed American TV critics with his performance as President Omar Hassan in the super series "24." He's now acting in a supporting actor role in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," starring alongside Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise.
Worst TV import: Pamela Anderson
Red hot lifeguard, sexy bodyguard, playmate: this is how India pictured Pamela Anderson before she made an appearance on national television. Clad in an Indian-print sarong, rolling chapattis and heaving her bosom to Bollywood songs on reality TV show Bigg Boss, Pam looked strange, haggard and utterly disinterested.
While the audience got nothing out of the Baywatch babe’s appearance, she reportedly made Rs 25 million for a three-day appearance and took the TV channel’s TRPs soaring.
Tabloids later reported that the star didn’t actually stay at the Bigg Boss house, but shacked up at a hotel nearby.
India’s always been a dumping ground for Hollywood has-beens, but this waste could have been better managed.
Best market: The Farmers’ Market
The Sunday Farmers’ Market made its seasonal premier in March 2010. Set up in a smallish Bandra garden, it featured farmers from Maharashtra who sold their organically grown produce and city hipsters selling everything from sushi and organic candy floss to natural beauty products and environment ally friendly furniture.
Organized by Conscious Food founder Kavita Mukhi and now in its second season (which began in October), the market is filled with items such as exotic veggies, pesticide-free spring water, organic mint lemonade and Ayurvedic baby food.
At Wind Chimes Nursery, Bhalla House, Hill Road, next to Kobe restaurant, Bandra (W); +91 98 2008 9378. Email farmersmarket@kavitamukhi.com; Sundays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Best new entertainment venue: The Comedy Store
There’s carnage at The Comedy Store. Almost every night, as stand-up comics kill it, front-row hecklers show up to sacrifice themselves for the entertainment of others.
Launched in mid 2010, this UK-based house of laughs is teaching Mumbai not to take itself so seriously. For that, we're thankful. And also for giving us one more thing to do on a Saturday night and allowing us to drink inside an auditorium.
A band of visiting international comics and “local heroes” have worked hard at toughening up crowds, even taking down Bollywood celebrities such as Dino Morea, who laughed along.
Palladium Mall, level 3, High Street Phoenix, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel; (Comedy Store box office) +91 (0) 22 4348 5000, (Book My Show) +91 (0) 22 3989 5050.
Best new fashion designer: Masaba
Designer Masaba Gupta is a mediator between colors and styles that might not otherwise get along. She successfully resolves their issues and gets them to co-exist on the same sari, a skill she says she picked up from resourceful street women who put together the few random pieces of clothing they own.
Daughter of Indian actress Nina Gupta and West Indian cricketer Sir Vivian Richards, Masaba’s been designing clothes for more than two years, but this year she introduced her half-and-half saris, silk kurtas and brilliantly colored shirts inspired by Indian weave patterns worn by celebrities, including young Bollywood style icon Sonam Kapoor.
Masaba will make her debut as film costume designer on a Bengali movie. She's also gotten her wonderful weaves a home of their own at Juhu, where she opened a flagship store this month.
Masaba, unit no. 8, New Sujata CHS, plot no 28, Juhu Tara Road, opposite Satya Paul, Santacruz (W); +91 (0) 22 6529 8694; www.houseofmasaba.com
Best night club: Trilogy
Mumbai has few good places to dance, which is why Trilogy in Juhu, with its big dance floor and overhead psychedelic lights, has been such an exciting addition to the city’s nightclub circuit.
Add a sea view and whiskey sours, wannabe models, waist-high champagne flutes, fedora-wearing bartenders and frills for VIPs, and you’ve got a sexy discotheque that has seduced its way into the hip crowd's Saturday night slot.
Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu Tara Road, Santracruz (W), +91 (0) 22 2646 9689
Best café: Kala Ghoda Café
Squeezed next to a furniture store opposite Trishna in a tiny lane off Kala Ghoda, this bite-sized eatery gets it right.
Cool, upcoming neighborhood? Yep. Quirky wall art? Got it. Free wi-fi? Of course. Freshly baked bread, homemade ginger cake with clotted cream, cappuccino served with dark chocolate? Check, check, check.
The cafe also offers a seasonal selection of salads and sandwiches -- the cheddar and pickle version comes highly recommended by Rodney Kabral, chef at Indigo Deli -- as well as a breakfast menu featuring eggs, waffles, muesli and yogurt.
Kala Ghoda Café, 10 Ropewalk Lane, Kala Ghoda, Fort, +91 (0) 22 2263 3866, www.kgcafe.in
Best art exhibit: Anish Kapoor
In spite of red gunk-firing cannons, this is one act we don’t want cleaned up in 2011.
In undoubtably the biggest art exhibit to hit the country this year, Mumbai-born, UK-based artist and sculptor supreme Anish Kapoor showed in India for the first time (simultaneously in Mumbai and Delhi). Among other displays were his famous "Shooting into the Corner" live installation, mirrored steel pieces and other wax works not for the "paint" hearted.
Fresh off a record-breaking show at London’s Royal Academy, Kapoor picked Bollywood’s iconic Mehboob Studio as his Mumbai venue.
If you’ve not yet visited, sign up for tours led by luminaries such as architect Bijoy Jain, cultural theorist Nancy Adajania and writer Aveek Sen. See schedule here.
Anish Kapoor Dilli, Mumbai, Mehboob Studios, 100 Hill Road, Bandra (W); +91 (0) 22 4020 3660/61/62/63. On till January 16 2011, open daily, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., free entry but a slot must be booked in advance via www.anishkapoorindia.com
Best mobile application: Meter Down
There are more ups and downs in Mumbai cab and autorickshaw fares than the Eastern Express Highway. The best way to keep track of them is Meter Down, an award-winning iPhone application that not only features a scroll table translating what the meter reads into the amount you have to pay, but automatically updates itself for fare changes.
Simple and easy to use, it's no wonder this free application, developed by Siddhartha Bannerjee for taxis and autorickshaws, has zoomed into the cell phones of Mumbaikars. Horn OK please!
Best conference: TED/INK
James Cameron, Matt Groening, Deepak Chopra, Anand Giridharadas -- with guests like these, Lavasa could be the new Beverly Hills.
The aforementioned luminaries joined other thinkers, artists and entrepreneurs at INK, a conference organized in association with TED (which has been particularly active in India recently), sharing ideas on everything from family connections to deep sea diving and cloud computing.
For more on the INK conference, click here.
Best government meddling: Checks on airfare
Kingfisher airlines boss Vijay Mallya might be crying murder, but those who don’t own a private plane can get behind Praful Patel’s contention that no commuter should have to pay last-minute fares of Rs 30,000 for a one-way flight from Mumbai to Delhi to see their mum on Diwali.
The Civil Aviation Minister kicked off a stormy debate on the role of government in regulating private enterprise by asserting that the government should step in and penalize airlines that hike their “spot prices” unreasonably, exploiting growing demand for air travel.
A record-breaking 49 lakh travelers flew within the country in November 2010.
If you find a surprisingly affordable holiday air ticket in 2011, you know who to thank. Government meddling. Yeah, for once.
Worst Diwali visitor: U.S. President Barack Obama
Speaking of Diwali ... here's a note to U.S. President Obama: if you want to make a billion dollar sale, try and warm up your customers rather than barricading them from their own city, especially on the biggest holiday of the year.
Diwali 2010 in Mumbai was a particularly somber affair with entire swaths of the city cordoned off, coconut trees stripped naked (for fear the fruit would fall on the President’s head) and already draconian laws regulating firecrackers tightened further.
The always charming president managed to thaw the ice a bit by engaging in candid “town hall” debate with students at St. Xavier’s College and announcing his support for India’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council. First Lady Michelle had everyone smiling when she joined a bunch of school kids in a koli dance.
Still, the city was largely underwhelmed by these holiday visitors.
Best music festival: Bacardi NH7 Weekender
Our little neighbor sure knows how to party large. Pune hosted the first Bacardi NH7 Weekender in early December, a three-day music fest that brought together all of the country’s best known indie artists and bands -- Pentagram, Zero, Indian Ocean, Shaa'ir + Func -- along with a sprinkle of international acts such as Asian Dub Foundation and Magic Numbers.
Special mention to Airport, who opened Day 2 of the festival and is our favorite Indian indie band of the year. (Watch this music video and find out why.)
Great weather, awesome music, and seamless organization by Martin Elbourne, who’s worked on Glastonbury and the Great Escape in the UK -- what more could Mumbai's music fans ask for? “Vampire Weekend,” replied one attendee.
Maybe next year.
Best pseudo-intellectual trend: Graphic novels
2010 was the year of comics, stand-up and otherwise. Fueled by geek-chic trends, graphic novels reached heights this year, encompassing everything from the great epics to downright silly, but still endearing, adventures of big-buxom babes who love monsters, Tintin translated into Hindi and a resurrection of the Amar Chitra Katha.
We even saw the launch of India’s first comic book library, Leaping Windows.
Recommended: "Kumari Loves A Monster" by Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, "Ramayana: Divine Loophole" by Sanjay Patel and Ashok Banker’s "Prince of Ayodhya Volume I: The Graphic Novel."
Which one is best? Let’s call it a draw.
Best new restaurant: Indigo Deli
In 2010, Mumbai’s culinary scene stretched in all kinds of new directions, with international chefs opening up big-budget restaurants and Michelin-starred prodigal sons returning home.
Tempted as we might be by the chocolate-rubbed baby back ribs at KOH or Ziya’s gold leaf chicken, we find ourselves returning most often to the comfort and familiarity of the new Indigo Deli at Palladium.
Springing off the success of the Colaba and Andheri branches, this Midtown outpost builds on the original menu with new additions (salmon burger, chili cheese toast, peanut butter and jelly French toast) and a larger, hipper space that is hopping even at midnight on a weekday.
Here, everyday, any day you’ll find time-obsessed Mumbaikars waiting forty minutes for a table.
If that’s not love, what is?
Palladium Mall, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel; +91 (0) 22 2498 6262; www.indigodeli.com
Best Indian wine: Sula Riesling 2010
If 2010 left a bitter taste in your mouth, replace it with lemony-sugary notes a la Sula's Riesling 2010 (Rs 640), which Mumbai sommelier Magandeep Singh picks as his favorite Indian wine of the year.
“This white is affordable, up to international standards and can be paired with almost any kind of food, but the best part is that you don’t have to be a connoisseur to appreciate it,” Singh says.
Looking to the future, Magandeep predicts that a new winery Fratelli will have wines to watch out for.
“They own 240 acres of land to grow their own grapes, which means they will enforce strict quality control," Singh says. "Fratelli will be big in two years.”
Best item song face-off: Munni vs Sheila
There were several heavyweight clashes in 2010: BCCI vs IPL franchises, Rahul Gandhi vs RSS, Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa versus state governor Bhardwaj, Barkha Dutt versus Tweeple.
But one of the most hotly argued debates of the year was Munni versus Sheila.
Two sexy Bollywood "item" girls: Malaika Arora Khan playing to the galleries as the raunchy Munni in "Dabangg" and Katrina Kaif as Sheila, clad in a white man’s shirt, tie and hat in "Tees Maar Khan."
Who’s steamier? Like the famous Sheila versus Munni forward doing the rounds says, "Munni is badnaam, but Sheila is jawaan." Now you decide.
Worst scam: Adarsh Society
Monetarily, Adarsh Society scam might be chump change compared with the behemoth 2G scandal, which also broke in 2010. But it is easily the most morally depraved example of government corruption seen this year.
Because the apartments were to be reserved for widows and veterans from the 1998 Kargil war, the Adarsh Society building was approved despite being constructed on environmentally disputed landr.
Turns out, not one of the flats were actually allocated to the widows. Instead they went to top government and army officials, including Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
When the story broke, outrage peaked and Chavan resigned. The furor has since passed and the Maharashtra government recently informed the Bombay High Court that a retired High Court judge would be leading the probe into the scam. Yawn.
Best stage performance: Tosca at the NCPA
Lust, betrayal, murder and passion were imported from Italy in September for the staging of Tosca, an opera about a court singer in love with a painter.
In spite of the plot ripped from a French novelist and costumes and set flown down from Italy, promotional brochures promised a spectacle that would “reek of a Bollywood drama.”
No wonder the performance staged by Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) at the NCPA sold out, leaving many highbrows scrambling for last-minute tickets at Rs 6,000 a pop.
Another thumbs up to Tosca for featuring the first female guest conductor in the history of the SOI.
Best blog: The Vigil Idiot
How does a “badly illustrated web comic” with childlike drawings garner more than 6,000 fans and 2,000 Twitter followers? Go (stick) figure!
Twenty-two year old freelance writer Sahil Rizwan’s blog The Vigil Idiot does smart, laugh-out-loud reviews of Bollywood films through a picture blog.
Particularly funny is his comic strip on Himesh Reshammiya’s Kajraare. Our favorite blogwash of 2010.
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