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Material girl
Talk about season change and the first thing that alters with the season is the fabric in your wardrobe. And with monsoons cooling the parched fashion scene, it's the cool linen, easy-to-dry georgettes and chic chiffons that are making heads turn than the cool cottons and rugged denims.
That's some monsoon mantra! Ask her how to stay stylish and she says, " Net is doing really well this season. Though lot of embellishment is not needed in the monsoons, here it is about the play of the fabrics. And when it comes to my designs for the monsoons, I am using a lot of net. Easy to dry, it does not need ironing and looks great in this season." With a wide variety of tunics, tops and kurtis to choose from Shewta's monsoon collection also plays with the fabric. "During the rains one cannot wear a heavily embellished garment, so it's time to play with the fabrics. And I make use of varied fabrics like velvet, lycra, net etc in one garment." Talking colours, pastels are making way for brighter shades so, watch out for a potpourri of colours this season. "The weather during monsoons is already dull and drab, so it's better to add some colour to the wardrobe. Brighter hues definitely look good and the other reason for supporting vivid shades is pastels get dirty and soiled very quickly during rains," says Payal Saboo, designer 'n' stylist from Polka-8. Talking fabric she says, "Lycra is the super fabric for monsoons. Easy to dry, it doesn't get drenched fast and fits the body perfectly." Lending a monsoon tip she says, "Avoid cottons and colours that bleed easily during the rains. Denims are also a no, no for the monsoons as it is a heavy fabric and gets drenched fast." Well, that's for the fabric but for people who live in style weather is hardly a deterrent. Says Dimpy Gujral, city-based fashion designer, " Fashion is not for the people who work from 9 to 5, but it's about dressing in style. Though monsoons see a change of fabric; jersey and cotton make for a good choice." Ask her doesn't cotton crush easily and she says, "It does crush, but it's the softest and most comfortable fabric to live in. And for me fashion is first about comfort than style." That's somewhat true. Ask her what about the embellishment and she says, "Trappings are a big no, no these days, it's the play of colours, fabric cuts and silhouettes." Talk trend and she says, "I am doing a lot of short shirts, gent-style kurtis with salwars for this season." So, all you people who are looking for fabric change go ahead and take your pick. jigyasachimra@tribunemail.com |
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Monsoon magic
Dress sense
Colour palette
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Akshay the healer
Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone has turned to Ayurveda in an effort to end persisting knee pain after Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar told him to do so. Akshay, who was working with the action star in Hindi film Kambakkht Ishq, bonded with him during a chat about on-set injuries and suggested Ayurveda when Stallone started talking about his persisting knee problem, reported contactmusic.com. Akshay even provided the name of his favourite Ayurvedic practitioner. "Stallone appeared to be really interested in Ayurvedic treatment and asked for more details. He said he intends to spread the word about Ayurveda among his Hollywood comrades," said a source. —IANS
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Bollywood bound
Denise Richards is going to watch more Hindi films, finds them more passionate than American romantic comedies and would love to do another Bollywood flick after her brief cameo in the big budget Kambakkht Ishq. The Hollywood star reveals all this and more in a conversation with co-star Akshay Kumar, who she admits she finds cute. Excerpts from the conversation: Akshay: We have Denise Richards here with me... So what do you think about being in the Indian film industry in Bollywood? Denise: Kambakkht Ishq was my first Bollywood film and I didn't know what to expect from it. But I felt very comfortable. Bollywood is a very catchy phrase, it sounds cool. All of you welcomed me and made feel so comfortable. Thank you. You all are very helpful and very fun Akshay: Have you seen any Bollywood film? Denise: I have three movies in my bag and I'm going to go home and watch all the three movies. Akshay: All three are my movies. (Laughs) Denise: I have heard AK (Akshay Kumar) is a very big star and I am so honoured and flattered to work with a big star like him. Akshay: I must tell you, Denise has done some romantic scenes with me, which are typically Bollywood style. So did you find any difference in that? Denise: I find this Bollywood movie to be more passionate than a romantic comedy in America. The emotions are bigger here and there is much more passion here which I like. Akshay: Is emotion different between Hollywood and Bollywood? Denise: No, I think for this movie in particular the intention is the same. The woman is in love with the man and the other woman is sad seeing him go. So the intention is the same as far as a romantic comedy is concerned. Bollywood movies are bigger and more passionate of course. Akshay: Would you do another movie here? Denise: Yes, I would love to do another Bollywood movie. Akshay: There is a shot where Denise gives all her shopping bags to me and when I am walking with her I fall down. Denise: He is the biggest action star and in that particular scene I think that you really fell. But I also thought that when we both were walking down the steps in a scene, like Spartans, you were a little clumsy and that was very cute. And I do find that most action stars like Pierce Brosnan are a little clumsy and that's very cute, endearing and sweet. Akshay: I think that it's very natural also. Basically a man when he is walking, he is a little clumsy somewhere or the other, especially carrying so many bags, like 10-15 of them. I think we are clumsy. Denise: But it was very easy working with them. Doing a romantic comedy in my very first scene, coming gout of a pool I had to kiss him and all that and it can be very awkward and uncomfortable sometimes. Akshay: Were you uncomfortable? Denise: No, you were very nice. You made me feel so comfortable which was very nice and very much at ease. The director (Sabir Khan) is so sweet and such like a big kid and laughs a lot and he likes to collaborate and give ideas. He made me feel so comfortable as well... Everyone made me feel very comfortable. — IANS
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Sports star
Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone feels that her sports background has equipped her to balance the highs and lows in the film industry.
"I know how to deal with success and failure. Success of Om Shanti Om did not affect me nor did failure of Chandni Chowk to China. I have learnt this as a sportsperson myself and from my father as a child," Deepika, daughter of Badminton ace Prakash Padukone, said.
Deepika is eagerly awaiting the release of Love Aajkal on July 31, where she is paired opposite Saif Ali Khan, who makes his debut as a producer with this movie. "It's a story about love and relationships," she said adding her character 'Meera' is some one who is similar to her in real life. "She is young, modern and at the same time conventional and traditional. Like me, she is career minded, focussed but also believes in love,
relationships and institution of marriage," Deepika said. — PTI |
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Bollywood cinematographer Aseem Bajaj was in Britain last month to shoot an independent British film, and says he accepted The Dreaming Spires because Ajay Devgan delayed the shooting of his next directorial venture. "After U, Me Aur Hum, I was supposed to shoot Ajay Devgan's next directorial project. But now he's busy with Rohit Shetty and Milan Luthria's films. He is also doing Priyadarshan's next. So that left the rest of the year free for me," Aseem said. He is currently working on his wife Leena Yadav's Teen Patti as director of photography (DOP). "I don't know whether I'm the first Indian DOP doing a full-fledged British production. But others like Madhu Ambat and Santosh Sivan too have shot international projects. I'm happy to join their ranks," said Aseem. Talking about the British film, he said: "It's a British production called The Dreaming Spires directed by Shamim Sarif. It's about the first American boy Joseph Connors who came to Oxford University to serve as a reader to a blind British female professor." Aseem also did films like Chameli and Golmaal." Earlier, Aseem had served as DOP for Shamim Sarif's I Can't Think Straight, a semi-auto-biographical film about lesbianism which starred Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth. "But that was a partly Indian film in the sense that it dealt with the life of Indian characters. The Dreaming Spires has no Indian characters," he said. — IANS
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‘Class’ apart
What they doing Vs ‘How they do it’. 1857 mutiny. Staple standard twenty pages, mug up, cram, verbalise. 1857 mutiny. Explore, research, find out! The education system debate’s never going to expire. It all begins with the harmless of 1,2,3,4 or the apparently risk-free A, B, C, D, moving onto never ending theories and thesis. Likewise, there’s a permutation combination of same subjects, similar streams extending into myriad education systems in multiple countries!
“The education system there is a lot more practical, the support that you get from the staff and teachers, I don’t think that culture exists here,” shares Anuj Bajaj, in city now, who chose to be in West London at Brunel University, for MSc in International business. And practical as in? Deepa Katoch, pay roll officer, elaborates, “For example, I have been given something to work on, a subject, a project, or a topic to work on, rest assured I’ll have complete and thorough knowledge about it. You do extensive search, net exploring, read, check up.” The girl’s recounting her one-year stretch at Robert Gordon University in Scotland. She adds, “I think it’s much better here, we need to collect our study material, add unlimited in-depth inputs unlike the structured standard mugging up, still largely prevalent at institutions across India.”
Opines Sanjay Bhatnagar, education consultant, designer, Thematic curriculum programme, largely based on European system. “If you ask me to compare, the education pattern is poles apart. To simplify, it’s like, over here the emphasis is on how many pages the child has written, how many pages the child is getting for homework. There the focus is on how much knowledge he is carrying back home.” Needless to say, the sum total difference stems from this line of thought. Not to forget the maddening race to be an either engineer or MBA? Adds Sanjay, “That’s another root cause. In the west, they decide right from Class ninth or tenth what they want to be, it could be a carpenter or a sweeper. Both are highly paid jobs plus nothing’s a taboo. Thus their goals are defined. Here if somebody said carpenter, that person would get laughed at.” Unfortunately, yes! Moving on, what about the infrastructure? Says Deepa, “During my entire study period, I did not have to buy even a single book. The library’s open till ten, eleven o’ clock. A career fair happens every month. There are a lot of special Indian associations,” she has an endless list. Not to say, we’re lacking on all counts. As Anuj opines, “I feel it’s a little difficult back here, may be because of more pressure or competition. But comparatively speaking, business studies, in many ways, are a lot better in India.” Adds Deepa, “Indian education system is no doubt very heavy and taxing.” The ones buried under homework and heavy bags would testify from their graves! As Sanjay adds, “Though a child from here would no doubt have much vast knowledge.” Hopefully the present uproar over reforms initiated by the new education minister assumes a step in the right direction, brings in the proverbial best of both worlds. manpriya@tribunemail.com
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Love Aajkal
“When we staged it in October last year, we had packed house for two days. Over 1000 viewers and more than 250 had to return without getting a chance to see the play. So, we are back on public demand,” says Hardeep Singh Sethi, the director of the play. He also plays the lead, “It brings out the issues of searching for perfection in our partner and the struggles to fit into that picture. The music of the play is its USP,” he adds.
With an impressive profile and creating a place of its own on the city theatre map, Manchatantra has been innovating with different genres like satires, tragedy, comedy and musicals. But the real agenda behind their effort is to break the stereotype of theatre being considered as boring and old-fashioned. “Salt n Pepper deals with the live-in relationship, and we have been experimenting with other recent issues as well in our earlier plays. The idea is to make youth take up theatre as a source of entertainment and enjoy it,” Hardeep clears. But any innovation would mean investing money? “We want to bring in money in theatre, by proving ourselves. We may not be having celebrities to sell our ideas but we do have a future. Change is always gradual,” says Sukriti Vadhera, the female lead and art director of the play. Apart from their concepts, they are innovating with promotions as well. “We have done quite an aggressive promotion for this play. Not just depending on the usual word-of-mouth publicity, but using radio and other media, making CD presentations,” Sukriti adds. Ask them about the clichéd association of theatre and activism and they reply, “Theatre is about issues, but that does not mean no entertainment. We staged plays on terrorism, youth violence and one of our play, Give peace a chance, was a part of the UN International peace day celebrations. Rather than shouting slogans and protests outside the Parliament or Governor’s house, we use the stage,” says Gautam Sharma, the joint secretary of Manchatantra. Well, now that’s adding a little spice to it too! The play will be staged at Tagore Theatre on July 9 and 10, 7 pm onwards.
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No lines, now Online
Panjab University’s latest decision to launch online fee payment system for its students from this academic year is intended to reduce the queues and simplify things for students. Finally, we are going online and it’s almost fee time. We check reactions and awareness among the students. Right move
Shelly Aggarwal,
Botany student Time wise
Amit Kumar,
Medical science student.
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Designer deals
It was a weighty issue indeed! Five year back, the single factor that was quisessential for a women buying gold was its weight. "Rest everything was secondary. Purchasing gold was the best form of investment or even better, a matter of pride. Style was something unheard of", shares Amber Paridhi Sahai, a veteran in the field of jewellery designing who is witness to the ever-evolving jewellery designing industry in India.
In the city on Tuesday, to interact with the students of Jewellery Design and Technology Institute-35, whose jewellery designs were on display, she says that the present acceptability ratio of experimental designs have increased to that of earlier times. "I am using varied materials like jute, silver, stones, cloth for my jewellery and people are game for it. They want to wear accessories that are different, noticeable yet trendy." It's for this reason that she decided to do customised jewellery, catering to everybody's personal choices. "Copying of a single design ten times wouldn't appeal ten people from different background. People now prefer giving us the details of the designs they want, colour of a costume for a particular occasion, preferred metals and stones and budget. Rest we take care of." Owner of the brand, Mine of Design, she is catering to various branded retail stores in India and has also showcased her jewellery at the Wills India fashion Week ands the Miami Fashion Week. "Jewellery might not be prime object of attention there but as an accessory, it gets noticed along with the best of the costumes. It can prove to be a potential platform for jewellery designers if utilised," adds Amber, who supplied jewellery for the collection of designers Paras and Shalini and Sonia Jaitely. Drawing comparison between the Indian and the International fashion designing market, she feels there is scope of improvement for local markets, "Though we have the best quality diamonds, stones and metals in terms of gold and silver here, we lag behind in the styling part. It has a lot to be improvised upon. We lack the technology that can make our designs have a global appeal." Before signing off, we ask her, what everybody is asking everyone, how's the budget? "Nothing is ever enough". Gimme metal
When you have all the freedom in the world to experiment, why not use it, for it might boost your creativity; take you beyond, what you thought to be your limit. "The reason you see in my collection that I did in college, bracelets in silver and stones having denim bands to tie them. Or a bangle inspired from the traditional north east accessory made in brass, silver with embroidery on its every fold," says Shalika Jain while explaining her assorted collection. Presently working as the assistant jewellery designer with Raghvendra Rathore, she at times, misses the experimentation part, "We just can't create or design anything unlike the college days. Usability and wearability of jewellery has to be kept in mind. The designs have to be concept based but innovative, you cannot repeat a design already used. Guess that makes up for the experimentation." Recently she has designed jewellery for the Zoya, the latest collection launched by Tanishq. After all this handwork, she feels, jewellery designing in India hasn't caught fancy of people. " We don't attach the same significance to jewellery designing as we give to the fashion industry. You need the right
earrings, neckpiece, bracelets, even buttons and pens that we design. Fashion without accessories is no fashion." |
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While it's time to pack some of your loved dresses and long gowns, for all ye fashion-conscious people this season is all about choosing the right fabric than the right style. Says Shewta Khanna, fashion designer from Daffodils-17, "Monsoons is the time when people should go for fabrics that are easy to dry and don't crush easily. Pure cottons and synthetics should be avoided, as they tend to stick to the body and the crease of the cloth doesn't fall well. Chiffons, net and georgettes are the best fabrics for this season." 
"In two years, I have reached this far despite being a rank newcomer. It's a nice feeling. I have never been on a film set nor assisted anybody in direction. But I am definitely not satisfied. I am still learning a lot," she said.
As the session begins here, it reminds of the dreamy eyed students queuing up for the ever-elusive foreign shores, overseas degree. We ask some of the city youth, having had a study stint abroad, to cut, classify and compare for us. 
Two love-struck hearts, a pinch of salt and a little pepper, add to that a dash of humour and tadka of music. This is the hit recipe of Manchatantra’s latest production Salt n Pepper. The play is a musical romantic comedy highlighting the amalgamation of basic and the hatke ingredients of a healthy relationship with all shades of love, and has a musical score to match with.
I just passed out of the varsity, but yes had the decision been implemented during my time or now if I were taking admission in some course, I would have definitely paid my fee online. It’s a good move and I’m sure a lot of students are going to utilize the facility by staying back home and especially to beat the heat.
I wasn’t aware of the decision. But now that I know, I feel it’s a really good and time saving move. I’m sure lots and lots of students would want to utilize this facility and the long queues that we once used to see outside the counters will hopefully, be a thing of the past.
From then, five years down the line to today, design is the best bet and she proves it, "People don't want to spend on a piece of jewellery that doesn't look good on them. Style drives them or we can say, they are aware." However, people still invest, with only their priorities changed, "They now put money in diamonds and solitaires as the chance of price variation is quite less, and they might get the same return after many years too." Now when a considerable reduction has been announced in the price of branded jewellery, she says the investments might get an impetus, “The difference between the price of branded and unbranded jewellery would now be marginal, so we can expect people to opt for the trusted and branded jewellery."
