6 alk TheIndianEXPRESS EXPRESSNewsline I NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY JUNE 29 2011 T www.expressindia.com l l l IN THE NEWS Stay Stylish Wendell Rodricks’ luxury linen collection will not let you get out of bed

LAST week, on a work meeting, I was taken to the Presidential suite in Mumbai’s ITC hotel. Then I was told to get comfortable on a bed. It was a spectacular bed, with powder- pink linen and a large mosquito net canopy with embroidered butterflies on it. I lay down willingly. Next bed: A queen-size beauty with a beauteous white self-printed sheet. And an- other: white sheet with an emerald tree mo- tif on it. I wanted more. Of course, this was an exhibit for luxury bed linen. But with the designer Wendell Rodricks on duty, it became a lesson in art and craft as well. Regretfully, not many newspapers have written on Rodricks’ second collection in three years for Bombay Dyeing, but then where was his pet muse Malaika Arora lur- ing in hacks who ironically complain of celebrity showstoppers? SONG Rodricks and the Bombay Dyeing team had on display at least four lines of bed section features lost sound record- linen, each one in a high thread count and in A FILM, FINDING CARLTON, TRACES ings of Mickey Correa’s last con- an old revived cotton-satin weave that cre- cert at the Ta j Hotel in Mumbai, ated the most sumptuous, creamy sheets. THE BYGONE ERA OF JAZZ IN INDIA SUNG BLUE then called Bombay. Among the “Like my clothes, I wanted the sheets to feel tear-inducing interviews in the as good as they looked,” says Rodricks as ex- documentary is one with Correa’s cited as the proverbial candy-store kid. GEORGINA MADDOX searching, travelling and filming, daughter after she hears his Each line has the designer’s signature Kurian has created a documentary recordings for the first time in study of restrain. ‘Victorian Vintage’ has HE camera pans through a titled, Finding Carlton, that takes a many years sitting in her Brooklyn some boudoir-esque Lucknowi chikankari. crowded Alimuddin Street comprehensive look at jazz in In- living room. ‘Ethnic Graphic’ is an eco-friendly reminder Tin Kolkata, before zeroing dia. The film is still a work in to care for our surroundings with the de- in on a man in a red tie sitting “It was a beautiful experience progress and Kurian plans to signer’s own thumbprint jauntily on a hand-pulled rick- to be a part of this film,” says showcase it at various film festi- lending itself to motifs. shaw. The next frame cuts to a sil- Kitto. Referred to as the un- vals. “I have shown the film in ‘White Light’ is my ver-haired gent playing the saxo- crowned king of Indian jazz, Kitto Kolkata and Mumbai in order to Flair & favourite: luminous white phone, while another elderly man has played with American jazz leg- get a feeling of what people think Square jacquard prints on white taps out a rhythm on the drums. ends like Thelonious Monk, Dizzy of it,” says Kurian. fabric. ‘Florascent’ is Even before the music begins to Gillespie and Kenny Clarke. It is Cameraman Avjit Mukul with squiggles using a play, we know that we are watch- through Kitto’s story that the nar- Kishore says that it was easy film- child’s spirograph in fluo- ing jazz musicians in action. rative of jazz in India unfolds. ing these performers since they rescent colours. All three men are jazz mae- Documenting the lives of musi- (Top, from left) Carlton Kitto jams with drummer Clive Hughes were used to being watched. “In Maureen Wadia had stros from Kolkata and are catch- cians for whom time has stood and bassist George Cheator in a still from Finding Carlton; Kitto their homes, I looked for little ob- approached him a few ing up after many years — one of still, Kurian says that he was on a rickshaw in the film jects that would tell the story of years ago to create an all- them is Carlton Kitto, among the drawn to the subject when he their lives. There is a small guitar- white collection for a few bebop jazz guitarists in India, heard about Kitto in 1981 through American guitar legend from the happy to sip whisky and listen to shaped clock in Carlton’s home company. It will take a who currently plays at the Oberoi his professor Warren Pinkey. Benny Goodman Sextet) When jazz played by Anglo Indians and and Louis Banks, for instance, designer to make white Grand in Kolkata. The others in “One day I heard him perform on I went to Kolkata to meet him Parsis who used to learn the music loves driving his SUV and so we sheets fashionable in In- the trio are saxophonist Joe YouTube and was totally blown I found that he was a great from 70 rpm records, rehearsing a did most of the shooting in that,” dia, she told him. Ro- Pereira, also known as Jazzy Joe, away,” says Kurian, 50, who went storyteller and decided to tell the tune over and over again until they says Kishore. NAMRATA dricks’ first collection was from Mumbai, and drummer on to contact Kitto after reading a story of Indian Jazz through him,” had mastered it. While Kitto plans a concert in ZAKARIA a sell-out within a month. Clive Hughes. The person who New York Times article that men- says Kurian. Apart from featuring modern October in Mumbai, Kurian signs The new collection makes has brought them together is tioned him playing at the Oberoi. The 90-minute-long film jazz names like Louis Banks and off by saying, “Jazz can only sur- it to the stores this week, and is priced easy Shusheel Kurian, a one-time ad- “I myself am an amateur jazz gui- delves into the early history of jazz Sonia Sahgal, the film has 1,200 vive if there are clubs for the musi- at Rs 3,000- Rs 3,500. (Try getting a bed vertising professional from Mum- tarist and when I heard Kitto play in India, right from its arrival with archival photographs as well as cians to play and hang out and sheet from Fabindia for less than Rs 2,000). bai who now lives in New York and I found that his technique had the the colonial rule. Officers of the several hours of archival sound jam. It cannot be restricted to a The avant-garde Wadia knew what many makes films. After two years of re- feel of Charlie Christian (an Raj, tired of playing poker, were from 1927 to 1960. One important concert once a year.” Europeans do: the finest furnishings come from India. In a book that Rodricks will soon publish, he takes us back to the sea route of the Portuguese and French where they took back fabric from India. Europeans HOLLYWOOD The Fuehrer’s Last Days adored anything that was Indian: fabric and jewels. Princess Josephine favoured the SOME may consider being and stubbornness weren’t the Kolkata muslin: dhakai. And Louis XVI was Dreaming short and skinny a disadvan- only attributes of Hitler’s enchanted by the luxuries of our clothing. tage for actors, but in the case emotional graph; there was Provencal and British chintz, that’s often of Raghubir Yadav, it helped probably a softer side to him seen in trendy stores such as Anthropologie RADHIKA CHAUDHARI, a him look his part as Adolf too. “That’s the tricky part of and Comptoir de Famille, has its roots in budding actor of Indian origin Hitler in the forthcoming my role. He was evil. But Gujarat’s Palampore paintings. And ikat in Los Angeles, has become the film, Gandhi To Hitler. “A few then, he married Eva 48 and batik dyes have all been a rage in high- first Indian to win an award for physical attributes happen to hours before the suicide, only end fashion since the last few years. Outstanding Supporting Ac- be similar, though I know I’m because he didn’t want her to Very few designers have tried their hands tress at the LA Web-Series Fes- not as well-built as Hitler,” go down in history as his mis- seriously at home linen. Pallavi Jaikishan tival. A web series is a film that admits the actor. “My guru at tress. During his last few has a charming store in Alibaug, also called is released only on the internet, National School of Drama, days, he probably experi- Paraphernalia like her Pedder Road bou- and Chaudhari’s is called Bolly- Ebrahim Alkazi, used to say enced dilemma and a sense tique, but this one’s only for organza-chikan wood to Hollywood. A funny that you don’t need make-up of failure too,” he says. beauties that decorate the home. (This take on the lives of two starry- if you can get the soul of the Incidentally, Yadav wasn’t leg of the business is managed by her able eyed individuals from Mumbai character right.” the first choice for the part. son, Yogesh.) who wish to take on Holly- The film, directed by Anupam Kher had been Ironically, it’s the Europeans who have debutant director Rakesh signed on but then opted out beat us at this again. Francois Lesage’s son, wood, the web series casts Ranjan, focuses on the last following protests by Jewish Jean Francois Lesage, has built a small for- Chaudhari as the female pro- few days of the Nazi leader’s groups. Yadav says that he tune on embroidering out of Chennai (after tagonist Radhika. “A cting is the life, his relationship with his was told Kher’s dates were a selling his family business to the house of only thing I know,” says Chaud- long-time lover Eva Braun Raghubir Yadav as Hitler, while Neha problem. “I didn’t face any Chanel in 1993) for big-ticket interior hari, who has acted in several and the letter Mahatma Dhupia plays the role of Eva Braun protests or threats,” he adds. stores. Using the 100-year-old zardozi, one South Indian films and Bolly- Gandhi wrote to him, re- The actor admits that the of five basic embroideries, Lesage’s workers wood ventures titled Tere questing him to stop the war. Dhupia portrays Braun’s charac- recent boost to his career can be squat like thousands of karigars in India do: Naam and Khushi. She moved “The story revolves around the ter. Yadav explains that in order attributed to his acclaimed role bending over a wooden frame. to Los Angeles from India after emotions that he may have gone to play the part, he read through in Peepli Live. “Due to problems The Cluny Sisters are an order of marriage in 2006, and did Bolly- through during the last 10 days of a few notes on Hitler’s last few regarding star-driven cinema, I French nuns in Puducherry who have a wood to Hollywood to get life. It also highlights the differ- days and watched footage of the had retreated into a shell. I small output of embroidered tablecloth and noticed among the acting ence in ideologies of the two leader. “It’s amazing how stone- stayed away from Mumbai for bed linen that rival the most sophisticated fraternity of Los An- great political figures of the faced he always was. I have at- three years. But Peepli Live Italian linen. With a few more local players geles. “Bollywood to time,” he explains. tempted to play that out and reminded the industry that I’m in the field and some better marketing, In- Hollywood got me no- Most parts of the film have other quirks, such as the manner still alive and opened the doors dian style-setters could have a winner on ticed. I even man- been shot in Delhi on a set that in which he spoke or walked,” for me,” he says. hand. Or on their bed. aged to produce and emulates a bunker. While Avijit says Yadav. [email protected] direct my own 17- Dutt plays Gandhi, actress Neha He points out that violence DIPTI NAGPAUL-D'SOUZA minute-long short film, Orange Blossom, that won a Silver Ace Award for Best Short Film at the Las Ve- 100 and Running gas Film Festival,” she says. Chaudhari is currently working FAUJA Singh either walks or sleeps. poster boy, starting from Fauja’s on directing and producing her He doesn’t sit. The 100-year-old hometown, Bias Pind near Jaland- second film as an independent marathon runner from Jalandhar, har. The story then moves to Britain filmmaker. believes he’ll die if he sits. For a man where Fauja had shifted to be with ROHAN SWAMY who could not walk till the age of five his son. and barely managed till the age of It was Singh’s coach, Harmander 15, Fauja holds a record for being the Singh, who had asked the author to oldest half-marathon runner, when write the biography. Khushwant he competed in last year’s Luxem- spent a month with Fauja, his family bourg Interfaith Marathon. It is this and trainer in the UK. “Fauja has a indomitable spirit that Chandigarh- shoe fetish, sometimes running in a based author, Khushwant Singh, Hugo Boss, sometime in a To mmy captures in his new biography, Tur- Hilfiger with his 100 pound long-toed baned Tornado (Rupa, Rs 250). Gurgabis, his current favourite,” he The book traces the journey of says. the British Sikh who is also Adidas’ PARUL Khushwant Singh with copies of his book on Fauja Singh. JAIPAL SINGH