Hindustantimes Brunch 30 December 2012 by Hindustan Times

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 30, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

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VIR SANGHVI

Raise a champagne toast

SANJOY NARAYAN

Albums to remember

RAJIV MAKHNI

Top 10 phones of 2013

SEEMA GOSWAMI Zero tolerance

B R E A K FA S T O F C H A M P I O N S

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e Hain. We’re de Achhe Lagt Ba in e en sc x ■ The se chubby sex now. hella. It was the all ‘big’ fans of ive at Coac Tupac came al ■ When ar. ye is th y nonsense. coolest hologram t mostly, the whole Scientolog dies, please. La Bu . a. at ic K ot er and Chikni Chameli (Agnee ■ Tom on of badly-written path): The million shades on Twitter. Who knew a serm unparalleled dance num ■ The 50 ts ber of the pe ge ? rs te ■ The Po ac year. Can Katrina get ned in 140 char any hotter? could be contai n dumped Kristin Stewart. t Pattinso ■ Rober any 14e in Imag how m hope in ed year-olds liv . le hi w f ie br Return of Baroque - Excess gold, for a

Bring up the Bo dies by Hilary M antel: Because we have a weakness fo r the Tudors! The Casual Va cancy by JK Ro wling: Those kids craz y about Harry Potter books grew up just in time for this one. There’s heroin , death and rape . Durbar by Tavle en Singh: Mostly becaus e this one created such a stir.

rich embroidery and intricate detailing. What we’ve been doing for ages got a nod from Dolce & Gabbana this year. For closer home, look to Sabyasachi Mad Men Women: The 1950sstyle dresses, the knee-length skirt or the shift dresses. They’re everywhere! Ties: Mostly used as blindfolds :P Coloured pants/cardigans: This year it wasn’t ‘pansy’ or ‘Govinda’ to team a pair of red trousers with a marshmallow soft cardigan, even if you were a manly man. We think it’s here to stay.

en a few years

■ Jiy a Ho Bihar Ke Lala (Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1): It has us falling for Biharis left, right and cent re! ■ Ch alla (Jab Tak Ha i Jaan): AR Rahman, Gulza r, Rabbi Shergi ll and Shah Rukh Kh an – need we sa y ■ Aa more? faton ke Parin de (Ishaqzaade ): We love that Amit Trivedi in troduced hints of Dubs tep to Bollyw ood music ■ Sk yfall: Bond an d Adele are a combination bette r than Jack an d Coke. ■ M adness by Brit band Muse: So ft, heavy, intricat e and intimat e. Perfect. ■ W e Are Young (F un. feat Janelle Monáe): If yo u’re under 30 (at heart), this is your anthem. Nate Ruess’s voice: Eargasm. ■ Ca ll Me Maybe: HAHAHAHHA. Oh those Inte rnet memes an d spoof videos! We (almost) felt bad for Ca rly Rae Jepsen!

and they

s be Polka Dots - It’ hten out. You’d find them aig just refuse to str and pants. eaters, dresses on scarves, sw

■ Downton Abbey: The aristocrats, the formal dinners, the True Blood (H r clothes, the dilemNarcopolis by els in its ow BO): We love how it sseypu a W f Jeet o revn ri s g n a mas. G .. ur some one air it al can be su diculousness: supern e Thayil: The best ■ Th uld we o atbh book w um t an a h , in India already! opportunit that no one reall y about its it’s very equalgang: W without the y nu e cr ■ di Boar n az ty dwal o k y Empi . and sneaki It’s gory, re: read . Come have d ired dia i ly smart. Atlantic City in the nd-insp dr on, don’t prehinterla Zeeshan Qua 1920s, Prohibition, the Mafia. Every man’ of tend you did. s must watch. p. logues dgy (we love ■ Crime Patrol (Sony): Kashya e g e a When reality becomes a brilliant scrip d r h n t u a n d A le f an t b o a t n c io anchored by Anup Soni, it’s an excellent irect ks dele t thing. him) d raig loo e a human ou C l ie n ■ Packed to the Rafters (Star World): The fall: Da ages to mak ■ Sky Australian Rafters family is more like man ie v o an m the d. tIndian family than any family on India es Bon n the cas d n a of Jam e television. Plus, we’re suckers for arrativ n e . h n T -o o: gharelu drama. ■ Arg ly spot use bsolute s: Beca ■ Game of Thrones (HBO e is ing is a R ): Well, we got t Knigh the censored version. But holy cow! ch e Dark at h rb T be ■ m e Cu il ct di s ■ Bene (Pssst.. the third season promises a atmob ah, those rm joke of the B as Sherlock: Aa All spe few minutes extra in every episode; : r o n o ky D ■ Vic cheekbones. ife 2013, get here already!) (L . ev y ad d n an ah n Dev...M are fu Kom: Boxing y. The ■ Mary Devon Ke logy and rful he stor esn’t need love mytho s Shiva) e powe . aani: T e h W T ): . K babies. She do e O ■ Kah r ay o a t pl c a s r ho a d b (w be oun ram Mohit Raina re hooked! a Gold medal to backgr nces. And Pa e’ W a y. dl ly m is go hero. solute perfor It is ab may be obbit: a Yousafzai: Be It H . e h c h ■ Malal t T a ■ ow u should cular t ing but cause, at 14, yo specta t t-numb t ou u ab MOST SEARCHED IN 2012 b ng yi d rr be wo long an not cket ly e boys, TV and po it n defi g. tting Movies Ek Tha Tiger umbin money. Not ge mind-n g tin or pp Psy: Why do we know the su r Bollywood celebrities Sunny Leone shot fo ion. name of a South Korean Car Maruti Suzuki Ertiga women’s educat rapper? Cause he went , Oh : ey nd Pa l Hollywood celebrities Kristen Stewart bu ul Gangnam style and how! Ch ■ International artists Justin Bieber Salman!.

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Cover image: SHUTTERSTOCK Cover design: PRASHANT CHAUDHARY

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Shar ma, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Rachel Lopez, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman, Manit Moorjani

DECEMBER 30, 2012

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Ramesh Palan

Drop us a line at: brunchletters@ hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001

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What to watch out for next year

2013 - THE YEAR OF 3-D AND INDIE CINEMA by Anurag Basu

He came from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, to realise his Bollywood dream. Having made films such as Murder, Gangster, Life In a... Metro and the much appreciated Barfi!, the ace director is still contemplating his act for 2013

T WAS the winter of ’88. I was in class 8 when I bunked school for the first (and the last!) time to watch a movie called Tezaab. There was a sea of people outside the theatre. In the little town of Bhilai, now in Chhattisgarh, where I come from, there was no concept of a queue, forget a box-office counter! Whoever could shove their hands amongst 30 other entangled arms into the window would get tickets! And of course, the booking guy ALWAYS got to keep the change – it never came back out! Suddenly, there was a lathi charge and since we were in our school uniforms, the lathis seemed to rain directly on us! We were thrown out of the theatre in no time. We were huddled in a corner, when one of us, a guy who was a bit older (since he had been in our class for the last three years) decided to stop the screening in the other theatre that was running the same film. The rest of us did not know what he meant – till about an hour later when a guy came out of the other theatre with a big round metal can in his hand. He started to tie it onto the back of a Luna moped, but we managed to block his way. And in a juvenile act of hooliganism, I did not let him go. As a result, we delayed the show in the other cinema. It was the first time I learnt anything technical about a film. I realised that a movie that we watch with so much awe, sitting in a dark room, is actually physically

lying in a round can! The thrill that we felt when the dashing Anil Kapoor made his entry on top of a running train, all the emotional moments of tears and smiles were captured in that round can! But that was 20 years ago. The world is changing so fast! Films today are retrieved from a drive at a local multiplex or streamed directly and screened. Digital media is no longer the ‘New Media’ anymore, it is THE Media.

WHAT NEXT?

So, in this fast-changing world, we filmmakers face a void immediately after our releases. The big question in front of us: What Next? I had three scripts ready six months ago. But they are all stale now. I hate this vacuum of What Next? after the completion of every film. It’s like entering a dark tunnel without a torch. Everything seems dark at first, but then, as you inch forward slowly, you get your vision right. I’ve started writing my ‘Next Film’ so many times now... I’ve got my page numbers right to begin with! Long way to go from here… Every one of my filmmaker colleagues has a different approach to the What Next? question. Some plunge into research, some refresh themselves with a long holiday, but most of us sit in a quiet corner and agonise! Almost every one of us is dying to know what the other is thinking! Whenever we meet each other at a party or an event, we camouflage our curiosity with apparent mutual admiration, hugs and laughter. But the only lingering thought in everybody’s mind is, “What is his or her next?” I am frequently asked this question and I lie to most of them. Different lies at different times… I read the newspapers, go through FICCI surveys, and follow news closely just to have a wild assumption of the

The world will develop a taste for our cinema as they have for chicken tikka!

MOVIES I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO 1

1. Vishal Bharadwaj’s Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola: From Makdee to Saat Khoon Maaf, I always watch his films more than once. There is so much to learn from him

DECEMBER 30, 2012

2. Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che: Mark my words, Gattu (Abhishek) is going to surprise everybody with his non-star cast adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s 3 Mistakes

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mood of the nation this time next year. Because that’s when my next movie will hit the theatres. But all these calculations and research do not guarantee success. The movie business is still as much a gamble as it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

ut on a serious note, my first and the most important criterion is whether I will enjoy making the film or not. Am I going to have a ball shooting this film? Will I be able to flex my directorial muscles or not? And I am sure this was the agenda for my fellow filmmakers while making Vicky Donor, Kahaani, Paan Singh Tomar, Gangs of Wasseypur, English Vinglish and Talaash. All these films pushed the envelope a bit and the audience’s love for them gave us more power to just get up and tell the story we want to. The year 2012 kickstarted a much-needed transition in Hindi cinema. And we will see the ripple effect in the movies releasing next year. Everyone loves to look into his or her crystal ball, and I’m no different. So here are some random predictions for 2013: ■ 2013 will be the year of 3D films. ■ More than 30 per cent of Indian screens will be 3D compatible. The biggest advantage of 3D films is that they cannot be pirated, so makers will exploit profits before the inevitable discovery of 3D piracy. ■ 2013 will also be the year of pleasant surprises from indie filmmakers. ■ 2013 will be the year of Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. Arjun is going to take a bigger leap towards superstardom with his three releases next year Aurangzeb, Gunday and 2 States. Ranveer is a gifted actor – in 2013 he will gear up to prove his mettle with Lootera and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela. ■ 2013 will also see an increase in revenue from satellite rights.

“2013 will be the year of Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. Ranveer is a gifted actor and Arjun is going to take a bigger leap towards superstardom” ■ Digitisation of television and a new rating system may not help some hit TV shows, but it’s definitely going to bring more money to movie producers. I see myself lying in an easy chair 30 years from now and looking back at this decade with pride and happiness. The time that we are living in right now is exciting and creative because of all these wonderful filmmakers. Hindi films have come a long way and they will expand globally. I can say it with pride that we don’t have to change our films to have global appeal. Eventually the world will develop a taste of our cinema as they have for chicken tikka! brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

SOME OTHERS ON MY MUST-WATCH LIST

Raj Kumar Gupta’s Ghanchakkar (below) Ayan Mukherjee’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani Vikram Motwani’s Lootera (bottom) Rakeysh Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (right) Anand Rai’s Raanjhanaa

3. Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children: I want to see how Salman Rushdie has written a screenplay. Just keeping my fingers crossed that we are graceful enough to accept this film without any political controversy. 4. Rajkumar Hirani’s Peekay: He is the uncrowned king of our generation’s directors. The problem is he makes me wait too long for his films. But then, look who is talking! 5. Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha: Prakashji knows the political pulse of the nation, and his craft of transforming it into celluloid is unparalleled. I love the tagline, ‘Democracy under fire’. 6. Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express: I love Rohit Shetty’s films. It’s the same small-town boy in me, who was mesmerised by Tezaab. I will want to watch CE. Of course, it’s SRK’s next!

“For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake” – Alfred Hitchcock, film director-producer DECEMBER 30, 2012

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What to watch out for next year

FASHION DESIGNERS WE’RE GOING TO LOVE by Sunil Sethi

INDI-KITSCH PAYAL PRATAP They say better late than never and this adage holds true for Payal – she’s thus far been known mostly as the wife of style guru Rajesh Pratap. Payal’s debut at the WIFW 2012 paid homage to her love for everything bohemian, celebrating gypsies everywhere. Easy, comfortable, yet Indian (intricate mirror work has been the focal point), her ensembles are ideal for women who want a piece of India, but with a Western twist.

The president of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) has seen trends come and go and designers shoot to fame or fizzle out after a few seasons. He knows a classic when he sees one

Indian fashion is taking huge strides, both at home and globally. And these designers could put India firmly on the global map

SARIS MASABA

Photo: SANJEEV VERMA

Actress Neena Gupta’s daughter may have started young, but she was one of the first designers to put her energies behind the sari, a garment that was fast disappearing from the catwalk. Her bindu motifs, religious imagery, unconventional prints, and quirky colour combinations quickly won her fans among fashionistas like Sonam Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. In the process, the six-yard turned trendy, funky and suddenly very, very desirable, even on the red carpet. Like Neena, Masaba loves weaves, but adds her eclectic touch to everything from patchwork to vibrant hues in line, never once losing the garment’s Indian soul. She was also the first among her peers to add pockets to a sari. And now, we are waiting for Masaba to bring in a fresh energy in her new role as fashion director to Satya Paul. All recommendations are Sunil Sethi’s personal choices and do not reflect those of the FDCI

DECEMBER 30, 2012

GOWNS GAURI & NAINIKA Sexy and in step with the times, the sisters certainly know how to coax the best shape from a piece of fabric. If it is a Gauri & Nainika gown, you know it will be tailored so cleverly as to slither perfectly on a lean body. Plunging necklines or rising hemlines, the girls have perfected the art of making every woman look fabulous in taffeta, organza, old-Hollywood ruffles, nipped-in waists and achingly pretty silhouettes from a time when va va voom was the way to go.

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HANDLOOM

COUTURE

ANEETH ARORA

VINEET BAHL

There’s a reason so many designers shy away from traditional Indian crafts – they are notoriously hard to work with. But Aneeth has been ingeniously working to revive forgotten textiles, be it ikat, muslin, jamdani, chikankari, Madras checks or block prints. Aneeth’s genius lies in her untiring need to give each textile a new and distinct personality and bring it into the mainstream. Her ensembles have found a strong, individualistic voice, and have won strong individualistic fans as well.

His recent foray into couture hasn’t gone unnoticed. Vineet Bahl’s energetic reinterpretation of the vintage lace churidaar (sportingly teamed up with pouf skirts) won him much applause at the WIFW 2012. Interestingly, what makes Vineet stylistically superior to his peers is his love for tone-on-tone embroidery that adds splendour to his easy-chic ensembles. His language for couture is uncomplicated as he draws on ancient crafts and cultures to portray his love for everything luxe.

T-SHIRTS NITIN BAL CHAUHAN One man has been showing us that evening gowns, natty dresses and a shower of sequins aren’t all there is to great fashion. Nitin has chosen the humblest and probably the most modest garment in anyone’s wardrobe, the T-shirt and turned it into an invaluable component of a good wardrobe, something you just can’t do without. Bhoot Savar, his offbeat line, has won him young fans who’ve been lapping up his prints and graphics and having a little bit of fun in the form of stripes. Horizontal or vertical? Take your pick!

ORGANIC &

GREEN

SAMANT CHAUHAN The boy from Bihar goes back to his roots with a line that uses non-violent silk, a method of making yarn without killing the worm. Chauhan has also been an advocate of not using dyes. At the forefront of India’s ethical fashion movement, he’s had his hands full promoting Ahimsa silk, proving to the world that fashion does have a heart.

MENSWEAR TROY COSTA One of the first to introduce the tuxedo in India (specially the shawl-collared ones), his is a brave move in a market seemingly obsessed with little black dresses. With a sharp focus on cleaner lines (and the hope that the corporate climber will also be open to experimentation), Troy’s innovative dyeing and printing techniques are easy to try. Powerful men like Bollywood dreamboat Hrithik Roshan have been loving his tuxedo, a coup, certainly for young Troy.

“Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening” – Coco Chanel DECEMBER 30, 2012

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ZERO TOLERANCE

IS IT A MAN’S WORLD?

The fact that a woman member of Parliament, Smriti Irani, can be belittled, demeaned, and dismissed as a ‘thumke lagane wali’ on national television shows just how deep sexism runs in our society

Seema

Goswami Y THE time you read this, I am sure you will know all the details about the Sanjay Nirupam-Smriti Irani controversy. But even so, what Nirupam said about Irani during a TV show bears repeating. And not the sanitised Englishlanguage translation of what he said, but his actual words. During a debate on the Gujarat election results, Nirupam dismissed Irani as someone who “kal tak toh paise ke liye TV pe thumke lagati thi” LET US BE! (till yesterday, she used to dance on TV for money). As women, we are routinely whistled at, jeered, The subtext was clear. As was the image that groped, pawed, and worse, in our daily lives Nirupam was trying to conjure up: that of a nautch and the Delhi bus in which the gang-rape survivor girl who is paid to dance for the amusement of was so brutally assaulted. But both are the result men. How could such a woman expect to be taken of the same mindset: which regards women with seriously in a discussion about electoral politics? derision and views them as sex objects. The same She really should know her place. rage that is expressed in contemptuous comments But after the storm of condemnation that on TV debates also lies behind the innumerable followed, there were many who asked just how seriinstances of sexual violence against women that are ously we should take this. After all, you can take the reported every day. lout out of the Shiv Sena, but you can’t take the lout As women, we are used to being treated this out of the man. And in a week when we are all grapway. We are routinely whistled at, jeered, groped, pling with the rage and sorrow evoked by the brupawed, and worse, as we negotiate our daily lives. tal gang rape of a young woman on a Delhi bus, did And we are routinely told to ignore all this, not this throwaway comment merit so much attention? to make an issue of it. Move on, is the message The short answer is: Yes, it does. we get. Don’t sweat the small stuff. How does it Why? Because the fact that a woman member matter if someone calls you ‘achha maal’ on the of Parliament can be belittled, demeaned, and disroad or brushes against your breast as you board a bus? There missed as a ‘thumke lagane wali’ on national television shows just are bigger problems in life. how deep sexism runs in our society. And it proves that no matYes, there are. But they all start from that one comment that ter how high you rise in the world, no matter what you achieve, we ignore; that one whistle that we pretend not to hear; that one and no matter what the subject of the debate, at the end of the hand groping our bottom as we walk along a crowded street. day, if you are a woman you will never be safe from being attacked It all starts with this belief that women are nothing more than by sexual innuendo. bodies to be exploited and ends in the brutalisation of attitudes Misogyny is so commonplace in our world that we have become to women. And if we ignore those first stirrings of misogyny, the inured to it. It starts in the family where husbands treat their wives rage and violence escalates until it explodes in a vicious attack as their property, where brothers regard their sisters as secondon a 23-year-old woman who boards a bus at 9.30pm. The men class citizens, where daughters are seen as liabilities, and all women who raped her didn’t see her as a human being. She was just a are treated as beasts of burden. receptacle for these bestial desires. A disposable thing who could It manifests itself in our public places, where no woman is safe. be abused and then dumped on the side of the road. She is leered at as she walks the streets. She is groped in buses Through my school and college years when I travelled by puband trains. She is sexually harassed at work. And if she finds lic transport I don’t remember a single day when I wasn’t sexuherself in the wrong place at the wrong time, she is brutally ally harassed in some way. (And this was in Calcutta, which is gang-raped and left for dead. supposed to be safe for women.) Every time I challenged my But it all starts with the macho arrogance that Nirupam harasser, there was one heart-stopping moment when I didn’t displayed so tellingly on television. And his contemptuously-curled quite know how things would go: whether he would lip as he spewed his vicious poison is an image back away or escalate his attack. But it wasn’t that shows us just how terrible things are bravery that propelled me, it was a visceral rage for women in our society. There may be a that anyone could dare to assume that he could vast distance between the TV violate my body and get away with it. studio in which Sanjay It is the same visceral rage that every woman Nirupam abused feels when she is confronted by sexism or sexual Smriti Irani violence. And it is that visceral rage that both Sanjay Nirupam and the Delhi rapists inspire within us. So, let’s shame a man who makes sexist comments. Let’s have summary punishment for all those who harass women, either by word or by deed. Put away a man who gropes a woman and the odds are that he won’t grow up to be a rapist. If we want to make the world safe for women, zero tolerance is the only way to go. Photos: HT FILE PHOTOS

Put away a man who gropes a woman; and the odds are he won’t grow up to be a rapist

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spectator

Sanjay Nirupam displayed his macho arrogance so tellingly on television

seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami

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ON THE BUBBLY TRAIL

Vir Sanghvi

CAUGHT UP with Richard Geoffroy on the last night of his four-day trip to India. Geoffroy is the wine-maker at Dom Pérignon and something of a superstar in wine circles. Though he visits China at least once every year, his visits to India are much less frequent. I remember one memorable Dom Pérignon dinner at the Oberoi around a decade ago when several vintages were served, everyone got very merry, there was music, there was singing and the then Spanish Ambassador and his wife did a flamenco-style dance. Geoffroy has been in India only once after that so this trip was something of a milestone. He went to Jodhpur where around 60 socialites from Bombay and Delhi flew in for a night to attend a Dom Pérignon dinner. Then, there was a second dinner at Delhi’s Le Cirque for another 35 or so high-rollers. Sadly, I did not make it to either of these glitzy events, but just before Richard took an Air France flight back to Paris, we had a quiet, private dinner at Megu (Richard was staying at the Delhi Leela) to talk about Dom Pérignon and wine in general. We were joined by the engaging Gaurav Bhatia from Moët et Chandon who brought along two bottles of Dom: the 2003, which is the current vintage, and a 2000 rosé. I wanted Richard’s opinion on a wider range of Dom Pérignon vintages so I took along two bottles of my own: the 1999 and 1998 vintages. Megu’s chef Achal Aggarwal planned a champagne-friendly menu but as the meal went on, I persuaded the Leela to bring in food from their other restaurants, the award-winning Le Cirque and Jamavar. As you can imagine, we ate well and drank rather too well. Dom Pérignon is the most famous premium champagne in the world (and the leader in its market segment), but it is also the sort of

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Photo: REUTERS

Premium champagne is the only wine that even non-wine lovers can easily learn to appreciate

rude drink

A TOAST TO HIM

Richard Geoffroy is the wine-maker at Dom Pérignon and something of a superstar in wine circles champagne that is only made in those years when the grape quality is outstanding. So there are more years when Dom Pérignon is not made than those when the champagne is bottled and a vintage

declared. French wine is about terroir, a word that is probably untranslatable in English but which takes in the soil, the microclimate, the location and many other factors. While wines in the New World (America, Australia etc.) are usually grouped together by grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot etc., the French regard the grapes, though important, as secondary to the terroir. So their wines are identified by location: Champagne, Chablis, Bordeaux, etc., are all names of places. For the French, wine is essentially an agricultural product, a means of taking the flavour of the soil (or the terroir) and putting it into a bottle. Richard Geoffroy, for instance, comes from a family that has made champagne for several generations but he sees himself primarily as a farmer. When he was young, he broke away from the family tradition and went to medical school. But he soon came back because, as he says, “When your family has roots in the land, then all farmers are drawn back to their soil.” Unlike many great and famous French wines that are the product of a single vineyard in a single year (say Lafite or Latour or one of the seven Grand Crus of Chablis), champagne has always been different. Most champagne – even the kind made by top brands like Moët et Chandon or Bollinger or Taittinger – is neither vintage nor the product of a single vineyard. The champagne houses usually buy the grapes from the hundreds of small farmers who own vineyards in the region and then blend the wine. Because each brand has a house-style – nonvintage Moët et Chandon will taste roughly the same, year after year – champagne-makers combine the wine from each year’s vintage with reserve wines, preserved from previous years, to make a champagne that conforms to the house-style. Premium champagne costs at least twice as much as (and often much more than) regular champagne and the houses justify this price on the grounds that most premium wines are only made in very good years from the best grapes grown that season. Some, like Cristal, for instance, are not only vintage (i.e.

Photos: THINKSTOCK

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from a single year’s grapes not from blends with reserve wines) but also from a single vineyard. One or two others, like Krug Grande Cuvée, for instance, are not vintage wines but justify their high prices on the grounds that they use great grapes and are blended by masters. Dom Pérignon has long foxed the wine world because its production is so massive. The exact number of bottles produced each year remains a secret (three million? four million?) but everyone agrees that it dwarfs the production of Cristal and Krug, its two most famous rivals. Once upon a time, Moët et Chandon (who own the brand) used to claim that all the grapes were grown on their own vineyards but now they make the more realistic claim that it does not matter who owns the land because Dom Pérignon has the means and the reputation to buy the best grapes grown anywhere in the Champagne region. However, Geoffroy denies the rumour that Dom production goes up each year. He admits it went up in the early 1990s but says it has stayed much the same since then. Further, he says, he is not sure that they have good enough grapes to produce more Dom than they already do. (Why doesn’t the market run out of Dom? Because, even though production remains the same, they declare more vintages than before. This means that more Dom is supplied to the market each decade even though annual production is tightly controlled.) One reason why Geoffroy (who has been the wine-maker at Dom since 1990) is such a superstar is because he has achieved the impossible: to produce a premium wine in such massive quantities without any drop in quality, even in years when other champagne houses are not sure about the excellence of the harvest. Further, not only does each bottle of Dom Pérignon have that signature, silky smooth taste, vintage after vintage, but Geoffroy’s skills are such that there is enough room within each vintage for the wine to express the character of the year in which the grapes were harvested. Most of us think of champagne as a celebratory wine to be drunk on its own and forget that a good champagne is a great wine, on par with the best FOR THE INDIAN PALATE

The Dom Pérignon Rosé 2000 went brilliantly with the biryani at our dinner; there is no better accompaniment to Indian food than rosé champagne

wines of Burgundy. The only reason it is relatively affordable these days (compared to, say, the Grands Crus of Bordeaux) is because, fortunately enough, the Chinese have not yet taken to it and have not sent prices sky-rocketing as they have done with Bordeaux. All great wines should be drunk with food, so that night at Megu we first tried the wines and then attempted to match them with the right dishes. Richard thought the 2003 stood up easily to wasabi and other Japanese flavours. Speaking for myself, I thought that mushrooms (Achal sautéd some fresh shitake) brought out the minerality of the wine. Of the other vintages, we liked the 1998 the most, though Richard remembered it as having been a difficult harvest in Champagne. It was a perfectly balanced wine, with every note in harmony, a great expression of everything that makes Dom Pérignon such a great wine. Richard had not been sure about how the 1999 would have held up over time but we were pleasantly surprised to find how delicious it was. In terms of food, all the Doms stood up to pretty much everything that the Leela could throw at us. Mickey Bhoite from Le Cirque sent down a porcini risotto with white truffle shavings which was perfect but even a wagyu carpaccio did not interfere too much with Dom. The real surprise for all of us though was the mutton biryani from Jamavar. Described as a Hyderabadi biryani, it was spicier (more Andhra than Hyderabad) than I expected. But Richard took one mouthful and said, “This is crying out for the Rosé!” And indeed it was. The Dom Pérignon Rosé 2000 went brilliantly, illustrating my point that there is no better accompaniment to Indian food than rosé champagne. The Indian champagne market is small compared to the spirits sectors. But Moët et Chandon appears to own it (around 60-70 per cent market share, I would guess). Somebody in the company has had the sense to realise that this is the one wine that all middle-class Indians will drink at some stage. And if Richard continues to visit India and host big-time events then even the market for Dom may finally take off. Because premium champagne is the only wine that even non-wine lovers can easily learn to appreciate. DECEMBER 30, 2012

SOAK IN THE AMBIENCE

French wine is about terroir, a word that is probably untranslatable in English but which takes in the soil, the microclimate, the location and many other factors

Dom Pérignon is the sort of champagne that is only made in those years when the grape quality is outstanding

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2013: THE TOP TEN PHONES

HTC ONE X+

Rajiv Makhni

The device that leapt forward in 2012 will see more radical changes in the new year

ES, YOU read that right – the top 10 phones of 2013, not 2012. And while it’s a thinly disguised strategy of using a shoutout loud headline to get more eyeballs for the column, fortunately it’s also true. This really is all about the top 10 phones of 2013. Let me explain. The year 2012 was a watershed event in the world of mobiles. I say this because this little device really leapt forward in this year like never before. If you compare the phones of 2011 to those of 2012, it’s almost as if the move forward in design, features, innovation and utility is by a few generations, not just 12 months. Thus if this pace continues in the next 12 months – we will end up with some radical new phones that may deliver way beyond what we may even wish and dream. Here then are the top 10 phones of 2012 and what the next generation of each will become in 2013.

techilicious

IPHONE 5

HTC 8X

HTC came storming back into the spotlight with the HTC One X and the 8X takes that legacy and betters it. The form factor is so attractive that every person who has held this device in their hands raves about it. But the 8X+ of 2013 will need to do much more. By that time Windows Phones as a platform should have about 8 per cent market share. Stunning looks and a plain vanilla WP OS won’t cut it. The next one will have to have a killer app from HTC themselves that sets it apart. It’ll need a full 1080P display, a killer camera, one HTC user-level feature that makes all jaws drop and maybe a flexible screen. It’ll also need HTC to up the ante about getting people to hear about their phones and what they are capable of. I find HTC to be a company that is way too understated for its own good.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S3

I saw the original One X at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was stunned. It was HTC reinventing itself from a company that had tasted success and lost its way. The One series got it all right and brought HTC right back into the reckoning. Then came the One X+ and while good, it was just an evolutionary leg-up to the original and didn’t break any new ground. And that’s where HTC needs to be careful. This is a company that is no longer a fringe player. It’s always counted with the big guys and it needs to make some big moves. Evolutionary upgrades are the best way of ruining all that HTC has done. The HTC One X 2013 version must once again make us all stand up and applaud. It’ll need brand new outer material not used by anyone else (also to make sure that its Android line-up looks different from its Win Phone 8 lineup), it’ll need a camera with tricks no one else has yet thought of, it’ll need to set a record for storage (128GB should be the aim) and it needs to take its partnership with DropBox to the next level. Then and then only can that HTC device be called ‘The One’ (which by the way is what it should call its 2013 flagship Android Phone).

Galaxy is a sub-brand that has made Samsung the number one mobile phone brand in the world. This is the phone that has finally become an alternative cult hit and has spawned a generation of Galaxy S fanatics who upgrade to anything the company releases. But Samsung will have to pursue new avenues with the S4. It has to get over its obsession with thin and light and thus plasticky and fragile. The S4 will have the most powerful hardware and some outstanding user features – that is a given. But this time Samsung will have to reinvent the Galaxy S ethos and take it to super premium.

The S4 must LOOK more premium than the iPhone 5S/6 in materials used, form factor, feel in hand and design. It needs to stand head and shoulders above all to make sure it continues its dream run. More importantly, Samsung must realise that it can’t milk the Galaxy sub-brand to the level that it is. Almost anything and everything released from Samsung is a Galaxy. Galaxy Mini, Galaxy Grand?? What’s next – Galaxy Cheapo, Galaxy Average, Galaxy Toxic?? It’s killing the exclusivity of what the Galaxy S started out as.

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Treacherous territory for me as I know I get abused even if I breathe the word ‘Apple’. Regardless, I shall do this one right and bear the violence. The iPhone 5 is a great phone, but it didn’t do enough to make it a ‘great phone by Apple’. It tick-marked all the points it should have covered but didn’t tick-mark all the points that we didn’t think of. And that’s what has made Apple the industry leader it is – to boldly go where no phone company has gone before and give us what we didn’t know we needed. The iPhone 5 is a brilliantly engineered product that ended up with issues with its tragically comic mapping service, the fact that some apps didn’t look right on its new stretchedout screen and that the new connector has put a bit of a dent in all the add-ons that people have built up as a collection over the years. The iPhone 5S/6 will need to start with a totally new look – it can’t keep re-tweaking it current design anymore. Wireless charging done the Apple way, NFC so that phones finally are used as a gateway for payments and an optical zoom on its camera would be the other much needed features. And then it needs to do what it’s always done. Put in one feature that makes everyone of us sit there with our jaws dropped! That one thing that makes the competition look silly! That one thing that makes Apple the formidable innovation leader that it is! Come on Apple – give us your best shot with the next one. Steve wants it, we want it!

twitter.com/HTBrunch

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 2

When you invent a category of your own, you pretty much own it. That’s the good news for the Galaxy Note 1 and 2. Samsung cocked a snook at all those who mocked it for their over zealously big-screened wonders and went on to sell them in millions. Today, due to the Galaxy Note – there is a whole new war of the Phablets being run at premium and economy levels that have rebooted the industry itself. But the Note has a problem at hand. The Note 3 cannot be bigger! There are rumours of a 6.3 inch Note 3 and if true, would sound the death knell for this biggie. There is a limit to what a phone can expand out to be. Even 5.5 inches is a bit of a struggle and anything above will end up being ridiculous. The Note 3 will need to shine in all things, including intelligent usage of that massive screen, an industry-defying display resolution, taking the S Pen technology to magical levels, putting in a set of business applications (its key market) and services that no one else can offer, lighter in weight and on the pocket, a hybrid keyboard add-on that makes this into the world’s smallest hybrid device and most importantly, a battery life that really makes it a phone and tablet that gives you a full day’s use of both.

NOKIA PUREVIEW 808

Nokia made news all of 2012. Most of it for reasons that they weren’t proud of, but some of it for exactly what the company has stood for. A product or innovation that sets industry standards. And the PureView 808 was exactly that and more. A camera phone with such exemplary optics and results that it made professional DSLR looks slightly sheepish. I’ve seen printed-out posters of images shot by a 808 that have been as large as 50 feet. I know of people who’ve bought a 808 and never even put a SIM card in it – and use it only as a camera. The next Pureview doesn’t need to do much. It needs to look a little better, look a little slimmer, improve on its zoom dramatically, come with a 1080P screen so that the images you take look amazing as soon as you take them and come with some software that makes in-camera editing much easier than it is now. That’s it!

GOOGLE LG NEXUS 4

What can I say? A phone that has the specs, features, hardware and looks that are better than anything the market offers, and a price that is almost half of the others! Only Google can pull off such an anomaly. But this phone also marks the return of a previous champion, LG. While they did very well with even the LG 4X HD, it’s the Nexus 4 that has put them back on the charts. And for the next Google LG Nexus partnership – they need to keep it simple. Whatever is the top-of-the-line phone in the market – beat the specs of that by a margin of at least 20 per cent, make the phone look good, add the latest raw Android OS with the guarantee that the next OS iteration will come on that phone first and then price it at $199. Then watch the competition groan, crumble and die.

NOKIA LUMIA 920

The Lumia 920 is apparently sold out wherever it’s been released. Even if we discount the fact that it may be in short supply, you have to understand that its demand is phenomenal. And for good reasons. Nokia has had enough time to work out what a Windows Phone 8 device should really be all about. They’ve introduced wireless charging, making it simple to use and the screen looks brilliant. They’ve closely merged the outside and the inside of the phone and tweaked the feature set enough to make a Nokia with WP 8 different from any other phone with the same OS. The next flagship Lumia (Lumia 1000?) should have the same camera as the Pureview 808 as part of the phone, should be lighter, have a 5inch version with a staggeringly dense PPI, add on a slot for external storage and have enough supply to satisfy the demand. Then it should sit back and watch its market share rise dramatically like the phoenix.

THREE IN ONE

For the last one to make it an even 10 – I’m going to go with three different devices as each of these could be a serious contender.

THE FIRST BLACKBERRY 10 PHONE

I’m betting big on this one as I’ve played around a bit with the BB 10OS and find it exceptional. If they pull it off then something very big will happen in the market. Think of the millions that have stuck to BB as their phone. Each and every one of them will upgrade to the new BB10 device. That’s millions and millions in sales for RIM. Could bring them right into contention in the top three.

SONY XPERIA S

Sony did it. It broke from an ill-conceived partnership with Ericsson. But what it hasn’t done is to break from the heavy baggage of that partnership. While we see some seriously good phones from Sony (some of the best-looking ones for sure), we still aren’t seeing what this company is capable of. The Xperia S was the rare phone that stood out. And the rumours of the S moving on to becoming the Sony Yuga next year are strong. This phone will have a whopping 128GB built-in storage, a 5-inch full HD screen, a quad-core processor, 3GB RAM, a 16-megapixel camera, 3000mAh battery and a glass back. That would make it one of the most powerful devices in the market. One more thing. Sony really needs to get its phone names right from here on. Yuga, Tipo, Miro – Huh??

AN AMAZON KINDLE PHONE

The probability that Amazon will NOT bring out a smartphone is practically nil. They’ve tasted super success with their e-Readers, phenomenal sales with their Kindle Fire tablets and now will turn that into super heady numbers with an Amazon Phone. Expect it to again have top-of-the-line specs and a price slightly lower than the Nexus 4.

ECO PHABLETS

The biggest players in this category are all here in India. It’s an amazing category that is seeing the most amounts of activity as well as innovation. For just under R10,000 you’re getting a 5-inch or more phone, a fantastic touchscreen, the latest Android OS, nice form factors, pretty good battery life and a whole slew of freebies. Micromax, Spice and Wicked Leaks look good here. Expect this category to explode in 2013 with the first 5 for 5 phone. That’s R5,000 for a 5-inch Phablet! Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni

DECEMBER 30, 2012

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hindustantimes.com/brunch

THREE THAT I NEARLY MISSED

BLUE-EYED BLUES BOY

Joe Bonamassa’s Beacon Theatre: Live from New York is a must-listen for fans of great guitar-led blues

Apart from the five albums I listed that stood out for me in 2012, there are some others I wish I’d spent more time with

MAKING AMENDS

I spent far too little time on Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz and was amazed at the magical nature of the band’s music

AFTER THE BREAK-UP

Sanjoy Narayan

download central

COUPLE OF weeks back, I listed five albums that stood out for me in 2012, five that I would certainly take with me into the next year. All five – Sigur Ros’s Valtari, Patti Smith’s Banga, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, Japandroids’ Celebration Rock, and Dr John’s Locked Down – are doing heavyduty shifts on my playlists and, I’m quite sure, shall continue to do so for a bit. But if I look back again at 2012, there are a few albums that I wish I’d spent more time with. Some of them are gems that are sitting there to be discovered. I’ve mentioned, in earlier installments of this column, Joe Bonamassa, the blues guitar prodigy who, by most accounts that I’ve read, began playing the blues before he was a teenager. The Texas native who’s 35 now has a CV that reads like an unbelievable dream. At six or seven, he was playing tunes by guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix; at 12, he opened for BB King; in his teens, he had a band that comprised some interesting members: Bonamassa, of course, but also Erin Davis, Berry Oakley Jr., and Waylon Krieger. Davis, Oakley and Krieger are, respectively, sons of musicians Miles Davis, Berry Oakley (of the Allman Brothers Band) and Robby Krieger (of The Doors). That band was called Bloodline and has just one album to its credit. Bonamassa went on to a stellar solo career with around a dozen albums released. In 2012, his live album, Beacon Theatre: Live from New York (2012), came out. And I completely missed it. I made amends and picked it up last week. Bonamassa, like many bluesmen, is a peripatetic gig man, doing as many as 200 concerts a year. The Beacon Theatre album is a two-disc heavyweight blues rock album that showcases not only Bonamassa’s powerful guitar but also a few noted guests who join him on songs – Paul Rodgers (yes, he of Free and Bad Company), John Hiatt (American rock singer and songwriter), and Beth Hart (another American musician). Beacon Theatre: Live from New York is a muscular bluesrock album and a must-listen for fans of great guitar-led blues. To release the album and the DVD, in early 2012, Bonamassa went busking in the New York subway. And the joke is that he hardly DECEMBER 30, 2012

The album, Relax by Das Racist, doesn’t actually belong to 2012 but late 2011. So I’m cheating when I put it on this list

made any money because few commuters left anything as a tip for him! I got drawn into the psych-experimental sound of Animal Collective when I heard Merriweather Post Pavilion, their brilliant 2009 album, which also happens to be their most accessible work. Since that, I have followed what the Collective’s band members have been up to, together as well as solo. Animal Collective members play under intriguing names: Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist. Their music is equally intriguing – heavily layered and unconventional. In 2012, they released Centipede Hz, a full-length album with which I spent far too little time. I made amends and went back to it and, yet again, was amazed at the magical nature of the band’s music. Animal Collective’s music is not easily definable but it is that attribute, which gives it an enigmatic charm. Centipede Hz has crawled into my playlist and is staying there. The third album that I let pass with a couple of cursory listens doesn’t actually belong to 2012. It is from late 2011. So I’m cheating when I put it along with this year’s near misses. But there’s a reason for that. Last week I read the unhappy news that the Brooklyn, New York, based hiphop group, Das Racist, had broken up. It is a pity because rarely do you come across a hip-hop band these days that is as literate as they were. There was the Indian factor as well – two of the group’s three, Himanshu Suri and Ashok Kondabolu (the third member is Victor Vazquez), were Indian, and many of the group’s songs had strong Indian references apart from a generous dose of humour. The trio burst on the the scene with their very funny 2008 song, Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. They put out two free mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude, and Sit Down, Man. And then released their first and, as it happens, their last full-length album, Relax, at the end of 2011. I heard Relax cursorily when it came out and moved on. Big mistake. It’s a great album with tracks produced by several guest producers, including Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, and Brooklyn rapper and producer, El-P, and Anand Wilder of Yeasayer. And it deserves greater attention. I’ve slipped it into my current playlist and have been delighted ever since. There’s an added bonus for bhangra lovers in Relax: American bhangra artist Bikram Singh has a track – of course, it is interspersed with rap verses from Das Racist but nevertheless, it is there, along with the group’s trademark references to India, Indians and many things Indian. To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/downloadcentral, follow argus48 on Twitter

THE JUKEBOX

nice place to score new musical discoveries is the Fuel/Friends Blog. It is actually titled I am Fuel, You Are Friends and features downloads of live performances, songs released by artists and a very well-written blog. It’s at www.fuelfriendsblog.com, and this week featured a 2012 Holiday Mix. It’s a nice download. Try it.

PROMOTION

Trendspotting

What to watch out for next year

SPORTS AUTHORITIES, LET’S PUT INDIA FIRST by Harsha Bhogle

Harsha Bhogle is widely recognised as the voice of Indian cricket and has straddled all media platforms over a long and satisfying career

VIRAT KOHLI

The exemplary form of Virat Kohli was one of the high points of our cricket in 2012

OME TO THINK of it, for all our wildly fluctuating emotions, 2012 was quite a year for Indian sport! Thanks to Vishwanathan Anand. And Sushil Kumar. And Vijay Kumar. And Mary Kom. And Saina Nehwal. And Gagan Narang. And Yogeshwar Dutt. And Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. And the visually impaired cricketers. And Ajay Maken. In spite of the Olympics result, hockey is on the right path even though they can’t figure out who will conduct the new league. Archery is knocking on the door of major recognition. And we are a fairly hefty shooting nation as Ronjan Sondhi reminded us too. In 2012, the non-cricket sports grabbed you and said “Here we are. Look at us”. Now, all things remaining the same, past performance should be a reasonable indicator of future success. And this is where I am afraid the clouds are gathering. These magnificent sportspeople will inspire many, in fact almost everybody except the administrators who can never stay out of the action. As 2012 gives way they gather to infect our sport again. They remain true to their charter that Indian athletes must overcome them and then consider taking on an opponent. The International Olympic Committee must believe it has sent India a stern message and in a rather pleasant sub-plot the government is piling on the pressure too. Normally this should lead to a better system but I greatly fear that the other great foundation of Indian sport, stand-offs and litigation will come in the way. The Sports Ministry can play a pivotal role here but good old Ajay Maken has been asked to tackle bigger challenges and his replacement has a foot in the Defence Ministry too. Worse, I fear that 2013 will see political intent focussed on the next elections and therefore on survival. A fledgling sports ministry will be easily missed.

Photo: VIRENDER SINGH GOSAIN

MC MARY KOM

Non-cricket icons such as the Olympic medallist boxer made the world sit up and take notice this year

fear that I hope is naive and ill-founded but I find it gnawing at me. And that will be a pity because the shooters and the archers in particular need every support we can give them to go to the next level. Michael Nobbs is showing that with some investment, and a lot of care, we can win a few hockey matches. The next generation of boxers, so wonderfully promising, need international exposure. And they need to compete under the Indian flag. India must take the fantastic gains of 2012 forward. With organisations like the Mittal Champions Trust and Olympic Gold Quest, people with their hearts in the right places, will do it. But little can be done if the federations are naughty. I believe the I-League can get stronger and 2013 will be a huge test for the IPL. If it can continue to deliver consistently high ratings in year six, amidst a general downturn in the fortunes of the national team, it will give itself the stability that top brands need after the initial enthusiasm.

With icons that promised solidity gone, I see a rocky time ahead for the national cricket team

nd we’re at our best when there is a deadline looming. There are no major sporting events in 2013, no pressing need therefore for people to temporarily bury the hatchet. Looking at it from the outside, it is a

SAINA NEHWAL

The badminton player should be hitting her peak in the new year

Photo: MATTHEW LEWIS/GETTY

Photo: JASJEET PLAHA.

see a slightly rocky time ahead for the national cricket team. Icons that promised solidity and faith are gone and newer ones haven’t ascended to that status yet. India still looks very weak in away conditions and now home supremacy is being challenged. Batting promises a faster return to form with Pujara and Kohli the possible focus, and Ashwin the likely all-rounder, but India's bowling stocks are looking very grim. And you need detectives to look for young bowlers who can take wickets on good pitches. 2013 will be a year of some turmoil but hopefully the wounds of 2011-12 will catalyse action. I’m sure there is a lot of raw material there but it needs love and care. And a vision. But cricket is still our best-run sport and that is why it has the best chance of coming back. But is it all gloom? Saina Nehwal should be hitting her peak and PV Sindhu looks an able challenger. There may be another flourish left in Anand and I would dearly love the legendary Mary Kom to make us feel proud again. But for 2013 to resemble 2012 and lay the foundation for 2014, our political community must realise that sport, more than anything else, brings cheer to a nation. Amidst jockeying for positions and searching for political alliances, when it comes to sport I hope they can put India first and provide a ray of hope to non-cricket sports. Like many I fear. Like many I wish to be surprised. But as we tread with some uncertainty towards 2013, let us celebrate 2012. We did okay! brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

Six: the number of medals won by Indian athletes at the London Games, their best performance ever DECEMBER 30, 2012

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What to watch out for next year

WILL WE BREAK FREE OF BOLLYWOOD-STYLE FITNESS? by Mickey Mehta

India’s leading holistic health guru has trained beauty pageant hopefuls, top industrialists, Bollywood stars and the biggest names in fashion

VER THE next year, Bollywood will continue to be the benchmark for what a good body looks like (for men and women). But to know what a good body feels like, you have to do much more. The current batch of actors like Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra have fabulous bodies. But are they really fit? Are they content, relaxed, selfsecure, self aware and emotionally sound? These are the parameters of holistic well being. What you’ll see on screen over the next year is not all there is to fitness. The impetus should move from the physical self to the entire being. Everyone should aim for soulful wellness,

not just physical fitness. They should be at peace with themselves and their self-image should be independent of what others think. This is only possible if one loves themselves first, because only that will make you disciplined enough to keep at it. You should not worry about fitting into a pair of jeans, but about developing your overall personality – inwards and outwards. One celeb trend worth following is to focus on the organic and natural. Eat fresh foods like herbs, roots, fruits, vegetables, cow’s milk and ghee, and ditch preserved, packaged versions of the same. Yoga and meditation will help you get rid of modern-day anxieties. And regardless of what you see on screen and on the red carpet, stop smoking and minimise your alcohol consumption. I see so many film stars drinking Red Bull, aerated drinks and puffing on cigarettes. It’s the very opposite of all the fitness advice they try to give their fans. Stop counting calories. Count the wellness within. People are so calorie conscious that they are afraid of eating an extra morsel of anything. That’s making them unhappy. I don’t see the radiance of youth anymore. Eat well, eat right – your body will reward you. And lastly, exercise. Every day. Get out of the gym and have fun with your body. Let 2013 be the year of overall health. Not just the hollow Bollywood idea of fitness. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

RULES OF EATING IN 2013

NEVER EAT BY THE CLOCK

Your food intake should not be dependent on your office’s lunch hour. Instead eat when you’re hungry

Photos: THINKSTOCK

PORTION CONTROL

Eat smaller meals, but don’t define them by a number. If someone tells you that you have to eat eight small meals, it’s wrong. Eat smaller meals as many times as you’re hungry

DECEMBER 30, 2012

NEVER EAT PACKAGED FOOD

You already know this – packaged food is high in salt content and preservatives which are harmful for your body

Trendspotting

What to watch out for next year

MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE FOR INDIAN ART by Sayed Haider Raza

One of India’s best known contemporary artists, the author co-founded of the Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947. Vistaar, his latest show, is on at Mumbai’s Art Musings Gallery till January 10

EYE ON INDIA

Indian paintings like Raza’s Saurashtra (above) are finally getting global recognition

S I NEAR completing 91 years of age, it is perhaps difficult, if not presumptions for me to guess or predict what would be happening in the coming year. Predictions about art do not, all too often, come to be true. Imagination, artistic imagination in all ages and times remains unpredictable; that unpredictability adds to its charm and excitement. But having lived for six decades in France, I can say with a degree of confidence that Indian painting today is, globally speaking, one of the most vital forms of artistic expression. International recognition of this reality has been coming belatedly but finally it has come. Secondly, the Indian scene is full of plurality – of visions and idioms, of styles and innovations, of plastic values and formal research. Happily, one cannot reduce or simplify this rich and enriching plurality into any neat trend or movement. There are contradictions and tensions, disruptions and dissonances but, again happily, there are creative anxieties, imaginative darings and new discoveries. All in visual languages that are sometimes rooted in tradition, including the modern tradition itself, and, at other times, seriously questioning such roots! There are, like in a living and growing family, quarrels and disputes, arguments and contestations. But in the end all these together make the art scene lively, dynamic and pulsate with creative energy. The young, nowadays, do not have to struggle as hard as the young talents had to in our youth. Today they have better and more opportunities. One can, with reasonable talent, launch upon an artist’s career more confidently than before. Our times were bedevilled with many uncertainties, not least of them economic. We aspired and dared and with some luck and much struggle seem to have succeeded. Now young artists have more luck and less struggle, which may not be such a bad thing.

A MARVELLOUS INITIATIVE

A visitor looks at an installation by Tallur LN at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The first ever biennale in India features works of 80 artists from 24 countries

and significant human activity, a form of social action and it must be covered and talked about seriously. My wishlist for 2013 includes the earnest wish that media moves decisively in that direction. Though the void created by the languishing public institutions has been, to a large extent, filled by a network of private galleries throughout the country, more philanthropic sources must come to the realm of arts. I also hope that the young would realise that while success and money are important considerations in life and art both, significance is of paramount importance. Sometimes there is significance in failure rather than in success!

Art is a significant human activity and must be covered and talked about seriously

aving said that, I cannot but note with much anguish and regret, the decline of the public institutions dealing with the arts in one country. They are moribund – failing to keep with the international trends, mired in incompetent bureaucracies and dominated by an ever-aggressive mediocrity. I wonder if 2013 would see them being renovated, made effective, professionalised, infused with relevant vision, new energy and dynamism. They should cater to the needs of the younger generations more enthusiastically. Why can none of our public art institutions measure up to international standards when we have at least a hundred artists of international stature and standing? The media in India is currently, most unfortunately, obsessed with price rather than value. Auction prices are widely reported but value of artworks hardly ever commented upon or critically looked at. Art is a serious

he art schools are also sadly in varying degrees of decline. For a vital art scene, such institutions are of critical importance. There should be a sense of urgency in this regard and some concrete measures should be adopted in 2013 to halt the decline and to repair it. Similarly, more and more art critics today seem to be in hurry to judge without the patience to see and understand. Art criticism is a responsible activity and should be written with a sharp critical sense but mostly to describe what happens in works of art rather rushing to praise or decry. There are increasing signs, the latest being in the Kochi Biennale, a marvellous initiative no doubt, that the distance between or lack of dialogue between literature and other arts is being seriously addressed. We thrive together and could only enrich by listening to other voices. I wish more of such interaction happens in 2013. I am confident that Indian art will move forward gloriously in the next year creating new heights of significance and exploration, artworks of abiding value and making accessible to many more the visual-aesthetic pleasure. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

260,000 – the number of visitors who have visited the India Art Fair since it was launched in 2008 DECEMBER 30, 2012

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READERS ARE GETTING SMARTER, BOOKS TOO by Indrajit Hazra

The novelist and journalist’s last book, The Bioscope Man, was published in 2008. He writes the Sunday column Red Herring in The Hindustan Times and is consultant editor with the paper

BOOKS AND BRAINS

1. Khaled Hosseini’s multigenerational Afghan saga And the Mountains Echoed 2. Courtesy the film, there may be new readers of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit 3. Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia 4. Jaspreet Singh’s Helium is centred around the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi 5. Readers are more ready for a book like Nicolas Wild’s Kabul Disco 2 than they were a couple of years ago

EADING IS an act of telepathy. What the reader does is essentially follow another person’s train of thought, catch the images, dialogues and situations cooked (up) in someone else’s head: the writer’s. In that sense, it’s a date between two people separated by distance and time across the pages of a book. The publisher is really a dating service. But if over the last few years English language readers in India had developed a taste for variety – something that non-English language readers across the country have been familiar with for decades – going beyond the two ‘extremes’ of fun, lightweight campus stories or revved-up mythologicals and serious, crafted literary fiction, then 2013 will see readers getting engaging, as well as quality fiction ‘minds’ to read. Publishers are no Sunday school teachers whose job is to proselytise good literature. But going by some forthcoming titles the coming year, one can see that a growing number of readers are demanding more nuanced, less run-ofthe-mill books that are more than either time-pass or heavy reading. Enter accessible quality fiction. The biggest Jenny off the block, Penguin India, for instance, has Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid’s new novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia – the title itself a grin at the kind of DIY/self-help books that top the book charts – out next year. Riding on the interest of Mira Nair’s film based on Hamid’s previous book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, that’s now playing in cinemas, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, is a story of a young boy’s journey from slums to entrepreneurship. There’s a flirtation with militancy in between and a love for a childhood sweetheart, and it’s perfect reading for an intelligent, hungry reader demanding entertainment marinated in thoughtfulness. HarperCollins India, already hoping to catch new read-

FOLLOW THE READER

(Clockwise from top) Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom, Manu Joseph’s The Illicit Happiness of Other People and Mohammed Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti have shown that ‘popular’ no longer has to be a euphemism for crap prose

ers of JRR Tolkien’s masterful The Hobbit as a tie-in with Peter Jackson’s cinematic spectacle, has French comic book writer Nicolas Wild’s Kabul Disco 2: How I Did Not Become An Opium Addict in Afghanistan in the pipeline. The sequel to his graphic account of an expat’s life in a conflict zone, this reportage-diary narrative is funny and illuminating, with readers more ready for this kind of book now than they perhaps were a couple of years ago.

ublishers known primarily for focusing on ‘literary’ books are also responding to the demands of the new reader by underlining the page-turning powers of their writers. Take Bloomsbury India. Apart from the multi-generational Afghan saga And the Mountains Echoed, a new novel by The Kite Runner writer Khaled Hosseini, the Indo-Canadian writer Jaspreet Singh’s time-shifting novel centred around the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, Helium, will be set on the table. Aleph, even with its focus on non-fiction (full disclosure: I happen to be writing a book as part of Aleph’s writers-oncities series scheduled for next year), will be publishing Shashi Deshpande’s new novel. Going by the sheer accessibility of the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning author’s writings in the past, 2013 should be when readers at large finally discover the joys of reading this underrated and under-noticed writer. Readers are not as shy of reading interesting novels or even short stories any longer. If people had grown frightfully bored of ‘beautiful’ stories with diasporic characters flashbacking ‘home’ and dealing with life in a foreign land, or historical novels dealing with languorous prose and domestic snapshots, wonderfully written and crackling page-turners such a Mohammed Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, Manu Joseph’s The Illicit Happiness of Other People and Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom have shown that high-quality writing can be far from boring. And ‘popular’ no longer has to be a euphemism for crap prose. There are more meeting points as well as more kinds of meeting points for readers and writers these days. So even though you will have those ‘How to Lose 20 Kilos in Two Days’, ‘Love in the Time of Facebook’ and ‘The Curse of Shani’ still flying off the shelves, 2013 will see a more discerning, inquisitive, wanting-to-think-and-be-entertained bunch of readers sitting on the other side of the page reading the minds of more discerning, inquisitive, wanting-to-think-and-entertain writers. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

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The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read – Mark Twain DECEMBER 30, 2012

PERSONAL AGENDA

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Actress

Sunny Leone BIRTHDAY May 13

SUN SIGN Taurus

PLACE OF BIRTH HOMETOWN Canada

SCHOOL/COLLEGE FIRST BREAK Orange County College

Penthouse Pet of the Month

HIGH POINT OF LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE YOUR LIFE My marriage

The death of my parents

Sarnia, Ontario

CURRENTLY DOING

Performing at The Lalit, Delhi, on December 31 and shooting for Ragini MMS 2

Five things that make you smile 1. My husband 2. My dog 3. My brother 4. When I can do something nice for someone and help them 5. A new pair of shoes

If you weren’t an actress you would’ve been? A paediatric nurse. If you had the option to choose a film as your debut film, which one would it be? I would have still chosen Jism 2. The best thing about Bollywood. It’s a whole new world that I’m getting to learn about. Like starting a new business. One Bollywood star you really admire. I’ve really enjoyed watching Aamir Khan’s movies along with my mother. Have you ever felt insecure about your body? the city was perfect. Yes. I think everyone does at one Your favourite street food. point or another. Gol gappe. They are delicious. I simply The best compliment you’ve ever cannot resist them. received? Who is your 3am friend? That I have a great personality. My husband, Daniel Weber. Your favourite Punjabi singer. Which body part would you get insured? Panjabi MC - Parkash Kaur. My legs. Your favourite Punjabi food. One rumour you would like to start. Aloo ke paranthe. None, because it would be a lie. What scares you? How comfortable are you with Hindi? Losing a family member. I am getting better as each day A black sari or a little black dress – passes. I love learning and it’s a take your pick. challenge. I can commuA little black dress. nicate with most people YOUR FAVOURITE One item number I encounter now without you’d love to do? ROMANTIC MOVIE? many difficulties. Chikni Chameli. Your dream destination. You’re performing for Mount Everest. the first time in Delhi. The biggest risk you have Nervous? taken. I just want to have Going on Bigg Boss 5. I a good time and was scared that the public would hate me and I was bring in the New Year with my fans and going to another country so far husband. I want the away from home. night to go smoothly One song that describes your current with no issues. state of mind. You’ve had several Bob Marley’s Three little birds. What is the one strategy that always offers to perform in get you though a crisis? India. Is there a special To stay calm and figure a way reason you chose this out to a safer place. one? The last line of your autobiography The entire combiwould be… nation of the venBelieve it or not, it’s all true. ue, the promoter — Interviewed by Veenu Singh Studio 169 and Photo: THINKSTOCK

Dirty Dancing

DECEMBER 3O, 2012