Film Review: Pride

You have to watch this film while it’s currently on general release.

It has been several years since I came out of the cinema and felt this good about a film and it is even better that the story is true.

Million Dollar Arm

A few weeks ago I had realised that there were no Hollywood in Bollywood films on the horizon. Could it be? Could the Slumdog Millionaire franchise actually fail to produce another saccharine feel-good Hollywood blockbuster? Are there no more Americans that need to travel to India and “find him/herself” and return a changed human being for the greater good?

And then just like buses, three films come at once. One I’ve forgotten about already. I couldn’t face the Helen Mirren cooking one. But the baseball one seemed palatable, not least because the hunk (haven’t said that for a while) from Mad Men was in it. Enter… Million Dollar Arm.

Veggie Heaven in Primrose Hill

Ok, so I am a veggie but I don’t like vegetarian restaurants, certainly not vegan ones. Lettuce munchers, allergic to good taste. It’s just something about the atmosphere in them that turns me off. A room full of veggies, a crazy night does not make.

Ah, Manna. Primrose Hill. Beautiful people. Warm evening. Ice cold prosecco.

Cafe Below

God, I love living in London.

Where else can you eat lunch in a crypt made by Sir Christopher Wren? Cafe Below is an exquisite cafe under St Mary-Le-Bow Church on Cheapside. A hop and a skip away from Bank tube station.

Nish Kumar at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A few evenings ago my sister reluctantly dragged me to see Nish Kumar, the stand up comedian, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  I’m not into stand up comedy but I laughed from beginning to end whilst sipping my delicious pear cider.

If you’ve never made it over to the Edinburgh Festival then put it on your bucket list it really lives up to its reputation as the biggest arts festival in the world. 

The White Tiger

Tigers are synonymous with India to the point of boredom.  It is my irrational rejection of tiger references in literature that led me to ignore The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga for years.  Man Booker Prize winner? Meh, so what, I thought, it’s probably full of quaint stereotypes from cover to cover.

I’d forgotten about it entirely until a friend recently recommended it to me and then I happened to find a copy on my bookshelf (not by magic my sister must have bought it).  Well, quite simply: I loved it.  I loved the style of writing, the perspective it is written from, the observational humour is wicked and I loved reading about Delhi (currently my third home city). 

Free Women

I just finished reading Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook.  It is a wonderfully bold book charting, amongst other important events and cultural/social changes, the freedom of women.

Free to have careers, sex and their own opinions it is set during the evolutionary stage of female emancipation that we, women of today, can relate to even though the book is set from the 1930s onwards.  This was a groundbreaking novel when it was published in 1962 and I would say it still strikes a chord today. 

Red Velvet At The Tricycle Theatre

Every now and then I come across a gem of a find and this time it is Red Velvet, a play by Lolita Chakrabarti and starring her handsome husband, Adrian Lester!

Lester plays Aldridge a mid-19th century black actor who played at Covent Garden. He is outstanding, in fact he is almost too outstanding as he overshadows his co-stars

The Penultimate Truth

Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick had a visionary imagination far beyond his generation.  If  Sci-Fi isn’t a genre you’re interested in The Penultimate Truth might be a good book to dip your toe into.

I am a card carrying Sci-Fi fan (you’d never guess looking at me!) as I feel it opens up a parallel universe for the human imagination to explore and wonder, frequently laying the foundation to inspire scientists or technology experts to catch up.  Published in 1964,

Home by Toni Morrison

Like many bloggers, I am a closet novelist. Ah yes, that theory that we all have within us one great story. I can write! I am interesting! Funny, dramatic, sensational. First I will win the Costa book awards and then Booker to prove I’m not winning just because I am of the gentler sex (ha!)

Then, I read something by Toni Morrison and my god, will she metaphorically dedicatedly superliciously crap all over that fantasy.

Gravity

Boy likes Sandra Bullock. I like action, if it happens in Space, even better.

Off we go to 3D cinema to see Gravity. It is excellent, believe the hype but not all of it. It is incredible. It is techy and whizzy and let’s face it, Sandra Bullock is divine, but I’m not sure

Hakkasan

Are we cool? We go to Hakkasan, Mayfair for dinner and cocktails. Or are we stuck in the noughties? We used to go there when we were young and crazy, we would drink cosmos, giggle with strangers and go on to a club.

We went on Saturday – do people still go to Hakkasan? Apparently, yes.

Platform by Michel Houellebecq

Well it’s been a long time since I read such crap. I’m not an avid reader of the french novel or peruser of their “great” cinema but apart from a few notable classics (in French but not necessarily from France, Camus coming to mind) I’ve always had a narrow-minded notion that The French are inherently sexist and it won’t wash well with me.

I know beauty is subjective but when Depardieu is cast alongside Audrey Tatou a little piece of me sighs in that awful way I used to when

The Heat

You have got to the The Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy it is amaaaaazing and so so funny.  It’s a brilliantly performed story and one of my teenage heart throbs

100 Out Of 100!

Believe the hype! The Book of Mormon is amazing, the most funniest musical of all time. I didn’t know anything much about it in advance and I am certain that added to the enjoyment. The cast, set, lighting but most of all the script and lyrics are just so much fun!

JJ Valaya, The Maharaja of Madrid

The Maharaja of Indian couture, JJ Valaya’s opening show for AAmby Valley India Bridal Fashion Week was as spectacular as to be expected from a designer who spares no expense in executing his vision.

JJ’s previous couture collection was inspired by his visits to Turkey resulting in an exquisite fusion of silk route couture.  The Arab empire ruled in Spain for over 700 years before

Waterloo Bar & Kitchen

It’s sunny in London and that means the evenings really do begin at 5!

If you are catching a play south of the river, heading to the BFI or find yourself generally milling around Waterloo then please may I recommend this slightly pricey but fabulous restaurant: the Waterloo Bar & Kitchen, it’s next to the Old Vic and is divine.

The menu

Sweet Bird of Youth

“Oh god” my friend gasped “what a tacky poster for a classic play, you can see his nipples for God’s sake”. He was referring to Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams currently showing at the Old Vic.

The poster that so disgusted my well-heeled friend was of Kim Cattrall all glammed up in a 1950s feverish pose over a lovely naked man half her age.

Sold!

I went to see the play this week with three girlfriends and all of us, yes ALL of us, couldn’t think of a better combination of seeing our favourite SATC gal and Ripped Torso Man getting it on in our favourite theatre.

Robot Disco

I simply LOVE Daft Punk’s new album.  It’s not very often that almost every song on an entire album would get over 8/10 in a scorecard yet here we have one.  I’m a former 90s raver/RnB fan and I thank Daft Punk for their Pharell Williams collaboration and for giving RnB some of its mojo back.  It hasn’t been a good decade for some music genres.

I’ve also been in Delhi for the last five months and now that I’m back in London and have Random Access Memories

Cecconi’s

I remember when I first moved to South West London and my cousin took me to a bar in Chelsea. “Oh my god” she heard me mutter as we walked in. “Great isn’t it” she nodded at me. No. It wasn’t great, it was awful, full of tossers, one of whom said “it was great to see Asians drinking in Chelsea”.

This experience happened time and time again. I would be taken to a “fabulous place darling”

Seventeen

Having heard great things about Seventeen in Notting Hill, I broke with tradition and decided to Go West and try it out.

First impressions were incredible, this certainly is a very cool Chinese restaurant, very modern but in keeping with a Chinese aesthetic.  I’m not entirely convinced it belongs in Notting Hill which is more understated cool, but anyway, I was looking forward to a fab meal having been very impressed immediately with the restaurant interior.

Gangster Squad

Wow what a film, you must catch Gangster Squad while it’s still out. Exquisitely shot, excellent acting from a fabulously selected cast and executed by paying homage to the gangster greats of yesteryear.

Day 1: Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week

Fashion designers Anand Kabra and Payal Pratap opened Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week with their joint show on Day 1.  Anand Kabra studied at the London College of Fashion but designs both Indian and Western silhouettes.

Delhi Couture Week Day 3: Arora’s Back in Town!

A much anticipated show during PCJ Delhi Couture Week 2012 was the return of Indian fashion’s showman extraordinaire, Manish Arora.

Manish very recently spent two seasons at the helm of Paco Rabanne in Paris and prefers to show in Paris in any case.  It’s not difficult to see why, his is the only collection with a distinctly Western feel and not a bridal gown in sight.  I’ve been to a few Manish Arora shows over the years and his creativity is truly inspiring.  The energy and zeal in his collections are inimitable, however, my compliments end there on this occasion.

Olympics Open

Wow! Innovative, inspiring, celebratory, surreal, humorous, the words go on….

Danny Boyle’s imagination and story telling of British history was spectacular.

Glitz and Glamour

A delayed post about the Golden Globes fashion hits and misses, apologies, things happen!

Firstly let me say, in India last night it was the Screen Awards which I guess is the Indian version of the Globes but I’m not going to review the fashion because I can’t pretend to care about the celebrities or the fashion.  A sari is a beautiful garment, end of.  No one wore anything else.

So back to the Globes, please do get your comments off your chest too!

Starting with a Brit Chick – well, at least it’s not nude.  I love nude but it’s a bit saturated at award ceremonies.  The Telegraph commented on Kate’s chav/scouse eyebrows.  A bit harsh!