4
TIMES CITY
THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI
SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 2011
Fireworks, The Clink Of Glasses And Cheers Of Celebration Mark A Warm Welcome To The New Year
NO TEARS
FOR 2010
Bella Jaisinghani | TNN
Mumbai: As Friday midnight drew
near, few Mumbaikars shed a tear
for the outgoing calendar year 2010,
a time few will mourn for its litany
of scams and tribulations caused by
an unbridled price rise. Instead,
across public venues like Gateway
of India, Chowpatty and Juhu beach,
families and strangers greeted one
another in the hope that 2011 would
bring a turnaround.
Fireworks, the clink of glasses and
loud cheers of celebration marked
the welcome to the New Year as tables groaned under the weight of delicacies and spirits. Across the city,
people chose to celebrate within their
housing colonies or in the comfort of
their homes. Thousands attended
midnight thanksgiving services
across Catholic and Anglican churches.
Housing colonies that were hosting parties for their members were
glad that the deadline for loudspeakers had been extended. At Basant Society in Borivli's Saibaba Nagar, a
band of children aged 10-12 harangued their parents for a large
white shirt and a pair of jeans that
they could use to dress up the Old Man
of 2010, before burning him up. “It is
they who have taken all the efforts.
We adults followed orders,” said resident Anand Ganesh Mankatty.
Houses of prayer across the city
prepared to host a surge of devotees
who arrived for thanksgiving ceremonies. Former Indian Police Service
officer Y P Singh and his wife Abha,
the postal services director at the GPO,
visited Siddhivinayak temple to offer
gratitude on December 31. “Rather
than ask for favours in the New Year,
we prefer to thank Lord Ganesh for
the blessings of 2010,” said Abha.
Nearly 2,500 people were expected
for midnight mass at St Peter’s
Church, Bandra. Parish priest Fr Errol Fernandes got his team to open
up the spacious loft above the prayer
hall. “We can accommodate around
a thousand people below but given the
sheer numbers that turn up on New
Year’s Eve, we decided to make use of
the similar space above,” he said. The
Anglican Afghan Church hosted a special service at 11 pm on Friday. Another will be held at 9 am on Saturday “half an hour later than usual as
people rise late on New Year’s Day”,
said a considerate Rev Graham Engineer.
CINEMA OF
THE WEEK
Many Sikhs visited the iconic
Hazur Sahab gurdwara in Nanded for
the annual midnight ardas. Transport union leader Bal Malkit Singh
chartered a flight for 100-odd members of his inner circle.
“Young Sikhs are increasingly
drawn to this spiritual experience,
where we pray as the New Year unfolds. They prefer this over alcohol
parties,” he said.
As peers partied away at nightclubs, actor Sushmita Daan headed
for Kolaad with family and friends,
while event manager Esha Joshi travelled to a resort near Pune with a band
of 25 friends carrying supplies for a
potluck dinner. Each was anxious to
get past the toll nakas before a traffic pile-up.
Advocate Waris Pathan enjoyed
the winter nip in Panchgani. “Half of
Mumbai seems to have arrived here,”
he said on Friday night. “Hotels and
resorts are filled to capacity and we
are keenly waiting for the New Year
bash to begin.”
As the night progressed and a
mood of reflection took over, conversation centered around the year that
was: The 2G, Commonwealth Games
and Adarsh scams, and the Aarushi
murder case. A collective prayer went
up for a happier 2011.
Lalbaugcha Raja Ganpati Mandal
members sent smses pointing to the
sequence of the date 1.1.11, a coincidence that will not occur for a hundred years.
Most of Mumbai
parties till dawn
Vijay V Singh | TNN
Mumbai: The police received 44 applications from clubs, gymkhanas
and hotels seeking police permission to organize New Year’s Eve parties. But, this time, the parties were
a bit different. Many Mumbaikars
partied till the early hours of the
New Year as the deadline was relaxed by the court and police.
Police bandobast began at 8 pm
on Friday and continued till 6 am
the next day, as indoor dance parties
were permitted till 5 am. The police
had permitted the use of loudspeakers by organizers, which included big clubs, till midnight.
Closed-door parties were allowed to
play music, and dances and orchestras were permitted till 5 am.
The police visited many venues
to ensure that the organizers followed their security instructions,
additional commissioner of police
(west region) Amitabh Gupta said.
A senior police official said that
this year many housing societies organized private parties, but only few
approached them for permission.
The police had given them permission after basic verification, as they
was no security threat to such private events.
Deputy commissioner of police
(licensing) Vijaysingh Jadhav said,
“All establishments approached us
for permission, and had told us that
they were closing their parties at different timings. We noticed that people did not want to party till early
morning.”
Mahesh Benkar
READER REVIEWERS MY TIMES, MY VOICE
RATING SCALE P O O R ★ AV E R A G E ★ ★ G O O D ★ ★ ★
V E RY G O O D ★ ★ ★ ★
O U T S TA N D I N G ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
NIKHAT KAZMI
Gulliver’s Travels (comedy) ★★★
Cast: Jack Black, Amanda Peet, Jason
Segal, Emily Blunt
Direction: Rob Letterman
Duration: 1 hour 25 minutes
Lemeul Gulliver (Jack Black), an
ordinary mail room clerk in a newspaper, sets out on an ordinary journey, after being assigned to write a
travel piece on Bermuda by the pretty travel editor, Darcy (Amanda Peet).
However, the journey turns out to be
an extraordinary adventure, when
Gulliver’s boat capsizes and he lands
up on a strange island called Lilliput
where he must help the tiny islanders
ic designs of a pompous General who
tramples all over the natives in a
Transformer-type armour and wants
to marry the princess (Emily Blunt),
even though she is terribly bored by
him. Left to herself, Princess Mary
would like to spend her life with the
cute commoner Horatio (Jason Segal), specially after he is being tutored in the state-of-the-art style of
wooing by the lovelorn Gulliver. This
new age Romeo may not have been
able to express his own feelings for
his travel editor, Darcy (Amanda
Peet), but he sure can make Horatio
sing and dance his way into the
Princess’ heart.
'Toonpur... is a good entertaining movie...'
TOONPUR KA SUPERRHERO
Critic’s rating: ★★★
Readers’ rating: ★★★1/2
R
ead on for our readers’ reviews of Toonpur Ka Superrhero...
A good movie
Toonpur is a good entertaining movie. A must watch!
I PALLAVI
It’s a fantastic movie. A perfect treat to watch! I BISHAL
look good together. I KUMAR
Toonpur Ka Superrhero is
one of the best Indian animation movie. Ajay is good as
always. I SUDHA SARASWAT
‘I resolve to log on to
Facebook less often’
Pratibha Masand | TNN
Mumbai: Zenith Sahai, a 23year-old student, has been in
a dilemma for the last few
days. Even though her hands
itch to start typing furiously
on the keyboard, she has been
practicing great self-control.
Her friends are bewildered,
and with good reason, as
Zenith has stopped logging on
to Facebook as often as she
used to.
“My friends had started
teasing me that I had become
a Facebook addict. I used to
log in every half-an-hour to
check updates,” rued Zenith.
However, Zenith made a New
Year resolution to stop doing
that. “It is very difficult. But
now I log in only twice a day.
I hope I can keep up with my
resolution,” she said.
As English scholar John
Selden said: Never tell your
resolution beforehand, or it’s
twice as onerous a duty.”
Mumbaikars, it seemed, are
ready to shoulder that duty
happily. Even though New
Year resolutions are made to
be broken, Mumbaikars do
To new beginnings.
Have a healthy, happy
& fulfilling new
chapter. May all your
troubles be as shortlived as your New Year
resolutions, love
—SRK on Twitter
not shy away from making
new ones every year. While
the usual ones like losing
weight, quitting smoking,
helping others and cutting
down on alcohol consumption
still top the list, many have
spent a lot of time thinking
HNY 2011
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: Twenty-five-yearold Tanay Soham, who was
desperately trying to make
plans for New Year’s Eve, was
excited when he got an sms
party invitation from a
friend. However, he was disheartened to know later, that
it was a joke.
“I had started preparing
for the party. But when I read
the full message, to check the
venue, I realized it was a joke.
It said: ‘67th floor, suite no 25,
Burj-E-Khaleefa, Dubai’,”
said Tanay.
With 2010 drawing to an
end, hordes of messages have
been doing the rounds. Apart
from the normal bulk ones
wishing each other a happy
new year, Mumbaikars are
tapping a range of emotions–from optimism to
naughtiness.
One such sms read: ‘Like
birds, let us leave behind what
we don’t need to carrygrudges, sadness, pain, fear
and regrets–in this New Year’.
Philosophy enthusiasts
spent a better part of their
time looking up funny connotations to age-old sayings. One
of these by Bill Vaughn read:
‘Youth is when you’re allowed
to stay up late on New Year's
Eve. Middle age is when you're
forced to’. Another philosophical one read: ‘For last
year’s words belong to last
year’s language and next
year’s words await another
voice. And to make an end is
to make a beginning. Happy
New Year’.
Some took digs at New
Year resolutions: ‘Now is the
THANK YOU
for the music
up some whacky resolutions
this time.
“I will think of a password
other than ‘password’ or ‘hello’,” said a professor, who
finds it difficult to remember
passwords. “I end up keeping
passwords for all my accounts.
I realized that I really need to
change the habit,” she said.
Priti Mann, a health freak,
has started keeping reminders on her mobile phone
to drink water frequently. “My
doctor said that I need to
drink more water. But my
problem is that I don't feel
thirsty enough and I forget to
drink water. So I have kept reminders to stick to my resolution of drinking water regularly every day,” she said.
Amrita Mohan, a 26-yearold newly married media professional, spoke about balancing her professional and
private lives.
Hordes Of
Messages
For New Year
accepted time to make your
regular annual good resolutions. Next week, you can begin paving hell with them as
usual’.
People couldn’t help taking
digs at soaring onion prices.
‘Robin Uthappa is going to
change his name to Onion Utthappa in 2011 and become the
costliest player in the world’.
Others anticipated the jamming of networks and sent
messages before December 31
itself. One of them said, ‘Before the golden sun sets, old
calendar is destroyed and mobile networks get jammed, I
wish in new year every moment is enjoyed’.
Some, irritated with the
horde of messages, replied to
friends: ‘Merry Christmas,
Enjoy New Year, Happy Easter, Good luck on Valentine’s,
Spooky Halloween & Happy
Birthday. Now buzz off and
don’t annoy me for the next
12 months!!!!’
Parents and
kids bond over
music and
movement in
these sessions
Uma Kadam
A good attempt
There should have been
‘Toonpur Ka Superrhero
is one of the best Indian
animation movie. Ajay
is good as always...’
RAJ GIRI
Go and watch Toonpur. Its
full of fun like other good animation movies. I SHOURAV
An outstanding animation
movie. Both adult and children alike will love this movie.
I MAHADEV
A good paisa vasool animation movie. Ajay and Kajol
more life to the toon characters. Also, the second half was
more interesting. I UMESH
It’s a good movie, though the
characters could have been
smarter. I RAMI KHAN
Good movie. Not a must
watch, but still worth appreciating! I PANKAJ
'Tees Maar Khan is a disastrous movie!'
TEES MAAR KHAN
Critic’s rating: ★★1/2
Readers’ rating: ★
H
ere’s why Tees
Maar Khan (TMK)
failed to strike a chord
with the audiences...
Disaster unlimited
to defend themselves against the evil
general Edward (Chris O’Dowd).
D
on’t even think this is going
to be an encounter with
Jonathan Swift’s 18th-century classic that makes for an excellent read even today. Jack Black’s
Gulliver is a born-again hero who
tries to grab eyeballs in a postAvatar world as Gavatar. And when
he's not gassing
about surviving
the
Titanic
tragedy, he is
busy trying to
convince the
quaint
Lilliputians of his
larger-than-life
status as the
First Citizen of
the Island of
Manhattan!
Hey,
but
what kind of a
Prez is this Gulliver guy? He
can’t even save
the islanders
from the despot-
But can the man from Manhattan end up as a zero? Never. It’s not
long before he realises what size actually means—you got to be enormous inside, rather than outside,
to actually make a difference to the
world. The Lilliputians do find their
hero who wages a final battle to save
their honour.
Shot in 3-D, this revisionist take
on Swift’s novel may not be spectacular
in
terms of special effects,
but it has
enough fun
and games to
engage
the
family. Watch
out for Jack
Black’s zany
rendition of
the
classic
hero who is
first held captive by pintsized people
and
then
p u n c h e d
around by a giant-sized doll.
dead. No plot combined with
a poor script and loud spoofs
makes you want to get out of
the theatre. I GANEASH
This is what happens when
you think the Indian audience is going to digest any
stale cookie you throw at
them! Akshay has been hamming and churning out nonsense. I DANNY
A big letdown. No story. A
brainless script. An out-ofplace and low class humour.
I HEMA
This is one of the lousiest
movies in recent years. Farah
Khan has taken the public for
granted. I S BALASUBRAMANIAM
‘No plot combined with a
poor script and loud
spoofs makes you want
to get out of the theater...’
One of the worst movies.
Don't waste your time and
money seeing on this movie.
It's worthless! I DEB
This was really a disaster.
Don't waste you money and
time to watch this silly movie.
I PUNEET
Tees Maar Khan is a disastrous movie. It's a total waste
of time and money. I SURESH
For the dumb lot
The film-makers have made
this film with the basic premise that the audience is brain
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STRIKING THE RIGHT NOTE: Children at Aditi Shah’s Musical Bonding class
Y
Meher Marfatia
ou could trip over the
shiny row of buckles and
bows, too tiny to spot at
first. Like something in
Alice in Wonderland’s surreal opening sequence, the smallest fist-sized
shoes colourfully line the entrance
to a room from where baby lisps
and catchy tunes waft out.
Enter Aditi Shah’s Musical
Bonding class to meet the
footwear’s elfin owners, happily engrossed in a flurry of ringing, clanging and tapping to beats from “instruments” no bigger than their
pudgy little hands. Egg shakers,
ribbon sticks, miniature castanets
and palmtop tambourines strike
raw chords as reedy toddler voices
try the notes and words of ageless
melodies. All this from a parent’s
cocooned lap or a comforting distance of a foot.
If the enthusiasm at a Musical
Bonding session is infectious, so is
its basic premise: that imaginatively strung together music and
movement can unite a fledgeling
family in a holistic way. Personally powered by this belief, Shah, an
architect and mother of two toddlers, creates an intimate group dynamic at her suburban centres.
Kids between the ages of six
months and five years gently find
their own level of rhythm and pitch,
teaming musical aptitude with
physical coordination. No maids
are allowed; it’s parents and grandparents who bring and bond with
their kids, says Shah.
Hitting the scales with equal harmony, innocence meets innovation
as kids revel in a warble-and-whirl
routine at Priyanka Seth Pandit’s
midtown workshops called Music
Together. The synchronicity is rooted in a basic philosophy: all children are born musical. Pioneered
in Princeton, New Jersey, this caters
MUMBAI
FOR KIDS
to a mixed age group, engaging newborns to five-year-olds.
The universally recognized music and movement approach to nurturing childhood musical intelligence is supported by handpicked,
dedicated teachers who have formal training in either western or
Indian classical music. Once smitten by Music Together, its followers trigger off a whole family sensory experience which builds stores
of visual, verbal, linguistic, mathematical and spatial intelligence.
Almost 20 years before either of
these programmes took root here,
Banoo Jasubhoy introduced the city
to Fit Kid and then Fit Tot. Of these,
the latter, a physical play programme involved close parental involvement with a strong emphasis
on movement to music. Fit Tot has
since evolved, adapting a combine
of internationally practised models
to present three types of age-specific classes. Fit Tot’s Diaper Gym,
for babies from seven months to
walking age, provides them with
special equipment to explore as they
move to the beat of very simple
songs and rhymes. Then, Fit Tot energises young tykes by challenging
them to balance on beams, climb
ropes, sing on trampolines and
move in a variety of ways to peppy
music. Finally, a Play and Learn Activity Hour includes action songs
like “Wake up, warm up, clap your
hands”, musical instruments and
puppets to coax broad motor and
mental core skills into full bloom.
Jasubhoy ensures that each song
has a concept attached to it with a
matching exercise. This could be a
discovery of human body parts, the
insect world or language expression. “Our aim is ‘Activate to Educate,” she points out. “Everyone is
a winner at Fit Tot.”
Fit
Kid
Fun
Factory:
9820937904/9870058590
Music Together:9833115370
Musical Bonding: 9769910499