We're drinking our own wine, exporting Bollywood talent to Hollywood, throwing world-class conferences and indie music festivals -- 2010 was the year Mumbai began coming of age as a global culture capital. Read the full story on CNNGo.com here.
Best Drink: Café Goa's Feni margarita
Goa in a glass, this feni margarita seems to be made with two parts beach, one part sun and a dash of sea salt.
Dreamed up by ad exec and Café Goa owner Theron Carmine the cocktail is inspired by the popular Goan liquor and is not even on his restaurant's menu. It's served to those who know of this slushy secret, whispered in circles of regular patrons.
“This citric-sweet drink is a great chaser to food," says Carmine. "The perfect way to wash down spicy Goan sausages.”
Here’s how to make it: Put 30 ml. tequila, 15 ml. feni, raw cane sugar extract to taste, baby mint leaves, one tsp. lime juice and crushed ice in a blender. Pour into a margarita glass. Substitute tequila with white rum for a more chilled-out version.
Cafe Goa, Agnelo House, off St John Baptist Road, near Mount Mary Steps, Bandra (W), +91 (0) 22 6629 9167 / +91 99 2091 9110; www.cafegoabistro.com
Worst TV import: Pamela Anderson
Red hot lifeguard, sexy bodyguard, playmate: this is how India pictured Pamela Anderson before she made an appearance on national television. Clad in an Indian-print sarong, rolling chapattis and heaving her bosom to Bollywood songs on reality TV show Bigg Boss, Pam looked strange, haggard and utterly disinterested.
While the audience got nothing out of the Baywatch babe’s appearance, she reportedly made Rs 25 million for a three-day appearance and took the TV channel’s TRPs soaring.
Tabloids later reported that the star didn’t actually stay at the Bigg Boss house, but shacked up at a hotel nearby.
India’s always been a dumping ground for Hollywood has-beens, but this waste could have been better managed.
Best new entertainment venue: The Comedy Store
There’s carnage at The Comedy Store. Almost every night, as stand-up comics kill it, front-row hecklers show up to sacrifice themselves for the entertainment of others.
Launched in mid 2010, this UK-based house of laughs is teaching Mumbai not to take itself so seriously. For that, we're thankful. And also for giving us one more thing to do on a Saturday night and allowing us to drink inside an auditorium.
A band of visiting international comics and “local heroes” have worked hard at toughening up crowds, even taking down Bollywood celebrities such as Dino Morea, who laughed along.
Palladium Mall, level 3, High Street Phoenix, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel; (Comedy Store box office) +91 (0) 22 4348 5000, (Book My Show) +91 (0) 22 3989 5050.
Best art exhibit: Anish Kapoor
In spite of red gunk-firing cannons, this is one act we don’t want cleaned up in 2011.
In undoubtably the biggest art exhibit to hit the country this year, Mumbai-born, UK-based artist and sculptor supreme Anish Kapoor showed in India for the first time (simultaneously in Mumbai and Delhi). Among other displays were his famous "Shooting into the Corner" live installation, mirrored steel pieces and other wax works not for the "paint" hearted.
Fresh off a record-breaking show at London’s Royal Academy, Kapoor picked Bollywood’s iconic Mehboob Studio as his Mumbai venue.
If you’ve not yet visited, sign up for tours led by luminaries such as architect Bijoy Jain, cultural theorist Nancy Adajania and writer Aveek Sen. See schedule here.
Anish Kapoor Dilli, Mumbai, Mehboob Studios, 100 Hill Road, Bandra (W); +91 (0) 22 4020 3660/61/62/63. On till January 16 2011, open daily, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., free entry but a slot must be booked in advance via www.anishkapoorindia.com
Best conference: TED/INK
James Cameron, Matt Groening, Deepak Chopra, Anand Giridharadas -- with guests like these, Lavasa could be the new Beverly Hills.
The aforementioned luminaries joined other thinkers, artists and entrepreneurs at INK, a conference organized in association with TED (which has been particularly active in India recently), sharing ideas on everything from family connections to deep sea diving and cloud computing.
For more on the INK conference, click here.
Best government meddling: Checks on airfare
Kingfisher airlines boss Vijay Mallya might be crying murder, but those who don’t own a private plane can get behind Praful Patel’s contention that no commuter should have to pay last-minute fares of Rs 30,000 for a one-way flight from Mumbai to Delhi to see their mum on Diwali.
The Civil Aviation Minister kicked off a stormy debate on the role of government in regulating private enterprise by asserting that the government should step in and penalize airlines that hike their “spot prices” unreasonably, exploiting growing demand for air travel.
A record-breaking 49 lakh travelers flew within the country in November 2010.
If you find a surprisingly affordable holiday air ticket in 2011, you know who to thank. Government meddling. Yeah, for once.
Worst Diwali visitor: U.S. President Barack Obama
Speaking of Diwali ... here's a note to U.S. President Obama: if you want to make a billion dollar sale, try and warm up your customers rather than barricading them from their own city, especially on the biggest holiday of the year.
Diwali 2010 in Mumbai was a particularly somber affair with entire swaths of the city cordoned off, coconut trees stripped naked (for fear the fruit would fall on the President’s head) and already draconian laws regulating firecrackers tightened further.
The always charming president managed to thaw the ice a bit by engaging in candid “town hall” debate with students at St. Xavier’s College and announcing his support for India’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council. First Lady Michelle had everyone smiling when she joined a bunch of school kids in a koli dance.
Still, the city was largely underwhelmed by these holiday visitors.
Best music festival: Bacardi NH7 Weekender
Our little neighbor sure knows how to party large. Pune hosted the first Bacardi NH7 Weekender in early December, a three-day music fest that brought together all of the country’s best known indie artists and bands -- Pentagram, Zero, Indian Ocean, Shaa'ir + Func -- along with a sprinkle of international acts such as Asian Dub Foundation and Magic Numbers.
Special mention to Airport, who opened Day 2 of the festival and is our favorite Indian indie band of the year. (Watch this music video and find out why.)
Great weather, awesome music, and seamless organization by Martin Elbourne, who’s worked on Glastonbury and the Great Escape in the UK -- what more could Mumbai's music fans ask for? “Vampire Weekend,” replied one attendee.
Maybe next year.
Best new restaurant: Indigo Deli
In 2010, Mumbai’s culinary scene stretched in all kinds of new directions, with international chefs opening up big-budget restaurants and Michelin-starred prodigal sons returning home.
Tempted as we might be by the chocolate-rubbed baby back ribs at KOH or Ziya’s gold leaf chicken, we find ourselves returning most often to the comfort and familiarity of the new Indigo Deli at Palladium.
Springing off the success of the Colaba and Andheri branches, this Midtown outpost builds on the original menu with new additions (salmon burger, chili cheese toast, peanut butter and jelly French toast) and a larger, hipper space that is hopping even at midnight on a weekday.
Here, everyday, any day you’ll find time-obsessed Mumbaikars waiting forty minutes for a table.
If that’s not love, what is?
Palladium Mall, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel; +91 (0) 22 2498 6262; www.indigodeli.com
Best blog: The Vigil Idiot
How does a “badly illustrated web comic” with childlike drawings garner more than 6,000 fans and 2,000 Twitter followers? Go (stick) figure!
Twenty-two year old freelance writer Sahil Rizwan’s blog The Vigil Idiot does smart, laugh-out-loud reviews of Bollywood films through a picture blog.
Particularly funny is his comic strip on Himesh Reshammiya’s Kajraare. Our favorite blogwash of 2010.
Read the rest of the story on CNNGo.com
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