The Naaz cinema building at Lamington Road was the centre of Bollywood once upon a time. Several film financiers, exhibitors and producers had their offices in the multi-storied building next to Imperial and Super cinemas. Crores of rupees changed hands in a secure environment. Over the years, producers like BR Chopra, Yash Chopra, etc opened offices in Juhu and other western suburbs to be closer to their bungalows. The Covid led to the shutdown of the Naaz building, among others. Even after the virus exited, film folks never reopened their Naaz offices. Noted film critic Amod Mehra, who is known for calling a spade a spade and his huge integrity, has now appealed to them to come back to Naaz, which was where hundreds of hit and not-so-hit films were incubated. Mehra still enjoys enormous respect in the industry and I won't be surprised if Naaz is abuzz again.
In the police’s absence, visitors seen entering sea near Girgaon Chowpatty during high tides | Vijay Gohil
Where Love Was Once In The Air
Talking of Naaz, there is another Naaz which was famous in the not so distant past. I am talking of Cafe Naaz perched atop Malabar Hill among the rain trees. It was an open air cafe hugely popular with cootchiecooing couples. You could hug and kiss your girl bindass without anyone batting an eyelid. There was nothing great about the food which comprised samosas, sandwiches, ice cream sodas and chai. However, the USP was the sweeping view of the Arabian Sea underneath and, of course, the privacy. You could sit for hours holding the hands of your beau without the waiter asking you to 'khali karo' the table. Long ago the place shut down for no particular reason. The breaking news, courtesy my colleague, Devashri, is that the BMC has invited bids for running a restaurant where once Cafe Naaz stood like a sentinel witnessing hearts bloom.
A New Sweet Spot
Most unobtrusively, a chain of shops retailing good quality sweets and farsan have entered Mumbai's foodscape. I am talking about 'Aavarya' which has 13 air-conditioned outlets across the city and suburbs. The range and quality is consistently amazing, the prices wallet-friendly and the service quite efficient. You have plain dhoklas, tiranga dhoklas, cheese dhoklas, idadas, khandvis, jalebis, fafdas, moong chaklis, chorafali khakras, mobile masala khakras, pedas, rasmalais, Kolhapuri chivdas, etc. They are all made at a central kitchen at Mahape and transported fresh to the outlets. The secret of success is stringent quality control at every stage. Check out!
Tailpiece
Why did the tomato blush? Well, it saw the salad dressing!
(Compiled by S Balakrishnan)
