Here’s an intriguing thought for a country that takes its gongs and awards, Padmas and pastries a wee bit too seriously – have a gala night with all the pomp, panache and pageantry, minus the prize distribution that’s losing its pizzazz. In other words, have an evening of full-blown glamour with A-listers in the performative and celebratory arts gather in all their spectacular spectacle under one vaunted roof over cocktails and a baingan bruschetta-kickstarted dinner. No speeches. No prizes. No ‘Thank you, sir’. And no politicians except, like all those not on ‘the list’ – at most 100 people whose day job is in the glamour industry – they will pay for their supper plates.
It’s not as if it’s an alien concept. The annual Met Gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York organised by Vogue magazine, for instance, is one of the cultural events on the planet. Sans any vestigial devices like awards, it arguably tops the annual Oscars in classy quotient. Having a ‘pure’ carnival of classiness is something that may take some time to gain traction here in utilitarian India that is, by nature, always looking out for ‘mileage kitni deti hai?’ angles. But once it’s up and running, it will be a ‘thing’ that can, by the sheer power of spectacle, change the way the world still sees India and its elite.
