The year 2024 became the year of gawking. Never before in the history of India have people sat down on their phones and watched reel by reel of The Great Indian Wedding. The country’s collective concentration on the Ambani wedding, the festivities between Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant and Mumbai girl Radhika Merchant, almost reminds us of India sitting down, ear to the radio, listening to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Freedom at Midnight’ speech. So attentive we were, absolutely dumbfounded at how much dough-to-dazzle was at hand in India.
The nearly six-month-long festivities began pre-wedding in January with a galaxy of Bollywood movie stars packed in what looked like a picnic bus. Rihanna performed on stage wearing a parrot-coloured Manish Malhotra (and that wasn’t her only faux pas) and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates wore kurtas. Then a European Cruise party where Katy Perry danced and an Italian village was trashed. And finally, a weekend of festivities where Justin Bieber turned private dancer, Kim Kardashian shot for her reality show and more global leaders showed up than at the United Nations.
The razzle-dazzle of film stars was such that all the awards functions decided to stay put this year, none could outnumber the celebrity attendance. Heck, even Bollywood decided to take a gap year and churned out mediocre film after shoddy film.
Shalini Passi | Instagram@shalini.passi
The few watchable films could be counted on one hand. I personally loved Amar Singh Chamkila as much for Diljit Dosanjh as for Imtiaz Ali’s storytelling. Laapataa Ladies and Crew were delightful, and Stree 2 was actually terrible, but they heralded a year of women in cinema.
The year would also be known for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s OTT debut. Heeramandi was poetic, pulchritudinous and passionate, and gave us mesmerising nawabi fashions. The biggest OTT debut of the year, however, went to the cinematic adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. I thought I would hate it and be loyal instead to the world’s greatest novel; but the series made me fall in love again.
Can we speak of OTT and not speak of the new national obsession that is Shalini Passi? This modern-day wellness guru, an unintentional win of Dharma Production’s Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, stole the season. Passi, an art aficionado known for her eccentric fashion game, has become the poster girl of the keep-calm-and-love-yourself tribe. We ain’t complaining, she is an authentic sweetheart.
Another successful fashion outlier is Nancy Tyagi, a DIY Instagram sensation who went to the Cannes red carpet in a dress she made herself on her sewing machine. Does anything else say ‘India is amazing’ better than this?
The rest of the world, fatigued with yet another war, genocide and land-grab in the name of religion, struggled to find its feet. Luxury fashion marked its greatest economic slowdown since the recession with major fashion businesses reporting losses. Taylor Swift saved Europe from drowning with the crazy attendance at her concerts there. Sonam Kapoor became Dior’s global brand ambassador in possibly the quietest and most lacklustre debut ever; no magazine covers or international appearances as yet. Dior may not be Louis Vuitton and Sonam is not Deepika Padukone, so maybe an appearance at the Oscars is not happening.
Let’s just be glad that 2024 is over. That the films and the fashion have not engaged us as they have before. That everyone needed a refocus, refresh and a restart. And let that be the lesson of 2025—take a break, and return in power.
@namratazakaria