It seems obvious that ‘the city that never sleeps’ would have a pretty wild party scene. Of course we’re not here to state the obvious! For a real insider’s view on where to party in Mumbai, read on. You’ll be happy to note that you don’t have to wait for the weekend to let your hair down in Maximum City. You can find the coolest parties around you with a little help from us (so keep reading) and party like a boss with your buddies any night of the week — fully Mumbai-ishtyle.

Party responsibly, have fun and be sure to thank us in the comments section later!

MONDAY AND THURSDAY: KARAOKE NIGHT AT THREE WISE MEN

If your Monday blues need something stronger than EDM to be jostled out of the weekend slump, head on over to this rocking resto-bar. Here karaoke provides the perfect excuse for partygoers to make complete fools of themselves — and have a ball doing it! Three Wise Men, the popular watering hole at Santacruz that reopened earlier this year after extensive renovation, hosts two karaoke nights every week. Their earlier English pub decor has made way for a Mexican theme with bullfighting artwork on the walls and a fun menu of empanadas, fajitas and burritos, which (surprisingly) makes for the perfect canvas to belt out ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ or ‘Pretty Woman’ without a care in the world! But it’s on Thursday that the party really gets kicking, with everyone from media professionals and smart phone-addicted adults taking to the mic to sing retro Bollywood tunes. One ‘Jumma Chumma De De’ that gets the house on its feet with rousing thumkas and you’ll be christened ‘party boss’ for the entire month!

Looking for karaoke hot-spots in Karnataka’s capital? Click here for Bangalore’s best karaoke bars.

TUESDAY: LADIES NIGHT AT BORA BORA

Rumours on the fortitude of the fairer sex might be misplaced when it comes to Mumbai’s easy-going but (easily) overworked women. If you’re already checking the calendar for an opportunity to unwind as soon as the week begins, round up your gal pals and head to Bora Bora in Andheri West. The contemporary music tavern and video lounge is earthy, with an easy-breezy vibe — just right to rally your spirits for a tough week ahead. Ladies Night on Tuesday means free sangrias and cocktails — capped at four glasses per person — to pair with a round or three of tapas, over gossip and giggles. Their video jockey can be counted on to set the mood with a mix of commercial, house and retro tracks to keep everyone in your squad engaged. You get even luckier if it’s a game night, with the wide screens making for a super lively experience, designed for rambunctious catcalling of Pique, Ronaldo and other fine specimens from the sports world. Overall, given the relaxed atmosphere, you may just feel like you were chilling out on the eponymous Tahitian island!

THURSDAY: TGIT BAR NIGHTS AT OLIVE BAR & KITCHEN

It has been over two decades since restaurateur AD Singh brought the concept of casual Mediterranean dining to Bandra. Even as his company went on to launch 25 hip restaurants and gastro pubs across India, its flagship — previously featured in Condé Nast Traveller amongst the best new restaurants in the world — is far from losing steam. It has become an all-day city landmark that continues to attract happy, shiny people all week; including models, cricketing icons and the who’s who of Bollywood. Needless to say, it’s the place to be seen all week too, but your best bet to make a splash is ‘Thank God It’s Thursday’ Bar Nights, when the tempo reaches a crescendo, keeping the paparazzi buzzing outside the eatery’s whitewashed walls and blue doors all night. The playlist is infectious, the dance floor is electric, the mood is celebratory and the fashion is top notch without trying too hard. Hang out by the pond near the entrance and you may witness a Bollywood bromance blossoming or, better still, bump into Kareena Kapoor Khan with her squad, air kissing Manish Malhotra before calling it a (fabulously starry) night.

FRIDAY: RETRO NIGHT AT SHIRO

Keep those polka-dotted bell bottoms and shoulder padded shirts ready — if it’s Friday night, you have to go where the Buddha gets his boogie on! Shiro’s plush 4,000 square foot space in upmarket Worli — tastefully decorated with glowing lanterns, looming stone statues, gurgling water pools and a Zen feel — may not seem like the place for free-spirited baby boomers at heart. But put on a pair of sequinned pedal pushers, land up on Friday night and you’ll feel the buzz within the high ceilinged lounge of this very popular pan-Asian bar-restaurant. The city’s coolest kids, otherwise given to lounging with a cocktail and some sushi on the low-slung seating, are on their feet swinging to groovy tunes from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. The entire split-level space reverberates with nostalgia, with evergreen hit makers like ABBA, The Bangles and Kylie Minogue on top of their game. Whisk your date off the dance floor for a round of Shiro’s famous crispy aromatic duck and wasabi prawns, but be back before thrilling tunes from Michael Jackson start to amp up the action.

SUNDAY: BRUNCH AT BREWBOT

If you need a suburban cure for a Saturday hangover, there’s no place better than this eatery and pub brewery: the curiously-named Brewbot at Andheri. Well known in a short time for its fine selection of German wheat beers and American pale ale, the Brewbot brunch aims to get you in shape for another week of nights about town. Pour yourself a mug of their Kölsch Skywalker or Hefeweizen style Floating Head, or ask for a Guava Spicy Mary, before lunging for the food (which is fabulous). The casual and cavernous grunge décor — designed by award-winning Busride Design Studio — features exposed brick walls and gleaming gigantic steel brewing vats, leading to an al fresco area. A long community table is ideal for large groups to laze over pizzas, pasta, ravioli and a robust selection of burgers and sandwiches (read our top tips to host a hassle-free private party at venues like this). Raid the bakery and charcuterie bar for creamy tarts, pies and desserts (the Trio of Panna Cotta is a house favourite), before refilling your mugs again and raising a toast to a week well spent.

Image Credits: identity-mag; olivebarandkitchen; bingehour; theblacksakura

Looking for something exciting to do at lunchtime? Here are five new restaurants in Mumbai you have to try now!

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You may know him as Varun Thakur or his alter-ego Vicky Malhotra, but if you are a fan of stand-up comedy in India, there’s no way this funnyman could be a stranger to you. “M’self Vicky M’lhotra, but you can call me Rocky,” he smirks, in a comedy set from 2016 that has since spiralled into a viral phenomenon and is currently sitting pretty on YouTube with over 2 million views.

Credit this success to his scintillating observational skills and bang-on comic timing, but Varun Thakur’s got something else going for him. We think it’s the whole ‘boy-next-door’ thing and for Mumbaikars, he’s literally that: a Maharashtrian-Sindhi hybrid from the filmiest of Mumbai’s suburbs — Andheri. It should come as no surprise then that Varun has the city’s varied and colourful imports down pat, besides an extraordinary Nana Patekar impression in his arsenal.

Here’s a guy who exemplifies the adage ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,’ and it is this very ability that appears to have endeared him to legions of fans. Happy to be sharing the stand-up comedy boom in India with the likes of Atul Khatri and Angad Singh Ranyal, here’s the lowdown on Varun Thakur — indisputably one of the most popular comedians in the country today.

MILKING THE GOOD (LOKHANDWALA) LIFE

In a country where almost everyone secretly aspires to be a Bollywood star at some point in life, Thakur’s resume is tailor-made for gags that crack up full houses. His journey is sufficiently non-linear; interesting, yet identifiable. Shunning his dad’s business for a BMM in advertising from Jai Hind College, he put in four years script writing for TV channels. He later went to the University of Bristol for a Masters in filmmaking, returning to Mumbai armed with dreams of becoming an actor. The inevitable round of photo sessions and auditions followed; a journey that thousands go through and which is depicted in his stand-up routines with hilarious accuracy. Thakur is endearingly candid — following up his punch lines with his own giggles before the audience can follow — and strikes an instant chord, even if you haven’t hung out at ‘Sisidi’ (that’s ‘Café Coffee Day’ for the uninitiated) way more than you should. From auditioning for a eunuch’s role in Agneepath (the new one) to his world-famous 15 second cameo in Jab Tak Hai Jaan — which his mother says ‘also stars Shah Rukh Khan’ — his chronicles from a short-lived actor’s life are rib-tickling and bordering on the tragic-comic, sans the pathos. This 30-year-old curly-haired comic keeps things light and rarely gets bitter or prone to rants, but acting and comedy aside, Varun is undeniably a fine editor of his own work. Sample this for brevity: “I am a method actor. I only do one movie a year… The one movie I get, I do it.” That’s the sort of humour we like: no-frills, straightforward and spot on!

A HA-HA-HARD DAY’S WORK

He may crack one wise one too many at the expense of the Maharashtrian gym trainer and have the room sniggering at the foibles of everyone from his parents to girlfriends, but this funnyman is anything but another good-looking slacker, scribbling jokes and flirting all day at ‘Sisidi’. For a self-confessed “accidental comedian” — he won Vir Das’s open mike night in 2010 — Thakur has carved a solid career on the comedy scene in India. He’s the co-founder of Schitzengiggles (SnG), a comedy collective specialising in stand-up, improv and sketch comedy, which has garnered over 5,50,000 subscribers and 61 million views. While they’ve opted to be identified by the company name ‘Schitzengiggles’ (say it out loud to figure it out; apparently it means doing something for the fun of it), Thakur and his irreverent band of boys (including co-founder Karan Talwar, Neville Shah and Aadar Malik) can hardly be described as professionally nonchalant. Varun admits to logging between three to nine months for an hour’s worth of stand-up gold — and this work ethic stands him in good stead. When he isn’t unleashing viral content — Gore Gote, a testicular cream advert he starred in, was a whip-smart parody on India’s obsession with fair (ahem) skin —  Thakur is much in demand on the corporate circuit, regaling work-weary executives with his breezy brand of laughs. He’s also found time to anchor shows on MTV, MTV Indies, UTV Bindaas, Hotstar and Radio Mirchi. “A genuine fascination for making people laugh, a slight bit of intrinsic humour and lots of hard work is what makes a comedian. Continuous improvisation and re-inventing is mandatory to avoid a state of stagnancy,” he says.

BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE

It takes a certain amount of talent — and decent writing skills — to stretch a popular character from a one-hour stand-up routine into an independent series. Thakur has successfully managed to branch his Vicky Malhotra alter-ego into wildly popular Snapchat stories and Facebook feeds. Daily situations between Malhotra and a cast of random characters (from his dad and casting agent to a certain Nargis Fakhri), are sending netizens into fits of guffaws; even if the struggling actor (Malhotra, that is) is obnoxiously sexist. It’s the kind of personal comedy that Thakur adores sharing with his audience. It is also to his credit that Thakur’s own good-boy image doesn’t blend into Malhotra’s dim-witted character in the ‘Vicky This Side, Varun That Side’ vines. The occasional offending missile is couched in a disarming grin and another self-depreciating dig — and you’re hooked. Of course, then he goes and Instagrams a picture of himself shaking a leg with renegade-du-jour Kangana Ranaut in a song sequence in the upcoming film, Simran. With his good looks (Cyrus Sahukarcalls another artiste the George Clooney of comedy though), great sense of humour, infectious energy and a presence in the right place at the right time, it is really difficult not to fall for this funny guy.

Varun will host Black Dog Easy Evenings in Mumbai on November 10 and in Pune on November 11, 2017. Save the date!

Image Credits: youtube.com; navhindtimes.in; eventshigh.com; twitter.com

Want to unwind with something other than comedy? Check out these 5 new restaurants in Mumbai now!

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VARUN THAKUR WILL HAVE YOU ROTFL. HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HIM!

“I would want to be a vacuum cleaner. If I could be a vacuum cleaner, I’ll just suck out all the dirt. Like it annoys me when I see like litter and you know generally dirt. It really bothers me. I try and keep my surroundings clean but sometimes I wish when I am driving somewhere and I wish there would be a big machine that would suck up everything in one go and everything is pretty and clean,” confessed the Padmavati actress during a Facebook live session.

And trust us she was not being funny at all.

Deepika has an OCD about cleaning, she said in one of her interviews, “I am cleanliness freak I have an OCD about cleaning. I start cleaning everything if see a messy place. I have even cleaned public toilets.” Woah! Ain’t she a perfect candidate to endorse the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?’

Meanwhile, the gorgeous gal has just finished shooting for her portion of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus Padmavati and is romancing her pause (Supposedly, with her rumoured beau – Ranveer Singh) in her favourite city – London.

Stay tuned for more updates on her holiday.  

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We have witnessed many crime dramas and gangster films inspired/based on real-life dons, however, barring the Marathi film Daagdi Chawl, none of the filmmakers had explored the life of one of Mumbai’s most feared don – Arun Gulab Gawli. And now, finally we have one film that closely and boldly looks at the life of this reluctant gangster-turned-politician, which itself is a reason enough to go hit the cinema halls.

Directed by Ashim Ahluwalia, whose last feature film Miss Lovely was premiered at Cannes Film Festival, and featuring a stellar ensemble cast with Arjun Rampal, who has also co-written the film with Ashim, portraying Arun Gawli, Daddy is not flawless, but certainly worth a dekho.

Here are 6 reasons why you should venture into cinema halls this weekend to watch Daddy…

1) No Glamorization 
Bollywood is often blamed for glamorizing crime in its film. In fact, most gangster films churned out of Bollywood are larger-than-life that often show this anti-hero as some kind of messiah, making us condone all their bad deeds. However, director Ashim Ahluwalia plays bold and portrays Arun Gawli onscreen just the way he is - complete with all his flaws and goodness. This aspect of the film makes it all the more appealing.

2) The Execution
The film not only masterfully captures the various eras but also presents a sense of realism through each frame. Kudos to director Ashim and his excellent DoP Jessica Lee Gagne. Daddy is largely shot at real locations and smallest details have been taken care of. Furthermore, it is never easy to put together the vast life of man in a runtime of 135 minutes, but through its non-linear screenplay the film highlights key turning points of Arun Gawli’s life and presents us with an engaging gritty drama that holds our interest from start to end.

3) Arjun Rampal
This undoubtedly is Arjun Rampal’s career best performance. The National Award-Winning actor has put his heart and soul to portray the dreaded gangster of Mumbai. Not only is he looking like Arun Gawli (courtesy the prosthetic nose), but Arjun has also mastered Arun’s mannerism and talking style. His transformation from the quite reluctant lad who is involved in petty crimes to being reluctantly dragged into the ruthless underworld and making his own gang is noteworthy. The actor’s bold move to leave his comfort zone and play a character like this has paid off. There are several layers to his portrayal and Arjun is a delight to watch.

4) Farhan Akhtar
Yes, the film also stars yet another stellar actor – Farhan Akhtar. Farhan is playing Maqsood in the film, a character based on Mumbai’s most wanted don – Dawood Ibrahim and nails his part with aplomb.

5) The Supporting Cast
Most films often focus on its central character; however, the supporting cast of Daddy adds a certain flavour to the film. With the likes of South Indian actress Aishwarya Rajesh, director-turned-actor Nishikant Kamath, renowned Marathi cinema actors like Anand Ingale, Rajesh Shringarpure, Shrikant Yadav, the film is packed with some really powerful performances.

6) Never-Seen-Before Glimpses Of Mumbai
One has often seen Mumbai as the financial, commercial and entertainment hub of India with tall-towering buildings all around. However, director Ashim Ahluwalia takes us to the grungiest lanes of Mumbai of the 70s, 80s, and 90s and gives us some never-seen-before glimpses of the city.  

Last word: Daddy is not your typical Bollywood affair, but it brilliantly captures the life of Arun Gawli and keeps you engaged throughout. Go for it!

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Life is not measured in minutes, hours, days or months. Instead, it is measured in the friends you make. At LiveInStyle, we believe in the best bonds with your friends!

While each friend of yours adds a different colour to your life, there is one friend who paints your life like a complete rainbow. That is your best friend. Not just in the brightest moments of your life, best friends are with you in the darkest ones too only to laugh with you as you recall those later.

Such a beautifully crazy bond needs to be celebrated. Buying presents for a woman is relatively easy but buying presents for men is a task. Those who have a guy best friend will relate to this. So to ease the process for you, we are going to help you out with a list of best personalised gifts.

1) Personalised cushions- After a long day when he falls on his cushion it should remind him of you so that it brings a smile on his face even if he’s having a bad day. So get him a personalised cushion with a funny quote or a funny picture of you both. It can be one of the best presents for him.

2) Personalised Whiskey - Best conversations between besties take place over Whiskey. So get a bottle of Johnnie Walker Whiskey set personalised for him. You can get the name of your BFF printed on the bottle along with any other funny quote you both can relate to

3) Personalised phone covers-  Phones are the most flaunted gadgets these days. So phone covers are the perfect presents for a man.Gift him a phone cover and show off your love for your best friend to the world.

4) Personalised calendar- A mentor is the best friend anyone can have. Not only you learn a lot from him but he saves you when you mess up. It's important to keep dates in mind. So a personalised calendar work as perfect presents for your buddy. Add pictures of the best moments of you had on each page.

5) Personalised t shirt- Choose a quote that best describes your best friend and get it printed on a t shirt and there, you have a personalised t shirt. Watch him flaunt his personality as he walks around the town in style.

6) Personalised keychain - You can’t get much printed on a keychain but just the initials of your buddy’s name would make a simple keychain, one of the best presents for a man.

7) Personalised mug- The classic mug works as a great present for a man. Just add your personal touch to it by getting a crazy picture of your best friend printed on it and transforming a simple mug into a personalised mug.

8) Personalised mouse pad- If you want your buddy to think of you all day then gift him a personalised mouse pad since most of the people uses their laptop/computers for the most part of the day. Never let him have a moment of peace and buy this present for him.

 9) Personalised wallet- You’re lucky if your father is your best friend After all who better than your own father to share the best and the worst moments of your life with. But what can be great presents for a fifty-year-old man? Well, a personalised wallet sounds perfect. It would be nice to give him something to keep his money safe because if he loses it how will you borrow it?

10) A personalised holder- You’ll have to make this yourself. Get some good wood, carve it with some crafty stuff. You can learn how to make a personalised holder from tons of DIYs on the web. Scribble nice messages for your buddy on the holder too.

Tired of biting your nails? You're not alone—the issue is more common than you think. Whether the cause lies in anxiety or boredom for you, Dermelect's latest launch might be able to help you stop once and for all.

The skin and nail care brand will be launching their Resist Nail Bite Inhibitor + Restorative Treatment in early September, which may look like your traditional clear top coat, but is actually infused with an ingredient that gives off a bitter taste on contact with your mouth. "By leaving an awful taste in your mouth, you're going to want to stop biting," says celebrity manicurist Rachel Shim. "The product allows you to reign in the nervous tendency, while repairing and restoring the damaged nail."

In true Dermelect fashion, the formula is infused with a side of good-for-you ingredients to help strengthen your nails. It can be used either as a base or top coat, and should be changed out every few days to ensure it stays fresh. Simply apply one to two coats, then allow the clear lacquer to dry completely.

In addition to the treatment, Shim also offered up a few more helpful tips to stop biting your nails—trim them short, use cuticle oil to keep them from peeling or flaking, and most importantly, try to identify where and why the habit started in the first place. "Spend a little alone time with yourself to try and pinpoint the reason behind your nail biting," she advises. "You will be able to more effectively deal with this problem once you are able to identify the reason behind the nail biting." 

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