Midas Touch Nepal: Touch of magic
Midas Touch Nepal, an at-home beauty service platform, was established in 2020, at a time salons and parlors were shut over the coronavirus threats.
It was the idea of Pooja Agrawal, a self-care enthusiast, who wanted to cater to young women like herself whose beauty and hair-care routines had been badly disrupted by the pandemic.
“I thought why not start a business that offers beauty salon services at home, allowing women the opportunity to pamper themselves even when salons and parlors were closed,” says Agrawal.
So Agrawal started the business with fellow co-founder Sushmita Gautam.
In the initial days, Midas Touch only offered hair-care service to its clients. It started nail, makeup and skincare services when the business started gaining in popularity.
“As we started during the pandemic, many people were hesitant to try our at-home beauty services. For the first two months, we didn’t have much success getting clients,” says Agrawal. “But over time, after getting to know our process, more people started scheduling appointments with us.”
Midas Touch is an all-female business, from its two co-founders to its team of beauticians or the ‘Touch Gurus’.
The services offered by Midas Touch have come as a great relief for the women who are still uncertain about visiting beauty salons.
Agrawal says their rates are comparable to the charges of most other beauty establishments in the city.
As Midas Touch is gaining traction among women seeking affordable and convenient beauty solutions from the comfort of their homes, the company is planning to expand.
“We plan to go to other parts of Nepal and also launch our own organic beauty product line,” says Agrawal.
Name: Midas Touch Nepal
Establishment year: 2020
Co-founders: Pooja Agrawal & Sushmita Gautam
Service location: Kathmandu valley
Price: varies depending on the service
Contact: 9801822854
Website: https://www.midastouchnepal.com/
‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ movie review: The perfect tribute to a musical genius
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ is a musical about a man writing a musical. If you are interested in Broadway, the name Jonathan David Larson would be a familiar ring to your ears. In the movie set in 1990s New York, the dream city for a theater wannabe, Larson–played with kinetic desperation by Andrew Garfield–struggles to craft a successful career out of his passion for musical theater.
The movie is an adaptation of Larson’s semi-autobiographical piece ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ (1990) about a young composer determined to make something great out of his youth as the clock tick-tocks to his 30th birthday. It takes us back to the time Larson was working on ‘Superbia’, a dystopian, futuristic sci-fi musical which he thought was his big break.
As the movie progresses, we find the protagonist juggling between preparing for his first public presentation of ‘Superbia’ in front of NYC’s finest producers, his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) asking if she should accept a job away in the Berkshires, and his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús) of 22 years being diagnosed with AIDS, a common cause of death at the time. With the world turned into a ticking time bomb, Larson struggles to manage all this emotional and physical bagagge simultaneously in the hope of not ‘blowing up’ his career and relationships.
Working at a SoHo diner as he nears the age of 30–with an agent (Judith Light) who doesn’t return his calls and a mentor, Stephen Sondheim (played by Bradley Whitford) who believes and supports his talent–Garfield puts up a compassionate performance and displays spectacular musical shows as he full-heartedly morphs into the character of Jon.
Also read: ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ movie review: Bollywood grapples with new sexual identities—and how!
His is a masterful portrayal of the desperation and dedication of a theatrical writer–incredibly charming and always looking out for creative inspiration but also on the verge of exhaustion in a secluded world. Though the fast-paced movie starts cheerful at the beginning, it gradually reveals Larson’s vainer and more helpless side. The contrast between the merry and melancholic is perfectly captured in the musical number ‘Why’, when Garfield travels back in time.
Anyone familiar with Jonathan Larson’s life would know this is a heart-wrenching musical. The hero doesn’t get a happy ending. Larson passed away, aged 35, the night before the off-Broadway preview of his rock musical Rent (1996), and never got to experience his own success. Interestingly, when he started writing ‘tick, tick…BOOM!’ he was still lamenting the rejection of Superbia, contemplating the passage of time when he had no idea his own life would end in a few years. This is where, in the movie, director Miranda uses his hindsight to open up new pathways, when Jon thought it was a dead end.
‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ isn’t about success and failure but about the peaks and pitfalls that accompany the pursuit of your passion. Packed with energetic and poignant musical pieces that unfold in a solemn yet realistic storyline, the mood in this musical is constantly changing. It is a tribute and a token of gratitude to, as Larson puts it, a diminishing species – writers and composers of musical theaters. It also serves as a reminder that entering your 30s doesn’t necessarily mean you are past your best.
Tick, Tick... Boom!
Actors: Andrew Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús
Genre: musical, biography, drama
Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Run time: 1 hour 55 minutes
Rating: 4 stars
‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ movie review: Bollywood grapples with new sexual identities—and how!
Although the freedom to express one’s sexuality has for years been legal in India, mainstream Indian cinema continues to mostly focus on the stereotypical hetero-normative couples who end up getting married and live happily ever after. Directed by Abhishek Kapoor, ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ is an unconventional love story between bodybuilder Manvinder Munjal aka Manu (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Zumba teacher Manvi Brar (Vaani Kapoor). The audience can sense a chemistry between the two from the time they first meet and, as anticipated, a passionate and intimate relationship ensues.
Gradually the mere lust and attraction turns into love. However, Manvi’s revelation that she is a trans-woman leads Manu into a state of confusion and denial: how can he have feelings for a ‘man’? Brought up in a typical loud patriarchal Punjabi family and with a government school background, Manu struggles to accept that love transcends gender, norms, bodies and societal validation. Instead of beating around the bush, Kapoor reveals Manvi’s past in the beginning of the film itself which will have different reactions from the audience depending on their view about gender and sexuality. As this is a sensitive subject, the lead actors take great pains to internalize their character roles and display the right emotions.
Appreciably, Manvi’s struggles are shown to continue till the present day; Bollywood rarely centers stories on trans characters in a positive light. Although Brar comes from an economically well-off family, she still struggles to carve a space for herself in the society. With only her father (Kanwaljit Singh), a retired brigadier, accepting her true self, she goes through various hardships and heartbreaks, including getting secluded by her own family, even her mother. This also challenges the set social norms of masculinity. Despite being humiliated by everyone, Manvi continues to put up a strong front and doesn’t need an alpha male figure to save her honor. Vaani’s exceptional acting helps us understand her character’s backstory. It was a bold move on her part to play a trans woman as compared to her arm-candy characters in some of her earlier movies.
Also read: Kadaseela Biriyani movie review: Realistically brutal
The concept of what is ‘normal’ is also explored through the Munjal family. From Manu falling in love with an ‘original girl’, as his sisters (Tanya Abrol and Sawan Rupowali) put it, to his father (Girish Dhamija) being in an interfaith marriage, the protagonist is excluded from his own story.
Overall, the film genre shifts from comedy to rom-com to drama and finally ends with sports, grappling with various social biases all the way through, which keeps the audience hooked. Never does the story veer off track; it is quite fast-paced and manages to expertly highlight the difficulties faced by trans people. However, the story could be a little more realistic on how people navigate social biases over their gender identities and how they overcome and accept themselves.
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui is one step towards speaking openly about topics considered ‘taboo’ and also an eye opener for many.
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
Who should watch it?
The movie is rated 18+ and so it may not be suitable for the whole family to sit and watch together. Yet for anyone wanting to understand the problems being faced by the LGBTIQA+ community in this part of the world and to explore their own gender and sexual biases, this is a wonderful, refreshing watch.
