How Well Do You Know Mumbai?. Review on Time Out

Having a good time in Mumbai was always such a bother. There was always something to do, some place to see. And yet, if you were not privy to that information, you’d probably never know. How well can you say that you know your city – its history-its geography-its culture-its ethnicity-its diversity – indeed, how well did you know it at all?

TIME-OUT MUMBAI, a Paprika Media Presentation, is an offshoot of the very popular leisure and listings magazine, TIME OUT London, and is edited by Naresh Fernandes.

For long, there was a dearth of content on the Arts (both Fine Arts and Performing Arts), both on the local scene, and internationally. Today, Time Out brings you all the information that could probably handle-on TV shows-movies-books-food-local events-Mumbai nightlife-arty events (that includes dance, music, theater et al)-all under a hundred pages.

Back in the 90s, when you wanted to know about contemporary movies or TV shows (English ones, that is), you had to walk the stretch from Churchgate Stn. to Flora Fountain and pray you found some Londoner or Aussie listing guide that gave you a synopsis of the happening shows we’d probably see 4 seasons later. TIME still carried movie reviews, but a first-hand copy was too damn expensive (it still is). Fine Arts and Performing Arts never had a ‘voice’, and even if it did it was never popular enough to find newer audiences other than the graying old ladies of Colaba and Altamount Road and the corporate baldies.

What magazines like Savvy, Upper Crust, IAGT, Man’s World, Femina, JAM, JLT or TV World do separately, Time Out does all at once. And what’s more, does a better job at it.

The first issue came out on September 9 (a Thursday). And it is a fortnightly. And it would be fair to say that it is the listing magazine of the city, affordably priced at Rs. 25. Actually, it is much more than that.

It actually lends a voice to the crowds that throng the ‘happening’ Mumbai joints. It is unabashedly, a magazine for the people with ‘deep pockets’, but it would be unfair not to add that the average Mumbai reader can also hope to find within its pages, something affordable to do. Hell, they even give out free movie tickets and other passes. They occasionally cover stories on Mumbai’s underprivileged underbelly.

The content and layout is remarkably unique. The cover page is surprisingly uncluttered. The pages worth reading most of all, are the CITYSCAPE pages of the section MUMBAI LOCAL. The OUT & ABOUT pages by Chetna Mahadik, is a refreshing change from everyday stories, as they get your attention to forgotten places in Mumbai. Then all the reviews and listings make for good reading too. Other than regular names like Jerry Pinto, Rahul Bose, Shanta Gokhale, and the vastly underrated Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre, one also comes across writers like Nandini Ramnath, Naresh Fernandes, Chetna Mahadik, Leo Mirani, Divia Thani-Daswani and CJ Kurrien who do justice to their respective beats. All stories are well researched. Also noteworthy is the fact that certain reviews have been culled from the Time Out London issue, ensuring that there is all-round finesse.

Now, nearing its 12th issue, it has lost none of its curiosity value, nor its audience base, nor its interest quotient, ‘if the letters to the editor’ page, LAST WORDS are to be believed.

It is very difficult to find that rare mix of a breed of writers and reviewers that hold your interest throughout. From issue to issue.

And TIME OUT MUMBAI has gone out and done just that.