...The Diet Coke Femina Look of the Year show had it all
Cordelia Francis
THE winner is to be announced. The stage is set, all aplomb, with delicate, fluffy white feathers.
The ramp shooting forth projects the eagerness and anxiety we, the audience, are experiencing.
It is that time of the year when another beauty is awaiting to be announced at the Diet Coke
Femina Look of the Year1999.
The best of glamour, beauty and entertainment brush together, sparks fly, feathers quiver and 13
heartbeats pulsate in slim, lanky feminine frames.
The host of the evening, Cyrus Broacha, is joined by the judge of the evening, Massimo Redaelli, vice
president of the Elite Model Management Corporation.
The card is extracted: 'And the winner is... Karishma Modi'.
Oohs, ahs, victory, smiles, thrills, spills and the beaming 18-year-old, holding aloft the coveted trophy, is led
towards her spanking new Maruti Zen, among numerous other prizes.
Karishma is the new face and bod that will represent India at the Elite Model Look Contest 1999 to be held at
Nice, France.
TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING
In his inimitable fashion, the host, VJ Cyrus Broacha sprinkled the show with his humorous off-the-cuff
comments. The theme East meets West brought together the likes of Trilok Gurtu, who opened the show with a
blend of exotic disparates of jazz, rock and Indian classical.
Adding a powerful performance was Angelique Kidjo, world music's hottest and highest paid performer.
Thumri exponent Shobha Gurtu delighted the audience with Hindustani music. The sheer happiness of mother
and son playing together was all too evident in their music.
Fusion music gave way to the first round of beauties.
Dressed in minimalist blackbeachwear, the girls sashayed down the ramp.
The Swimwear Round
From music and beauty followed dance. Celebrating feminine power was the dance sequence, Shakti.
Choreographed by Bharat Natyam dancer Rukmini Chatterjee, this hi-energy performance visualised the
transformation of Shakti through African dance performed by Mamy-Watah; South American dance by
Nadege Beausson-Diagne; classical European dance by Cecile Lehn and Indianclassical dance by Rukmini
Chatterjee.
The dancers were accompanied by anassortment of musicians.
In the second round, the girls, attired in pale pink evening gowns set off bystreams of flowers designed
by Anna Singh, emerged from behind plumes of feathers. The lighting by Viraf Pocha diffused the white
background into a mosaic of colours and designs, and beauty after beauty flowed down the ramp with delicate
poise and precise, slow steps choreographed by Lubna Adam, who was assisted by NayanikaChatterjee.
The Evening Wear Round
Indi-pop singer Suchitra Krishnamurthy broke into song, crooning her latest Andrew Lloyd Webber
number, Zindagi, and the sequence concluded with the girls striding down the aisle past the audience.
This set the stage for up-and-coming Australian boy band Human Nature, who belted out their latest hits, including a
remake of the old hit, Eternal Flame.
That rounded off the evening, kindling a strong, bright future in the heart of Diet Coke Femina Look of the
Year winner, Karishma Modi.
