A salute to the surviving spirit of Mumbai’s Irani restaurants — The Last Irani Chai — will be telecast on NDTV on December 31 at 3 pm and on January 1 at 11 pm. It is the first documentary made by journalist-filmmaker Khalid Mohamed, with Rishi Kapoor doing his first-ever voice-over commentary. The camerawork is by noted DoP Aseem Bajaj, the editing by Meggna Aschitr, sound by Rakesh Ranjan and music by Ritesh Asia.

The documentary besides looking at the old world chai shops of Mumbai such as Kyani and Military, includes the last interview with MF Husain who would frequent Irani cafes to sketch there, and a conversation with Boman Irani who had to close down his potato chips store after he got into theatre and film acting. The film has also been selected for the competition section of the forthcoming 12th Mumbai International Film Festival in Mumbai from February 3 to 9.

Meanwhile Mohamed has been filming his second documentary. Titled Smiles And Tears, it looks at the lives of Mumbai’s talented street children. It is being co-produced and edited by Meggna Aschitr. Karan Desai is the DOP.