A few of us in Marcellus enjoy hanging around south Mumbai and Bandra over the weekends to take in the beautiful Art Deco buildings in these locations (whilst lazily wondering why nobody else seems to care about these buildings). The good news is that Nikhil Inamdar from the BBC cares. Whilst celebrating the centenary of Art Deco design, Mr Inamdar says that the best Art Deco structures – such as the mansions on Marine Drive (adjacent to the Wankhede Stadium) – are “typified by geometrical ziggurats (step towers), sweeping curves, sunburst designs, nautical elements and circular or turreted rooftops – symbolised an unequivocal break from the past, celebrating the dawn of a new, unabashed, post-war 20th Century modern age.
In a short time, the style transcended architecture to influence the design sensibility of home interiors, furniture, fonts, jewellery and some of the world’s most iconic cinema halls – from Radio City Music Hall in New York City to Regal, Liberty and Eros cinemas in Mumbai.
“It represented hope, optimism and speed, coinciding with the emergence of the motor car and also concrete as a building material, which when compared with stone, could be worked with in a tenth of the time and fifth of the cost,” Atul Kumar, founder of the Art Deco Mumbai Trust and curator of a new exhibition celebrating the centenary of Art Deco in the city, told the BBC.”
We learn from this article that Mumbai “is home to the world’s largest documented collection of Art Deco buildings…
What made Mumbai’s tryst with Art Deco particularly interesting was how the city embraced its hallmarks in a truly all-encompassing manner.
Just like Miami, the style emerged in the city at a time of economic flux and transformation, spurred by its modern, mercantile port-city energy.
But unlike Miami where it “arrived as a projection of leisure or spectacle”, in Mumbai the “style resonated across various building typologies, including schools, cinemas, bungalows, petrol stations and banks,” Mr Kumar said.
Art Deco buildings in Mumbai were, and still often are, hidden in plain sight, with even their occupants often blissfully unaware of their cultural moorings.
But their all-pervading architectural shadow over the city is perhaps why Art Deco is “seeped into the larger public imagination, and remains relevant in Mumbai’s emotional quotient”, Mr Kumar added.”
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