Footloose and fancy-free in Bombay: A partial view of the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

This is a flâneur’s overview of life and art in Bombay of the 1960s and 1970s by film-maker Arun Khopkar, who participated in the literary and artistic scene of the time. The article maps the different creative worlds of these decades through the specific “nerve centres” and material locations of the city: Strand Bookstall, the textile mills, the dockyards, the Irani restaurants, and the speakeasies. It touches upon the interconnectedness of the city’s many art forms (literature, film, visual art, music) and delineates the pathways that intersect them. It weaves together the narrative of the city and its disparate cultural associations and locations, with an autobiographical account.

Keywords:

• Narayan Surve
• Bhupen Khakhar
• Bombay films
• Irani restaurants
• speakeasies
• textile mills

Notes

1. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, which united under its banner many opposition parties, was started in 1956 to demand the creation of a unilingual Marathi-speaking state.

2. This connection between political activism and Urdu poetry is important. Many of the Urdu poets were close to the Communist Party and also wrote lyrics for Hindi film songs, which became a lingua franca of the emotional life of independent India.

3. As part of my film on Surve, Narayan Gangaram Surve (Khopkar 2003), I was able to shoot a synchronized dialogue scene between Surve and the actor who played young Surve in the film, on the pavements of working-class quarters, known as BDD [Bombay Development Directorate] Chawl, on a Saturday evening, with volunteers running around to switch off TV sets, to stop vehicles and conversations. Normally extremely noisy, this area observed silence for the entire shoot out of their immense respect for the poet who has immortalized their lives in his verses.

4. “It floats above the ground like the Katsura Imperial villa in Kyoto”, says Correa in Volume Zero: The Work of Charles Correa, my documentary on him (Khopkar 2008).

5. Vrindavan Dandavate is a playwright whose sensibility was close to the Theatre of the Absurd, but he also used forms borrowed from circus, mime and folk theatre. Raghu Dandavate was a poet and a short-story writer. Bhau Padhye was a journalist, film critic, story writer and a novelist. His book Vasunaka (Padhye 1965) created a sensation on account of his use of colourful argot and frank descriptions in its erotic passages.

6. Kolatkar used to get Evergreen Review, perhaps sent to him by Allen Ginsberg. I read the books published by the City Lights Bookstore of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, borrowing them from Kolatkar and Shahane.

7. The pinnacle of glory for the shop owner, Mr Shanbhaug, was his legendary and true story of Pandit Nehru, the prime minister of India, requesting Shanbaug to keep his bookshop open until 10.30 p.m. so that the PM could browse through books, undisturbed by crowds. Nehru bought 27 books and got the same discount as any other customer.

8. I got an opportunity to see his vast collection when I made a film, Figures of Thought (Khopkar 1990) on Bhupen Khakhar, and on Nalini Malani and Vivan Sundaram, two other painters whose work and thought shared affinities with Bhupen.

9. Kalighat is a famous crematorium in Calcutta. The paintings of street artists were done with watercolour on cheap paper and dealt with sensational themes.

10. One of the largest speakeasies was right across from the police commissioner’s office in south Bombay, near Crawford Market.

11. The Film Finance Corporation of India (FFC), was set up in 1973. It was later turned into the National Film Development Corporation of India. It financed many of the early low-budget films in the 1960s and 1970s.