Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar turns keri chor as he revisits his roots -- a chawl in Azad Nagar
Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar turns keri chor as he revisits his roots -- a chawl in Azad Nagar
For long, the chawl has been one of Mumbai's most identifiable architectural signatures. Mahesh Manjrekar grew up in a Mumbai chawl and is making a Hindi-Marathi bilingual (City of Gold/Lalbaug Parel) based in the
same milieu.
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CLOSE TIES
Mahesh is still in touch with friends from the chawl where he began his life. "After all, my roots are here," says the director. "I remember sleeping in the open in the summer," he says.
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Mahesh prefers the chawl system to flats, where "one doesn't even know who the neighbours are". He doesn't like the way people "lock themselves up" in apartment buildings. "In a chawl, if you need help, you just scream anyone's name and people come rushing to bail you out. If someone needed blood, we didn't go looking for it; there were so many volunteers," he says of the dying chawl culture.
MANJREKAR LOOKS WITHIN
Personal experiences are a filmmaker's best raw material. My films (Vaastav, Hathyar, Tera Mera Saath Rahe) reflect the chawl culture; as does my Marathi film Shikshanachya Aicha Gho and the latest City Of Gold
WHO WANTS PRIVACY?
He remembers how people would draw open the curtain of each others' houses to have a chat. The only minus he can recall is the class divide. "The neighbouring buildings' residents always looked down on the chawl-wallahs despite the fact that some of us were well-off and owned cars."
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INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTS
Sudhakar Joshi, a neighbour who worked for the Indian Railway, introduced Mahesh to the world of art. "Every year, we had a function on the grounds facing my house." Once, Sudhakar suggested a community fair, where kids organised cultural events. A young Mahesh yielded mainly to please his parents. He agreed to perform only for that one year. But fate had other plans. "Once I tasted blood (acting), I enjoyed it to the hilt. There was more incentive; my parents extended curfew hours from 9 pm to 11 pm."
More inspiration came from neighbours, veteran actors Jaidev and Rohini Hattangadi. "They were NSD (National School of Drama) alumni. Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah), Om Puri and Satyadev Dubey were familiar faces, but we were blase about plays. We took notice of Rohini only when she bagged Gandhi," says the actor-turned-director. In fact, it was the Best Actress award, which Rohini bagged for the film at BAFTA, that helped Mahesh find his true calling.
MANGO THIEF
His neighbour Dr Rege had "an enviable number of mangoes on his tree" in his portion of the compound. On the rare occasion that Rege and his family went out, Mahesh ransacked the entire tree even before their Morris could reach the end of the lane. "We climbed the tree and threw the mangoes down for our friends to catch," he says.
A furious Rege brought the colony down. "My accomplice Satish was so scared of my dad, he admitted to the crime and my role in it." The director got the "pasting" of his life, and the next day, Rege cut down his barren tree.
DADDY COOL
Mahesh was the Big Daddy of the colony. "Yet my group never got into fights." He grew karipatta (curry leaves) with the neighbours that a vendor would buy every three months."u00a0
On the other side of the ground, lived the prosperous Parulekars. "When we played cricket, Parulekar would place a 50 paise coin on the stumps. The bowler who took the wicket would be entitled to the 50 p -- a big deal then."
FRIENDSHIP WITH MILL WORKERS
A famous mills' chimney was visible from his playground. His cricket team, Azad Nagar, competed in tournaments with the Sahakar Nagar team, which included mill worker's kids. "We weren't old enough to understand the troubles they were facing," says Mahesh. He didn't know for instance, that half of the mill workers had tuberculosis because of the cotton they were exposed to. "City Of Gold music director Ajit (Parab) and actor Siddharth (Jadhav) have told me all about what they went through."
Others who made the transition from chawls to stardom
Jackie Shroff began life in a chawl that was surrounded by skyscrapers in Teen Batti, Walkeshwar. Jackie goes back often to his chawl.
Another 1980s star, Govinda, or the 'Virar ka chhokra' as he is known lived in a small house on the first floor of Sheikh Chawl with his parents, four sisters and two brothers. Govinda remembers the makeshift cinema house that would allow chawl inhabitants to watch movies for free whenever there were empty seats.
Jaidev and Rohini Hattangadi started their married life in a chawl.
Rakhi Sawant is another success story of a celebrity who once who lived in the chawls; she grew up in Andheri.
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