This quiet Dhobi Talao lane has witnessed multiple murders, a landlord changing names to hide in communal riots and an entire estate won as rummy game stakes
Writer Varsha Adalja with her 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award for her work Ansaar, with next door neighbour Savita Malkani holding a photograph of her in-laws. Malkanis mother-in-law Shami came to Gul Bahar building during Partition as a young widow at the age
Writer Varsha Adalja with her 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award for her work Ansaar, with next door neighbour Savita Malkani holding a photograph of her in-laws. Malkani-s mother-in-law Shami came to Gul Bahar building during Partition as a young widow at the age of 32 with five children to bring up. Pic/Suresh Karkera
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Night or day, it-s an interesting exit. Emerging from any Metro movie brings you out on Bombay-s most obviously christened side street. Cinema Road lies behind the Art Deco theatre Metro Goldwyn Mayer opened with Broadway Melody on June 8, 1938. Metro-s publicity boasting, "Every seat a cool retreat", MGM-s lion roared lustily in the hall that American architect Thomas Lamb completed with local firm Ditchburn, Mistri and Bhedwar. Tina Sutaria, daughter of one-time partner Minoo Mistri, says, "One night, the manager Edward Alva phoned during a 9.30 pm show. A lobby chandelier had partly detached from the ceiling. Fearing for the audience, Dad rushed to cordon the space, bringing chairs up and down stairs. Metro was immensely personal for him. He spent weeks sourcing Italian marble to match the rest of the theatre when a front restaurant was introduced."
Below in Metro House, Jhaveri Bros displays trophies and commemorative coins traditionally created in 1914 at Shyamdas Jhaveri-s small Crawford Market stall. Orphaned at the age of five, he bolted from Bhavnagar at 15, two rupees clinking in his pocket. Some incredible slog later, the Jhaveris brought India a luxury brand that became the talk of the town their door handles are still shaped as Mont Blanc pens. Shyamdas- son Durlabh-s daughter Seyjhal says, "It feels tremendous being trusted by customers and staffers with us lifelong."
Cinema Lane with May Rose to the left. Pic/Bipin Kokate
Adjoining Jhaveri Bros, Homi Ardeshir Irani-s popular Olympia Cigarette and General Store from 1940 is a gas agency today. From the Cricket Club of India to catering queen Tanaz Godiwala, calls buzz in for his son Mehrwan Irani. "Metro Cub Club members in the 1950s, we were excited days before our birthdays - the theatre cut a cake on stage and screened special kiddie films for each occasion," he says.
This wasn-t always Cinema Road. In Dadi Mansion, Jose Cordeiro shares 1968 electricity bills addressed "1st fl., 50 Carnegy Lines, Dhobi Talao". The area was then named after General Carnegy of the Bombay Army including Bombay Marines. The mostly peaceful lane has witnessed multiple murders, a landlord changing names to hide during communal riots, an entire estate won as rummy game stakes... Flat 1 of Jehangir Mansion-s fifth floor was bloodied in broad daylight on February 2, 1971, by quadruple killings that shocked the city. Between them, Darabsha Sethna, his uncle and aunt Nusserwanji and Gaimai Master, and servant Bawla suffered 143 stabs from a gupti knife. Audaciously contesting State Assembly polls, the killer had his photograph that gave him in published in The Times of India. Remorselessly twisted, he chose the scales of justice as an election symbol.
Phiroze Daruwala. Pic Courtesy/Deepak Rao
Deepak Rao narrates in Mumbai Police: 150 Years - "The police welcomed help. One Phiroze Daruwala offered assistance. In days, suspicions narrowed to 30-year-old Daruwala himself! An acquaintance of the slain, refused a loan, he had gone into frenzy. Skilful handling of the case by Sub-Inspector Minoo Irani ensured he walked into the police trap."
None of Jehangir Mansion-s 41 flats resembles another. Pesi Khansaheb-s parents paid R4 extra monthly - R72 instead of R68 - for fourth-floor sea views, until Chaman Chambers and Ramnam obstructed them. Naming the property for his son, landlord Behram Irani personally inspected its every inch. "Jehangir Mansion was the road-s neatest building," says Clement Gonsalves, whose physician father, Dr Cyprian Gonsalves, settled on the ground floor in 1939. The man, recommending Daruwala hang, lived opposite in Dadi Mansion. Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate Luis Cordeiro, known as "the swinging judge", strummed a guitar to Portuguese numbers in The Sambaleros quartet. He was also Bombay Hockey Association president. In the 1940s, Luis- father Jose Miguel Cordeiro, General Manager of Bombay Mutual, enabled the city-s first air-conditioned office. Earlier called Kamala Court and Manohar Mansion, Dadi Mansion was the Cinema Road children-s den. During vacations they enacted terrace plays, charging parents 25 paise "tickets".
Jeroo Jyoti Chavda practising before her famous parents - Bharatnatyam dancer and teacher late Khurshid Vajifdar Chavda and painter Shiavax Chavda - in the mid-1980s, on their terrace studio at Ava Kapadia Chambers. Pic courtesy/Sooni Taraporevala
The Dadis occupy three floors of the building that ship chandler Suleman Dadi bought in 1956. His grandson Nafees- perky kids represent the fifth generation in this flat. Suleman-s septuagenarian nephew Aslam Dadi says, "Metro-s ushers recognised us, slipping in again and again for Ben Hur-s chariot race sequence-s magnificent soundtrack!"
Cinema-goers often crossed to May rose Restaurant. "We parked there after Saturday night movies, with snacks brought to the cars," recalls Rumi Taraporevala of Gowalia Tank. "Watching Rosemary-s Baby, with Mia Farrow impregnated by the devil courtesy dastardly Dr Sapirstein, we jocularly hailed that evening-s waiter Sapirstein. He loved it, greeting us -Sapirstein, Sapirstein- whenever we pulled up. Good tips followed for our favourite. We-d say -Let-s go to Sapirstein-, never May rose."
May rose hugs one end of Kapadia Chambers, formerly Ava Chambers, belonging to Gustad Khodadad Irani in 1938. If his wife-s name graced this awning, his father-s was lent to Dadar-s central Khodadad Circle. The Chavdas were star tenants from the 1940s when painter Shiavax Chavda rented a studio and home. He married Indian classical danseuse Khurshid Vajifdar, part of the celebrated Vajifdar trio of dancer sisters, with Shirin and Roshan. While their son Pervez is a noted architect, the Chavdas- dancer daughter Jeroo, aka Jyoti, continues teaching in the "half-pizza" as a pupil puts it round studio where her mother used to guide supple ghungrooed feet. In the facing semi-circle, her father coloured portraits and sinewy figures influenced by that dance world.
An early view of the Jhaveri Bros corner store at Metro House, with the Mont Blanc van parked in the foreground. The first to import this iconic brand in 1960s India, the Jhaveris yet have door handles shaped like Mont Blanc pens with nibs pointing north. Pic Courtesy/ Seyjhal Jhaveri
Across the landing unravels the tale of a tangy treat. Keki Poonjiaji is great-great grandson to Mancherji Poonjiaji, founder of MM Poonjiaji Spices with brother Maneckji. In 1840s Fort, their wives hawked homemade pickles to British troops. Missing these in England, soldiers suggested packing the condiments in glass bottles brought back from London. "They exported from the docks, so a ship motif illustrates the 1883-launched green label," explains Poonjiaji-s grand-niece Avan Pollard. Major Grey-s Chutney was mixed mild as a nod to that officer. Poonjiaji saw Gone with the Wind 13 times - "Round the corner Wellington Cinema tickets were 4 annas its holders dubbed -Charzies- to Metro-s 10."
Old stores in Kapadia Chambers are Caxton Sports, Marques Music Salon and Madonna Laundry. In 1948, Jagmit Kuckreja-s father Inder set up Caxton after having supplied sports goods to the military in Jakarta. Clayton Marques- violinist and piano tuner father Marcus carried on with his father Franz Marques- job, selling instruments and books of lyrics for Cinema Road to sing along, from 1939. That same year, Surat-s Dayaram Rajput started a dhobi service, which grew to Madonna Laundry with his son Damodar. Grandsons Vasant and Lalit believe the shop owes its name both to Dhobi Talao Catholics and Europeans in barracks behind. They regret an impersonal age as much as the business hit by home washing machines - "Clothes parcelled, people go. No one waits to chat anymore."
The laundry starched crisp uniforms of cops allotted apartments at Gopal Mansion right beside. Deputy Commissioners of Alan Thorley, Edwin Saxby and Basil Kane-s ilk stayed in these requisitioned by the government for the police. With the 22 quarters de-requisitioned in the 1970s, the property went on sale, infamous Harshad Mehta among the bidders. Textile importer Jaigopal Mehra-s family taking it over, his son Radharaman remembers: "One Mr Gaya planned its structure as a large chowk with galleries all around, like homes in Punjab." A charitable trust recently converted Gopal Mansion into Cinema Road-s sole modern building.
In Bhagwan Mansion, I chat with my journalist friend Indira Khanna and her mother Manju. The Khannas were first tenants in 1939, very much the year of Cinema Road - practically every Art Deco building erected right after Metro rose in 1938. "Nobody really leaves this lane. Within a half-kilometre radius it-s five minutes to everything from maidans, markets and the best bakeries to good hospitals, schools and colleges." The gully halts at Walter De Souza Garden, honouring the field hockey champion whose team won the gold the first time India met Britain at this game in the 1948 Olympics. The cool verdure inspires Varsha Adalja writing at her table in horseshoe-shaped Gul Bahar, where Cinema Road joins Barrack Road. The winner of the 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award for her Gujarati novel Ansaar, says, "We valued gender equality before it became fashionable. Feminism is humanism, not fighting men."
The park was an Anglo Scottish cemetery two centuries ago. Next door to Adalja, Savita Malkani says, "The graveyard becoming public ground brought our Garden Gang of women together." Malkani-s mother-in-law Shami came here a 32-year-young widow, shoved on the train from Sindh to save her five children. From his room in Jaitirth Mansion, Kahan Chand Narang hears sunset-kissed gulmohurs and bottle palms softly swish. His Amritsar ancestors - father Jaikishan and uncle Hiralal - bought the building three years after it was erected in 1940. The retired chartered accountant misses sighting the Rajabai Clock Tower. "Our hugest loss was Bombay Hospital-s new wing, added without a thought to ecology, blocking natural airflow. Life itself has changed. What-s left old-style?" Thinking of the tatty multiplex dive of the grand theatre naming this road, I agree.
Author-publisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay. You can reach her at mehermarfatia@gmail.com
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