Song of the screen, call of the chawl

Dr GG Parikh and daughter Sonal Shah in Ganesh Prasad Society, a vibrant socio-cultural hub since 1950. Pic/Shadab Khan

This is cine city. Every couple of miles a building cluster embraces the movie hall it borders. An entire road can find itself so defined. Like Cinema Lane at New Marine Lines.

Styled Art Deco with fluted columns, the five levels of Kapadia Chambers rose the same year that Metro opened mere feet across in June 1938. Some years later, audiences thronged May Rose Restaurant at the residential block's west corner.

Before settling to being known as Kapadia Chambers, this was formerly Ava Chambers and then Patel & Master Chambers. Ava was Gustad Khodadad Irani's wife. His father's name christened Khodadad Circle, Dadar.

"We parked outside Metro after enjoying Saturday night movies, with superb May Rose snacks brought to our cars," recalls Rumi Taraporevala of Gowalia Tank. "Having watched the film Rosemary's Baby, with Mia Farrow impregnated by the devil, courtesy Dr Sapirstein, we jocularly hailed that evening's waiter Sapirstein. He loved shouting out ‘Sapirstein, Sapirstein' whenever we pulled up. Our favourite got generous tips. In fact, we always said, ‘Let's go to Sapirstein', never ‘Let's go to May Rose'."

"Ek zabardast zamana tha May Rose ka," agrees Rizwan Alam Khan, the paanwala outside the cafe, which converted to a Chinese eatery with tumbledown appeal and is currently a beer bar. Three generations have plied their trade at this stall since Rizwan's grandfather, Dost Mohammad Khan from UP, set it up. It is named NK Paan Shop, after Rizwan's father Novsher, who describes the heyday of May Rose in a phone call from Azamgarh. "I sat there from 1962. Shuru-shuru, Angrezi picture jyada chalti thi Metro mein. Tab May Rose ki chai bhi kya behtareen thi."

Ophthalmologist Yasmin Bhagat was amused to hear that the popular beverage was rumoured brewed with crushed Glucose biscuits, imparting its delicious creamy-sweet flavour. Riding in a ghoda-gadi past the site, her grandparents spotted the striking structure under construction and decided to book a sea-facing flat. When they arrived in 1939, the waterfront shimmered clearly visible. Between Ava Chambers and the Arabian Sea lay only the Anglo Scottish cemetery - presently Walter de Souza Garden, which honours the field hockey champion whose team won the gold the first time India met Britain at this game in the 1948 Olympics.

Rizwan Khan at his paan stall at Kapadia Chambers. Pic/Bipin Kokate

"Before the main film, the theatre often screened Special Metro News. Snippets from around the globe flashed after the usual roar of the MGM lion," says Dr Bhagat. "From our balconies we excitedly caught glimpses of matinee idols at premieres."

A star in his own right from the 1940s was painter Shiavax Chavda. He married Indian classical danseuse Khurshid Vajifdar, of the Vajifdar trio of dancer sisters, with Shirin and Roshan. Their daughter Jeroo Jyoti teaches Bharatanatyam in the roundish studio space where her mother had guided supple, ghungroo-strung feet and father quietly coloured portraits and sinewy figures influenced by his wife's dance world.

Jeroo Jyoti Chavda practising Bharatanatyam before her famous parents in the 1980s at Kapadia Chambers. Pic/Sooni Taraporevala

Across the landing from the Chavdas unravels the tale of a tangy treat, told by nonagenarian Keki Poonjiaji, the great-great grandson of Mancherji Poonjiaji, who launched MM Poonjiaji & Co, with his brother Maneckji. In 1840s Fort, their wives hawked homemade pickles to British troops. To offset the bland fare of their home acres, soldiers brought back these condiments and relishes packed in Bombay in glass bottles imported from London. As the Poonjiajis exported from the docks, a ship motif illustrated the 1883-launched green label. Major Grey's Chutney, as it was known, was mixed milder than the spicier local version, in a nod to that officer.

Residents have fond Metro stories. Poonjiaji saw Gone with the Wind 13 times at Metro. Ushers recognised regulars slipping in repeatedly to thrill to the magnificent soundtrack of Ben Hur's chariot race sequence. Bhagat remembers the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was a smash hit.

Surviving stores at Kapadia Chambers include Caxton Sports, Marques & Co. Music Salon and Madonna Laundry. In 1948, Jagmit Kuckreja's father Inder set up Caxton after supplying sports goods to the military in Jakarta. Clayton Marques' violinist and piano tuner father Marcus carried on with his father Franz's job, selling instruments and books of lyrics for Cinema Road to sing along with from 1939.

That same year Dayaram Rajput of Surat started a dhobi service, which transformed 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. Till the 1970s, when 22 police officers' quarters in neighbouring Gopal Mansion were yet to be de-requisitioned, Madonna smartly starched uniforms for Deputy Commissioners of the ilk of Alan Thorley, Edwin Saxby and Basil Kane.

Four kilometres north of Cinema Lane, the Grant Road branch of Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank is as much a fixture as Ganesh Prasad, the Sleater Road building it fronts. Envisioned when the country's cooperation movement was gaining ground, the Shamrao Vithal Cooperative Bank has been a fixture fronting Ganesh Prasad building. Responsible for the Chitrapur Saraswat colony of Talmaki Wadi in Tardeo, Shripad Subbarao Talmaki had established this cooperative credit institution in 1906, acknowledging his guru Shamrao Vithal Kaikini.

Principles of fellowship, thrift, honest labour and selflessness, on which the bank was veritably founded, echoed through the long corridors of this E-shaped housing society. Over 70 years after inviting its first families, the cosmopolitan chawl compatibly hums with an ethos which shaped our foremost socialists, legal luminaries, doctors, accountants and advocates as well as icons of the arts and culture.

The living legend here is 98-year-old Dr GG Parikh - every inch the grand old man of Ganesh Prasad that Keki Poonjiaji is at Kapadia Chambers. "The first to occupy this genuinely cooperative society in 1950, I must be the oldest surviving resident," he says. "In the years straight after Independence, the government made money available at four per cent interest." In prior decades of raging nationalism, Parikh's freedom struggle hero Yusuf Meherally, who coined the slogans "Simon go back" and "Quit India", lived nearby on Raghavji Road. Beaten for demonstrating against the Brits, he was rolled in a barrel from the top of Grant Road Bridge.

Balancing a medical practice and duties at the Yusuf Meherally Study Centre which he established in 1961, Dr Parikh co-edited Janata, the Praja Socialist Party magazine since 1946. With fellow patriots Damu Jhaveri and Rohit Dave, he worked hard to realise three plans they dared to dream in jail: forming Indian National Theatre, All India Students Congress and Hind Mazdoor Sabha. Staunchly supporting rural progress, the good doctor visits Panvel's tribal village of Tara thrice a week even today.

Parikh's daughter Sonal Shah has a distinct memory of attending the naming ceremony of Dhananjaya Chandrachud, the Supreme Court judge. "We wandered in and out of homes without a thought. It was a happy feeling to grow up with every door open to you through the day. Ours still is. Many romances bloomed across homes too."

Fewer doors remain wide in welcome than in her childhood years, but the five storey-complex continues thrumming a strong flow of community. I sense this in the nicest way when I go cold calling to families on different floors with directions from Dr Parikh "You don't really need telephone numbers. Our old-timers love to talk," he assures.

They do. A chorus of Kotwals, Kamblis and Karandes warm to the theme within a moment of meeting. Dr Nitish Kotwal, a radiologist after seven generations of advocate ancestors, reveals an interesting year-end event till about 20 years ago. The terrace staged almost weeklong performances of singing, recitation, plays and original dance ballets conceived by residents like Guru Parvati Kumar. "It began on what came to be called Occupation Day, because the last week of December was when Ganesh Prasad had received its occupation certificate all those years ago."

Bharatanatyam doyen Guru Parvati Kumar trained exponents including Sandhya Purecha and PL Raj. Dropping out from a Parel municipal school to earn mill wages, he recreated the choreographed poses of Uday Shankar at midtown Ganpati pandals. Shifting to this chawl he taught classical dance. His daughter Aparna shares a video of her mother Sumati swirling at 16 to "Suhana hai yeh mausam" from Footpath. Wanting to dance under Raj Kapoor's direction, she finally did in the Awaara dream sequence.

Ringing the bell at one end of another stretched corridor, I am greeted by a gentleman obviously disturbed in the middle of something. Trying to wear an unhurried look, Dr Shyam Karande kindly offers, "We can certainly speak but after these last overs in the Pakistan-Australia match please?"

Resuming our chat with his game comfortably done, the son of gynaecologist Janardan Karande and brother of political activist Pramila Dandavate, says, "We have a young managing committee which is mindful of senior citizens. Slopes and ramps have been erected. We don't stage year-end programmes on the terrace anymore. But in a recent development, part of it, thoughtfully provided with plants and a bench, is reserved for the elderly. Things change to keep us relevant."

Author-publisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay. You can reach her at meher.marfatia@mid-day.com/www.meher marfatia.com