A walk around South Mumbai's historic Grant Road

ldquoAs we pass this road the world changesrdquo a smiling bespectacled man said The man lean and almost frail with age turned and added to the small group of about a dozen people mdash some from France and some Indian mdash trailing him ldquoYou need to walk a bit faster to catch up with merdquo This magic road with some stalls that sell CDs of Hindi movies from the 1990s and rare music albums was a few hundred metres from Grant Road station where the group was waiting in front of B Merwan an Irani cafeacute that had closed down once And perhaps only this new lease of life could explain the hypnotic aroma emanating from the cafeacutersquos vigorous kitchenA participant of the walk takes a photo of Alfred Talkies in Grant Road Pic courtesy Tushar SatamFilm posters on walls at the compund of Imperial Cinema PicsTushar SatamApart from this enticement of B Merwan around them was a world frozen in time mdash the Grant Road station with its entrance as a reminder of space for horsedrawn carriages and houses with protruding balconies and slanting roofs mdash and with them was Rafique Baghdadi the man in question and a smiling raconteur of these houses and walls with stories from many years ago Baghdadi is a lover of this Mumbai which he fears will soon disappear This walk was to discover the living history of once thriving theatres that still stand in the nooks and paths of Grant Road in part neglect and part shame of showing cinema no one wants to watch mdash not art films Korean semiporn dubbed in Hindi and suchEarlier entrance of Imperial CinemaEmmanuel Church built in Gothic style near GirgaonThe walk a tribute to cinema in the city which completed 100 years was organised by Alliance Francaise as a part of a series that began on Sunday September 20 called Heritage Days Before the walk Baghdadi mentioned that the Bombay he was going to talk about was the city that grew around mills ldquoThe story of rise and fall of the mills is the story of the rise and fall of Bombayrdquo he said After a while after we had crossed lanes with Art Deco houses set up in 1937 by fisheating Saraswat Brahmins and the Anglican Emmanuel church and spotted Queen Mary School the alma mater of Shabana Azmi and Shobhaa DeRoyal Opera House also known as Opera House is Indiarsquos only surviving opera house It is now shutJyoti studioBaghdadi then stopped at the end of a nondescript bridge with a ramshackle property beside it that looked like a garage ldquoThis was the office of Ardeshir Irani who directed Alam Ara the first Indian film with sound Saadat Hasan Manto had worked here and so has Prithviraj Kapoorrdquo A sign on the pavement then drew our attention which mentioned Irani Baghdadi informed that a song from the film Alam Ara de de khuda ke naam pe give in the name of god became so popular that in the following days people would sing the song when asked to pay in eateries The raconteur added that the day the movie was released on March 23 1931 Bhagat Singh was hanged He added that this could be an interesting way of looking at the politics of the time but it is hardly mentionedThe group that trailed BaghdadiImperial CinemaOur next stop was Imperial Cinema Amidst a busy commercial space at Lamington Road the complex stood like a relic Though apparent from posters of Bhojpuri cinema and soft porn that the theatre was functional it wore a deserted look Baghdadi enthusiastically took the team to every corner and asked the team to note the elephant signage on its gates and walls which was the signature of the owners of the compound MathuradasGovardhandas familyRafique Baghdadi Local historian ldquoThere has been a downward slide of these standalone cinemas for years now It is not clear what exactly led to the fall but it is a culmination of factors like taxes and suchrdquo he said A solitary man lay in front of the closed ticket counter The foyer was flooded with water of morning rains and there was no crowd for the movie the kind that allegedly draws crowds at nightCinema streetThe walk continued past huge buildings with slanting roofs that guard the sky of Grant Road past smaller theatres that either have ceased to exist or now remain as a caricature of an opulent past One after the other theatres which now look like they never existed were crossed mdash Gulshan Talkies Moti Talkies Topaz Shalimar and Plaza theatre not to be confused with a cinema hall in Dadar that shares the name At Plaza Baghdadi pointed the group to the entrance where with a slight craning of the neck one could see an endless foyer that resembled courts of royalty in cinema ldquoPlaza cinema had the longest foyerrdquo Baghdadi informedAlfred TheatreThe group finally reached the end of a pavement Ahead was Alfred Theatre with its distinct and splendid European architecture It played a Hindi movie Vishwatma from a decade ago featuring a young Sunny Deol in a poster that was handmade ldquoOnce crowds thronged hererdquo Baghdadi said as if he could reminisce a different time mdash a world of hits and mad crowds on that road with sly ticket blackers wearing handkerchiefs around their neck and discreetly announcing discounted prices ldquoAlfred Theatre in a way represents everything that is Grant Road Even all this may not stay for longrdquo he said and offered to take whoever wanted to go to Sarvi for mutton kebabs ldquoManto frequented this placerdquo he said and we followedLog on to wwwbombayafindiaorg