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.

Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar grabs a few mangoes for the road. Pics/ Bipin kokate

There were several one-storeyed houses clustered around a ground. The friendly neighbourhood came alive when aapla Mahesh stepped out of his car. Sunday MiD DAY accompanied him to his chawl in the bylanes of Wadala. We seated ourselves on a generous neighbour's swing and chatted about Mahesh's chawl days.

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.