To think a joke like "What did one banana say to another? Marry me, I'm akela" got Amitabh Bachchan guffawing. He and Anwar Ali, comedian Mehmood's brother, cracked such non-stop corn in Allah Beli, the Kemp's Corner cafe, now the Gangar Opticians showroom. Struggler buddies, paid a few hundred bucks for eyeblink roles as boys singing and drinking in Merchant-Ivory's 1970 film Bombay Talkie, they celebrated there with kheema pav and paani kam chai.

Though familiar haunts like that Irani eatery have vanished, this palm-fringed street retains immense charm -- St Stephen's Church till the Parsi Doongerwadi, faced by India House (of the Air India hoarding) till shop-crusted Chinoy Mansion. Prescription chemists in a roofed store, Kemp & Co. christened Kemp's Corner.