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November 16, 2005
The Bollywood Walk of Fame
This article appeared in today's Mumbai Mirror.
A few days ago, a friend of mine was telling me about his brother-in-law who was cribbing about the high rates in a new building in one of the back roads of Matunga. Apart from the fact that new buildings in this area do command a premium, this particular lane commands an even higher premium for a variety of reasons, one of which is its history.
Way before the Kapoors moved to Anita’s glamorous Chembur gully, they first came to this small road in Matunga, then called the “College Back Road”, so called because of its location behind a famous college. After the Kapoors moved in, as Mr. Shammi Kapoor reminisces on his website, “With them came the Saigals (K.L. and Mahender), the Sethis' (Jagdish and Sudershan), the Puris' (Chaman and Madan), the Nandas' (J.K.), the Biswases' (Anil and Ashalata), the Singhs' (K.N.), the Zakarias' (Jayant), the Jairajs' (P.), the Mazumdars' (Phani), the Peshawaris' (Bismil), the Aroras'(P.N.), the Devis' (Sitara).” This was in the late 30s and 40s and for some time, this lane was often called the Hollywood of India. Many other actors and directors took up residence in some of the neighboring lanes as well, though College Back Road was the hub.
However, once the Kapoors moved to Chembur in the 50s, the exodus started, many moving with them and the rest going to Pali, Hill, Santacruz, etc. When Ram, the late actor and director, Mr. Manmohan Krishna’s son was growing up in the 70s, most of the first generation had already moved on and Ram grew up among those who had stayed back, most of whose kids, like him, have moved on to different professions.
In those days, as Ram put it, the lane had quite a reputation and was not as quiet as it now is. The triumvirate of Mr. Prithiviraj Kapoor, Mr. Jagdish Sethi and Mr. J K Nanda, used to walk in the lane, in the evenings, bare-chested in their lungis, creating quite a ruckus, in what was even then a predominantly Tamil and Gujjju area.
Today, the College Back Road has no living actor / actress left, and the entertainment industry has passed Matunga by. Mr. Shammi Kapoor still however sees this road with, sepia-tinged, nostalgia-rimmed spectacles, “A suburb of Bombay called Matunga housed those pages which would bedeck the golden annals of Indian Motion Picture and one day rightfully step into the archives of International Cinema.” That’s a lot of baggage to carry, for what is now, a quiet, tree-lined road, not easy to find, if you are not from Matunga, but like Altamount, Carmichael and Narayan Dabholkar roads, has become “the” address to have, if you live in Matunga, a step ahead of “Adenwalla Road”, “Jam-e-Jamshed Road”, and “Manikrao Lotlikar Marg”.
My friend’s brother-in-law was not from Matunga, and had no clue about all this. One reason also was that, as with all other roads in Mumbai, “College Back Road” (the college being either VJTI, or Khalsa), has also been renamed and is now called…“R P Masani Road”. And yes, Ram still lives here.
Posted by bhavinj at November 16, 2005 06:55 PM
Comments
My late dad (also from Matunga, so is my mom, both SIES and brahmanwada tam-brahms),was a great fan of KN Singh: he of the frog-eyed horror. He would point him out in old RK movies (I must say I found him more funny than villainous). So about 1990 (in college), whilst we were passing that road to Five Gardens, we actually rang the bell at a ground-floor, small flat, and - lo and behold, the Grand Old Man opens the door. To not sound over-awed, we asked him for some directions (as if we rang the bell by mistake) and also a glass of water. And then, he answered 'YES, I AM KN Singh'. The boom in his voice left us college kids stunned. What strikes me even today is that he seemed to live alone, dignified and unassuming. May his soul RIP.
Posted by: ANand Ramachandran at December 24, 2005 08:49 AM
Great story.
Posted by: MFM/Bhavin at December 30, 2005 07:05 PM
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