Man From Matunga

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January 13, 2006

Tull they come

This was published in today's Mumbai Mirror.

A few weeks ago, a senior colleague who lives in South Mumbai, walked into my office and mentioned how he enjoyed reading about Matunga. He then asked me why I did not write about the culture in Matunga, about the dance recitals and classical music concerts, etc. that are held in Mysore Sabha and Shanmukhananda Halls. His main contact with Matunga, was not the Udipi restaurants, as is usual, but these auditoria. I was nonplussed.

Never having learnt the fine art of fine arts appreciation, I am a little lost when people talk of Carnatic music or Hindustani classical or this or that gharana or arangetrams, etc.
To me, a music concert, until recently meant going to Rang Bhavan and listening to whichever act deigned to perform in our city or the Jazz Yatra every other year. Unfortunately, due to the High Court ruling on sound pollution, Rang Bhavan has met an untimely (hopefully temporary) death and the thought of going to the Andheri Sports Ground and other similar venues has stifled all further concert attendances.

Though some acts have started playing in closed halls, they don’t always work out well for jazz or rock concerts as a friend of mine discovered a couple of weeks ago, when he went for the Buddy Guy concert at the NCPA. Though the music was great, the reverberations in the hall were not!

For many years, Shanmukhananda Hall was the place where our annual school day programs were held, until they finally shifted to the quadrangle in the school itself. I also remembering attending “musical nights”, by the “voices” of Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, etc. These used to be extremely popular in the days when we only had 3 male and 2 female playback singers to listen to.

I also remember attending a rock competition in the late 70s, at a time when Nandu Bhende and his group used to rule the roost. A Filipino rock star whose name I just can’t remember had come down to Mumbai and someone had hastily organized this competition. We were there from 10AM to 6PM and must have heard at least 20 odd bands. I don’t know who won, but I don’t think the Hall has ever hosted such an event since.

Mysore Sabha these days often becomes a surrogate Prithvi, with a good number of plays being held there. These are however poorly advertised and often we come to know of them either on the day of the show or just a day before (or sometimes after) when it becomes almost impossible to reschedule our weekends, especially when we’ve already worked out the kids’ activities in advance. I really miss the days when you could walk into Chhabildas School and for five rupees, sit on the wooden floor and from a touching distance, watch Naseer and Ratna stage their pre-opening day productions.

And so I am just praying that Jethro Tull at the end of this month, makes the cut in Shanmukhanda Hall. If it all works out, then maybe, just maybe, Matunga / Sion, may become a rock concert hub. Though where people will find the place to smoke their joints is another question!

PS: I had wondered in one of the earlier columns, what Shiv (the vernacular name for Sion) meant. Many readers emailed saying that it means the “boundary”, “exit point” or “threshold”, which Sion in the older days was, when Mumbai ended at Sion.

Posted by bhavinj at January 13, 2006 06:00 PM

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