A city amused

Did you know that M.F. Husain had contributed a mural to the centuries old Portuguese church when the city’s much-loved architect Charles Correa rebuilt it Did you know that famous cartoonist Mario Miranda, whose works still adorn the walls of Café Mondegar, might have stayed right opposite at Holland House in Colaba during his university days Scout through as much literature as much as you want on Mumbai, but nuggets like these will only emerge when you set out to discover a place on foot, stopping occasionally to chat up someone who has lived at the place long enough. Basically, explore a place like an outsider or a flâneur would. Which is exactly what Delhi girl Garima Gupta did and went on to retell the tales in her artwork, Project Bambai.

A trained illustrator and animator from the National Institute of Design, Gupta is the latest entrant into possibly an entire country of artists who seek creative inspirations from the Maximum City. “I live in Colaba, and even when I go to the groceries, I end up face-to-face with architecture,” she says. As an outsider, her curiosity to learn the history behind the popular and not-so-popular structures grew deep. She explains, “I come from Delhi, but I really feel that it is in Mumbai that you don’t have to go somewhere to find art — it is right there in front of you. Each of these structures has some story to tell, which I was curious about. Eventually, I felt that instead of talking about it among friends, I should use my abilities to share it with more people.”

As part of Project Bambai, Gupta has illustrated on canvas five of the city’s monumental characters — figurine from Regal Cinema, Gargoyle from the Victoria Terminus, David Sassoon’s statue from the Reading room, Martyr with a Flame from Hutatma Chowk and Flora Fountain. Also, an animation video on Khada Parsi or Standing Parsi, the famous yet long time neglected 40 feet tall and 150 year old cast iron structure and bronze statue of Shet Cursetjee Manockjee, was built in 1860s by his youngest son Manockjee Cursetjee, by spending almost a lakh of rupees then. The statue stands tall between two flyovers at Byculla.

It was on social media that Gupta’s works first got out and made way for her artwork display at Kala Ghoda, which is in a way, symbolic of her art philosophy. “Today, we have an overflow of information, so sometimes it is necessary to cut through the clutter and reach out to as many people as we can. Illustration and animation can be that tool since it’s easy to consume” she says, continuing, “I think that mostly design and art speaks to only certain class of people, which is unfair. Most people in the city are immigrants who aren’t even aware of the history and the context of these structures. My aim is to reach out to them. And tell them stories about the city through my work.”

In the future, Garima wants to work on the clocks of Mumbai. “I would really like to do a piece on time. The idea of what they would have had meant to the people really fascinates me. In the future, she wishes to collaborate with historians. “I was always quite interested in history, and there was a point in my career when I had to choose between art and history, I chose art, but now I am connecting them both.”