Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at a series of recent films where Bombay has been re-created as a retro city. Through an engagement with these urban ‘sets’ created by production and costume designers, the paper will explore the cultural, material and historical transactions involved in the designing of India’s best known city before the advent of globalization.

Paper long abstract:

Indian cities in the last two decades have witnessed a rise in innovative architectural designs, new forms of infrastructure and the ubiquitous presence of technological gadgets. The intoxicating sensorium generated by urban renewal, the sound of the cell phone, shop signage, and the power of light, is making the ruins of the old industrial city slowly fade away. It is this juncture that has triggered off a cinematic re-visiting of Bombay’s pre-globalized urban form. Mani Ratnam’s Guru (2007), Milan Luthria’s Once Upon a Time in Mumbai (2010), Chandan Arora’s Striker (2010), and Mahesh Manjrekar's City of Gold (2010) are examples of films that have created vivid images of Bombay before the advent of globalization. These 21st century films located at different moments of the last sixty years use sets that are devoid of the signs of the present. These urban 'sets' created by production and costume designers are either constructed in studios or generated through a transformation of real locations, to adapt to the time of the films. Production designers work with a material memory of the past – magazines, films, photographs, memoirs, paintings, architectural manuals, and music. There is a fascination with obsolete technology, older forms of home decor, and fashion. The retro past is always a recent past that has just passed us by. This paper engages with the material, cultural and historical transactions involved in the recreation of India’s best known city before the entry of globalization.