A mill less ordinary

In the coming decade or so, Mumbai is going to witness a dramatic change in its infrastructure which will take the city even closer to developed cities such as Shanghai.

The Mumbai mills have already been a critical witness to the transformation which has taken place from the past to the present and they are likely to be so in the future as well.

As a juxtaposition of the present and the future, a unique festival titled The Mill Culture Crawl is being organised at the Mathuradas Mill compound. The festival aims to showcase the magic of the mill in its current avatar with a celebration of design, art, music, film and food.

The idea came from Elsie Nanji of Red Lion. “Preeti, one of my colleagues, had photographed things she sees in and around the modern mill compound such as a little dirty well, a temple, a garage, a tailor, a printing press, a local bar, a mochi and the fish market with crows flying at dangerously low altitudes and a sly black cat slinking across the street to steal fish from the noisy yet watchful fisher women. The old mill structure interestingly also boasts of an interesting mix of business and leisure destinations. There are lots of new constructions taking place as well. We never know if we will ever get to witness all these contrasting elements in the future,” says Elsie.

Initially, Elsie and her colleague Preeti had thought of putting up a small exhibition at The Loft art gallery which exists in the mill compound. But later other businesses in the compound such as Blue Frog, IdeaLake, Krsna Mehta and the Mudra ad agency also decided to join in to make the entire idea of juxtaposition an even bigger event.

The Crawl is a self-guided tour of community-initiated events such as music shows by Blue Frog, film screenings by Highlight Films, dance performances and fashion show by WLC College, light and fabric installations by Krsna Mehta, heritage exhibition by Red Lion, web workshops by IdeaLake, visual arts, culinary arts, community art walks and much more.