Twitter
Advertisement

One million shades of Mumbai

Artists at home and abroad are vying to liven up the city’s slums with artwork that reflects their unique lives and aspirations

Latest News
article-main
The harlequin slum in Asalpha in Andheri East
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Motley patches on a steel-grey Metro zipping over dreary lanes in Andheri’s Asalpha seem like a shout-out to its backdrop of particoloured tin shacks. Bubblegum pink, ultramarine blue, seafoam green, lemon yellow. 

Instagrammers love it. It is brilliant — the palette as well as the idea to transform the visual facade of grim unplanned urban settlements that dot the city and house half of its 12 million people. 

Right from Dharavi down to numerous other slums not storified in flashy foreign films, shantytowns across the city have attracted artists looking for a life-size canvas.

The pretty patchwork in Asalpha is the handiwork of 700 volunteers, who accomplished it in a week last December, under an aptly named initiative called ‘Chal Rang De’. It was conceptualised by Dedeepya Reddy, 31, and Terence Ferreira, 22, who wanted to enhance the appeal of the hillock atop which sprawls the slum. 

“When people hear the word ‘slum’, they get a sense of dullness and doom. We wanted to change this perception,” said Reddy. “Slums have a parallel existence to high-rises in this city. It’s a completely different universe around them.” And the duo wanted to re-imagine this universe.   

“Not only did we want to change how outsiders look at a slumm but also how those that live there see it,” said Ferreira. 

In a sense, it is an ennobling mission. Nearly one in every seven people in the world, and every two people in the city, lives in slums. Many, whether in South America or Asia, are powerhouses of informal economies and small industries. They embody tales of survival and enterprise. Why shouldn’t they be cheered?    

It is perhaps this spirit that the mural on Dharavi’s Panchsheel building honours: two local b-boys from a troupe called SlumGods frozen in a toprock. An Australian artist Guido van Helten made it in November 2017, in a wink to the local talent. Art recognising art. 

Seeing into a slum’s soul

Dharavi, in fact, has been buzzing with artists from India and overseas, its vibe, so to speak, attracting putterers and professionals alike. But for the art to hit home, it needs to resound with the people it is for, and for that, artists need to understand them. So they often spend time with the locals to research what it’s like to see from their eyes. Van Helten took in the small-scale industries in Dharavi’s bylanes, observing its dwellers’ routines and prejudices, likes and peeves. He attended classes with the young adults, talked to them at length, and realised their fascination with hip-hop and b-boying. That birthed the life-like mural, which employs props like broken pipes and windows.

“Research is important,” says van Helten. “The younger generations are more passionate about dance. The way they perform hip-hop, their hand movement, symbolises their strength and work. I visited their session to get a detailed idea on what I can portray on the wall.” 

Dedeepya Reddy said it’s important to win their confidence first: “When we first went to the slum and started clicking pictures, the residents would turn their backs and shut the doors. Slowly, as we opened a dialogue with them about the project, they started opening up.”

And then, just a dash of colour changed everything. “Now they themselves work to preserve the art on their walls. It was a success,” Ferreira recalled.

The painting’s on the wall

Murals appeared on the city scene in 2012. Ranjit Dahiya, from Uttar Pradesh, started adorning the warrens in Bandra with the city’s and perhaps the country’s most extravagant export: Bollywood. According to him, it culturally defines Indian society today. And so, under an initiative called Bollywood Art Project (BAP), he began portraying the celluloid world, starting with Amitabh Bachchan on a wall on Pereira Road, then recreating film posters on larger walls.

Dahiya admits he is crazy about Bollywood. “When I first came here, I had a different image of Mumbai. I thought it was full of celebrities who walk the roads like common people. But we hardly get to spot a celebrity. Through painting, I wanted B-town to be more accessible,” he said.

Social media users picked up and circulated his paintings over the years, which became so popular that now art-walks are organised here. 

Social media was more efficiently harnessed by the ‘Chal Rang De’ team to seek volunteers for the Asalfa endeavour. More than 2,000 denizens showed interest in painting the walls, said Reddy.

Crowd-funding has helped get some other projects off the ground. Like the week-long ‘Hamara Station Hamari Shaan’ enterprise which, in 2016, received immense support from citizens who offered either labour or money to paint over 36 suburban stations in the city. In seven days, over 25,000 people had volunteered, and Rs 15 lakh was raised from the crowds. 

Haresh Shah, one of the members who kicked off ‘Hamara Station’, said, “Crowd-funding works when people know each other. A good network is necessary to get people to donate.”

Another notable project was carried out at the 142-year-old Sassoon Dock, where 30 local and international artists painted murals under the St+art Mumbai banner, with the aim of connecting with the local community. “The work showcases the Koli community from the dock. It is one of the oldest parts of the city, but not many are aware of it. We wanted to open up the space to citizens,” Giulia Ambrogi, cofounder, St+art India Foundation, said. 

The art serves not only to embellish spaces but also to chronicle a city’s history and lived reality.  While Mumbai may be a long way from expressing itself fluently and fearlessly through its walls, say like London, Bogota or New York where underground artists spray stark messages about the status quo, there is hope it might get there. There’s no censor on the walls, yet.


(Clockwise from top left): 1. JJ School of Art, Fort  2. A mural of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, at Bandra Reclamation 3. Matunga station 4. Subway at Bandra Reclamation 5. RM Bhatt High School in Parel  6. A mural of actor Amitabh Bachchan in Bandra

HIVES OF ACTIVITY

1,000,000 Number of people in Dharavi slums

$1 billion Annual turnover from resident-owned businesses, from leather workers and potters to recyclers, in Dharavi 

1.8 billion Number of jobs accounted for by unlicensed workers in informal economies in global shantytowns

900,000,000 The estimated slum population of the world

*Figures from Reuters

HOW ART IS EMPOWERING LOCALS WITH EMPLOYMENT

The makeover of Asalpha village after ‘Chal Rang De’ is helping locals make a living. Aparna Chaudhary, 29, who owns one of the mosaic houses, has begun serving local food to tourists and visitors on art walks. “The programme founders gave me the idea,” she said. The enterprise has roped in her neighbours, who help her when there’s a rush of tourists eager to taste local delicacies like puranpoli or the Indian thali.  The founders, who started art walks and guided tours after the beautifcation, say 60 per cent of the proceeds go to locals who contribute to this business. “We are training local youths to be guides,” said Dedeepya Reddy, co-founder, Chal Rang De.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement