Perreira House, Bandra, Mumbai, Built in 1902 (Pics: Chandu Mhatre)
For the past few years, photographer and friend Chandu Mhatre has been shooting throughout Mumbai images of a great metropolis in transition. Great cities are constantly making and remaking themselves. Bombay is no exception and not in the least because it was turned into Mumbai.
Having long been India’s industrial and financial heart, it was inevitable that the sheer physical effects of the country’s 20-year-old economic reform would also be more strikingly visible here.
As the old makes way for the new and radically alters Mumbai’s physical personality, Chandu has undertaken a project called “Vanishing Bombay” to document and record the metamorphosis of the metropolis unfolding in front of our eyes.
The project by its very nature requires popular participation in order to ensure the widest possible coverage of the city’s transforming contours. Chandu is inviting those who live in the city and feel a connection and those who live outside and still feel a connection to send information and audio-visual materials that chart the changes taking place in all walks of life, including buildings, monuments, art, music, culture, movies and people.
Chandu has also set up a website called www.vanishingbombay.com which is still a work in progress.
The eventual objective of the project is to create a sort of a people’s history of a city in transition.
