READING THE “MUSLIM SPACE” IN BOMBAY (MUMBAI) THROUGH CINEMA Aravind Unni 17 / 183 MRE15.indb 183 04/12/14 11:44 am Bombay, now a provincial Mumbai, has been explored in many realms of has become a paradigm of many artistic representations of the city. The contestations, disconnections and writings of Salman Rushdie and the excommunications; with globalization cinematic city of Shri 420 were the and isolation going hand in hand. It is tools of exploration for Rashmi Varma in this complex context that I study, the in reading the transformation of the emergence of the (in)-visible ‘Muslim cosmopolitan Bombay to the provincial Space’ in Bombay; a global and a Mumbai.1 Whereas, popular Bombay simultaneously provincial city. The cinema was posited as a reservoir ‘Muslim space’, I argue is a result or a by Ranjini Mazumdar in “Bombay response to the fundamentalization of cinema: an archive to the city”, to politics that culminated or commenced read the cinematic landscape of the with the Bombay riots of 1992- 93. city in junction with various changing To help delineate the invisible ‘Muslim cinema types and genres. While for Space’ in Mumbai, I have employed Gyan Prakash in “Mumbai Fables”, the Bollywood cinema as my lens on the comparison of idyllic cartoons of Mario assumption that it is just not the physical Miranda to that of the riotous and reality that makes the city, but it is also uncanny urban dystopic paintings by the stories, everyday discourses, art, Sudhir Patwardhan narrate a story of symbols and the imagery that form emerging communalism and decay in an inherent part of the physical built the landscape of the city. The example form. I'm also working on the major of an urban cartoon character called assumption that cinema is a mirror Doga man, a vigilante style comic hero reflection of the society that we live of Mumbai has been studied by Gyan in. Bollywood cinema, I posit, is a tool Prakash as a direct response to the that has not been used extensively to drastically transforming characteristics understand the deeper nuances of of the city. It is these transformations that urbanism and especially in the case of constitute the narrative and stage for the (in)-visible, marginalized spaces like Doga man in Mumbai. And now after the ‘Muslim space’ in Bombay, which its phenomenal success, the cartoon is sometimes might not be perceived in going to be made into a film starring the real world. Shah Rukh Khan, the leading superstar of Hindi cinema.2 This process of cross Cinema as a tool to read the cityscape influencing and transmitting of images has resulted in the merging of art and In the past 60 years Mumbai has cinema; cinema and society; and the undergone immense social and real and the reel. cultural changes and this evolution 1. Rashmi Varma, Provincializing the Global City From Bombay to Mumbai 2. Subhash K. Jha, In conversation with Anurag Kashyap, www.bollywood hungama.com 184 / 17 READING THE “MUSLIM SPACE” IN BOMBAY (MUMBAI) THROUGH CINEMA MRE15.indb 184 04/12/14 11:44 am It is now difficult to distinguish between postmodern theory of urbanism and cinema and life in Mumbai; they no cinema. The discourse and comparison longer imitate each other but appear of the history of urbanism combined to have merged. Political philosophies, with cinema reveals new histories of social values, group behavior, speech modernity and post-modernity that and dress in society are reflected in might be employed to read the present the cinema and are also copied from day real cities more comprehensively. cinema, like a true mirror, and it reflects Hence arguing that cities cannot be back in society. It is thus possible to viewed separately from the imagined view cinema as a legitimate metaphor cities of cinema and ignore the for Mumbai and society in general; dissolution of the real and the reel. which helps to understand society better.3 The cinematic city of Bombay The methodology to me was already ‘known’ before my first trip to the real Bombay and all my I compare and contrast films spanning explorations in the city were established six decades from the 1950s to the on the cinematic city I had experienced present with real physical spaces, which many times in the cinema hall.4 But it enables me to map the transformation of was only after my innumerable visits both the depiction of Muslims in cinema to the actual city I realized that the and also get leads about the built usual cinematic city had enclosed fabric of Muslim dominated parts of and hidden many details that I never Bombay. The sequential transformation knew of Bombay and only one of the and sidelining of Muslims in the reel many being the ‘Muslim Space’. This life suggests the sequential process study then is not just about visible built of marginalization and creation of pattern of the city of Bombay, but also the ‘Muslim Space’ in Bombay. The about the absences and the hidden (un) research aims to explore and find representations of Bombay that I seek to the many constituents or ‘elements’ explore with and within cinema. that make the ‘Muslim space’, and unpack the elements on various There are many precedents that have cinematic themes, while comparing inspired me to utilize cinema as a lens and differentiating it with the ‘Other’ to read the city. Nezar Al Sayyad’s city of Bombay (Mumbai). There must “Cinematic Urbanism”, pursues an (and are) be other elements that depict answer to this question and narrates the transformation and formation of a journey connecting the past one ‘Muslim Space’ in Bombay, but I argue, hundred years of western modern and since some of them are not fully matured 3. Akbar S. Ahmed, Bombay Films: The cinema as a metaphor for Indian society and politics, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, May, 1992 4. Inspired from Nezar AlSayyad’s Cinematic Urbanism 17 / 185 MRE15.indb 185 04/12/14 11:44 am in the cinematic form, I will hence visual mapping of the built space will employ only a few selected ones that allow for the deciphering of the (visual) have consolidated as an element of the elements employed to depict the city ‘Muslim Space’ in Bombay (Mumbai). and its (de)evolution. Thus, this section of the chapter helps in recognizing For the period till 1996, I refer to the ‘vocabulary’ of the cinematic city the present day city of Mumbai with of Bombay and which in turn can be the name it was known by since the employed to read the landscape of a colonial times, i.e. Bombay. From 1996 cinematic ‘Muslim Space’. Parallelly onwards I refer to it as Mumbai. The this section also addresses the change in name, as Rashmi Varma cinematic depiction of Muslims and suggests, points to and is a symbol the transformation in the portrayal of the provincialization of a modern with respect to the socio-political city. ‘Muslim Space’ is a term that I circumstances and the genre of films. am assigning to a space that I argue This comparison will help to establish is a space of marginalization and the relationship between the cinema, underdevelopment that is inhabited cinema types and their representation predominantly by Muslims. Even though, of Muslims in India. This chapter it is very simplistic to call it a ‘Muslim hence helps to narrow down the type Space’ because of its inhabitants, but of films to select and to facilitate a since the reasons, the constituents and comprehensive reading of the ‘Muslim the being-ness of this marginalized Space’ in Bombay (Mumbai). In section space is very different from the other three, a chronological selection of spaces of isolation and seclusion, selected films that portray Muslims in this temporary term is necessary to Bombay neighborhoods will allow a demarcate that difference. reading into the ‘Muslim Space’ and its constituents. My attempt here has The structure of the paper been to show how the various elements like ‘(dis)connections’, the ‘Other’ city, The paper is divided into three sections. the ‘railways’, the ‘red-light’ district, In section one; the research traces the ‘proximity to mills’ etc, are selected to existence of the ‘Muslim Space’ in map the transformation and evolution the history of Bombay (Mumbai). This of ‘Muslim Space’ have varied from section provides the basic historical film to film, chronologically. Hence, background for the research with which pointing to the rising being-ness of the to corroborate and substantiate the ‘Muslim Space’ in Bombay after the argument of the ‘Muslim Space’. The Hindutva doctrine emerged as a viable second section explores the cinematic contender in the socio-politico-scenario Bombay through a selection of the of the 1980s. This chapter also defines biggest hits of Bollywood cinema. This the ‘Muslim Space’ in contemporary 186 / 17 READING THE “MUSLIM SPACE” IN BOMBAY (MUMBAI) THROUGH CINEMA MRE15.indb 186 04/12/14 11:44 am Mumbai comprised of as marginalized sometimes class groupings, or in some and decaying Muslim neighborhoods cases subsets of many variables. The using inferences from the analysis of unabated migration and the increasing elements used to map the transformation overcrowding in the native quarters of its built form. also resulted in the insecure British State segmenting and cuting open the native The history of the “Muslim Space” city through its various institutions and policies like the Bombay Improvement Bombay grew out of the seven, sparsely Trust (BIT), plague control policies and populated, disconnected islands the Police Act of 19028. The physical to the “Urbs prima in Indis”5,The restructuring of the city resulted in the transformation of the island of Bombay appropriation of the Western shores for to the city of imperial Bombay was the wealthy, the North for the middle rapid.