In the golden light of a typical sunset in Mumbai, the seafront alongside Marine Drive seems like a postcard from a different era and a testament to the city's relationship with modernity. The rounded balconies, streamlined structures and pastel facades which line this promenade are not just iconic buildings but perhaps living monuments reflecting the cosmopolitan vision of a city that is constantly is reinventing itself.
In Gregory David Roberts magnum opus “Shantaram,” set in the 1980s when Mumbai was still known as Bombay, the city has been portrayed as a different world of its own and a world in itself. One such part of this world is its Art Deco, a pivotal feature of Mumbai’s diverse architecture.
After Miami, the second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world is in Mumbai. While Miami’s Deco has neon flamboyance, Mumbai has more of a stoic embodiment and quieter iteration which was not born in post-war hedonism but instead amongst Indian bourgeoisie in the 1930s.
As Art Deco turns 100 this year, the global emergence of this style has reshaped cities from Paris to Miami to Mumbai. While the Gothic Victorian buildings of Mumbai such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or Bombay High Court of the Colonial era, have been receiving heritage recognition for a long time, the buildings' legacy of Art Deco is finally receiving the recognition it deserves.
Mumbai’s relationship with style not only tells the story of architecture, but also comprises of modernity, cosmopolitanism and class—a city where Deco was not just an aesthetic but a social declaration, and often used in residential buildings, movie theatres and offices.
Art Deco originated in Paris in 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Then, a significant break from the ornate curves of Art Nouveau, minimalism of early modernism, the symmetry of craftsmanship, and stylised ornamentation of machine age were embraced. Across the globe, Art Deco spread rapidly, therefore becoming a symbol of modernity with its bold geometry and ornamental restraint shaping buildings—from Chrysler Building in New York to Miami beachfront. With time, Art Deco became synonymous with modern luxury and glamour.
India, which was under colonial rule at the time, embraced this style in a unique manner. In Bombay, in the 1930s, the city witnessed rapid urbanisation with the evolution of nouveau riche, which coincided with the development of Marine Drive. Art Deco was in vogue at the time and its influence was profound in domestic life. It embodied a paradigm shift. Therefore, Bombay’s Art Deco movement originated especially in the South Bombay areas of Churchgate, Queen's Necklace, Colaba, Malabar Hill,and Fort; along with certain parts of Dadar, Matunga and Byculla.
Many architects who trained at Sir J.J School of Art and Architecture were hired or were given exposure to the Modernist style, thus propagating the Art Deco movement in Bombay.
The Art Deco buildings in Bombay, though, were not the replicas of the ones in Miami; they were reinterpreted through a cultural lens of a different subcontinent. While Miami’s Art Deco is loud and neon bright, Mumbai’s Deco is more light, vernacular and has stories to tell. The Art Deco buildings were associated with sophistication and futurism. These buildings were characterised by gleaming facades, sweeping staircases, lotus motifs and temple spires. One such example is Taraporewala Aquarium.
But Art Deco was not only used for commercial or public buildings. Rather, it became a preferred style for residential buildings as well, therefore indicating Bombay’s upper and middle class aspirational dreams. For a lot of people, living in an Art Deco building was not only about comfort, but also a statement of progressiveness, cosmopolitan values, and class.
The influence of Art Deco was not only confined to offices and residential buildings; it also paved its way to culture and leisure.
During 1930s when Art Deco was thriving, at the same time Indian Cinema was also rising and Bombay’s Deco theatres became pavilions of public fantasy that gave people a break from their regular lives. Some of the theatres which emerged in this era were Regal in Colaba, Eros in Churchgate, and Metro and Liberty in Marine Lines. Each became an architectural marvel in their own ways.
With its sweeping staircases, ambient lightning and mirrored foyers, these theatres offered people an escape amid grandeur for three hours in a nuanced manner. It also marked the mélange of architecture and spectacle, emerging as spaces where people from different classes and religions could be under the same roof and share similar experiences in a juxtaposition of luxury and accessibility. Even today, these theatres have an enduring presence and stand as an ode to an era where art and architecture were deeply intertwined.
Mumbai’s Art Deco is not merely a derivative style but rather a distinct metaphor and an adaptation. The Art Deco buildings in Bombay had incorporated local conditions and iconography denoting a fusion of international style and cultural influences. These façades were often adorned with mythological and celestial imagery, which made space for storytelling along with a modernist idiom. This mixture of local and exotic elements made Art Deco in Bombay a metaphor for the city—a metropolis where a confluence of languages, worlds, and dreams existed through its Colonial buildings or public housing system.
Architecture of Mumbai has mirrored its contradictions multiple times. Art Deco in the city was the architectural articulation of a modern India, reflecting the pluralistic ethos of the city where traditions, dreams, diversity, and languages converge together. The buildings stood as metaphors for the city itself—as a constantly evolving metropolis whose heritage is deeply rooted even today.
Art Deco paved the way for subtle assertion under Colonial rule. When Indian identity was being negotiated and contested, these buildings embodied sophistication and modernity.
Eventually by late 1950s, Art Deco started losing its prominence with the emergence and prominence of other architectural movements. Modernism, for instance, started taking over and unregulated development led to widespread degradation. Many buildings were being altered and not receiving the recognition as Deco began to be seen as inconvenient and passé.
But in the past two decades, there has been a significant paradigm shift in preserving the Deco of Mumbai. These movements have been led by various heritage activists, residents, architects and archivists. Many conservationists have also played a major role in reviving awareness for the recognition of the Art Deco of Mumbai. One of the major achievements came in 2018, when the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai were named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It not only validated the beauty of these buildings, but also their social and cultural significance.
Preserving Deco is not only about restoring facades but also about sustaining those communities. Even today, people are residing in the Deco buildings such as Soona Mahal and the buildings at Oval Maidan—which still echo with daily life, unlike various heritage zones that are standard empty or have been turned into museums. The maintenance of these buildings remains a challenge especially for the ones that are ageing or managed by housing societies with no training in conserving such heritage establishments. The redevelopment and pressure of regulating these buildings is also a huge pressure.
In India, heritage often suffices the ancient monuments, forts and religious places. Art Deco has compelled to expand this narrative and to recognise modernity with preserving history, which includes many domes of Mughal era and architectural forms of both Vedic and Colonial form.
Art Deco not only offers an alternative imagination and perspective, but it also a functional and modern architecture which is both efficient and expressive at a time of aesthetic and environmental crisis. It has taught that design and architecture can be both enchanting and enduring.
As Mumbai is at the edge of its second century of Deco movement, the question is not about how long we can preserve these buildings, but rather how we can preserve the values, such as elegance and accessibility, which these buildings have stood for.
