Page 46 - Seniors Today - May21 Issue
P. 46
Nostalgia
The City that
Never Sleeps
Kimi Katkar, Mahesh Anand, Sharmila Roy Chowdhury and
Nandini Sen at Studio 29. Photo: Courtesy cnntraveller.in
Prabhakar Mundkur looks back at the days when the city was Bombay and
its nightlife was swinging
“I wanna wake up in the city that never a little before my time, but as a teenager
sleeps,” wailed Frank Sinatra in that I enjoyed the Bombay of the 60s. The
old jazz standard New York, New York. highlight of the morning sessions at Venice
Although Liza Minelli first sang it in the at Astoria Hotel was the Lone Trojan, or
Martin Scorsese film, New York, New York Biddu Appaya who would enthrall us with
in 1977. his solo act. These were innocent days
In many ways, those words fit old Bombay because all we did was drink Cokes and eat
like a glove, until the administration sandwiches while we enjoyed the music.
decided to clamp down on its vibrant The word discotheque made its way into our
nightlife. Unfortunately the puritanical vocabulary in the 60s. While the word itself
Morarji Desai took over as Chief Minister of sounded quite ‘in’ in those days, it owes it
Bombay in 1952, and imposed prohibition origins to French where it means a library
on our lovely city, but somehow even that of songs. For us it meant a place to dance to
never damped the spirit of Bombay. The 50s pop music with its accompaniment of dark
was the jazz age of Mumbai with Berry’s, lighting and the rotating strobe ball which
La Bella, (Dhanraj Mahal) Venice at Astoria was usually placed on top of the dance floor.
Hotel, The Ritz and several others. I am told While most discotheques depended on their
by older musicians that they used to wait at business from the crowds who would visit
a street corner at Dhobi Talao to get booked them at night, there was a day discotheque
for gigs. These were the days when a large at Kala Ghoda called the Bullock Cart. It
part of South Bombay was the capital of Art was a favourite among us college students,
Deco. because it offered the respite of a dark place
I was born in the early 50s so this was even if it was sunny outside.
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