Mumbai: People who live or commute to south Mumbai cannot fail to notice the old world buildings with curved balconies, porthole windows, pastel coloured facades and sunburst motifs along Churchgate and Oval Maidan. The kind that house the iconic Eros Cinema as well as Gaylord Restaurant. These structures are shining examples of the Art Deco style of architecture that surfaced in Mumbai after 1925.This style is believed to have shaped Mumbai’s architecture. A cluster of such structures is also visible in central Mumbai and the western suburbs.Now a three-week festival from Nov 6-25 named Art Deco Alive! will celebrate 100 years of the Art Deco movement in Mumbai. A website named artdecomumbai.com says there are 1,350 documented Art Deco buildings across south and north Mumbai.Art Deco architecture is a design style that emerged in Paris in the 1920s. Mumbai has the largest collection of Art Deco buildings after Miami, constructed across Fort, Churchgate, Fort, Dadar, Matunga and Vile Parle.In fact, the Art Deco buildings along Oval Maidan were granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2018. Interestingly, the style is not limited to built architecture but also reflects in furniture, jewellery, lighting, textiles, graphic design, automobiles — even cinema.Art Deco Alive! is founded by Smiti Kanodia together with Miami-based co-founders Salma Merchant Rahmathulla and Gayatri Hingorani Dewan. Anchoring the Mumbai edition is a partnership with the Bhau Daji Lad Museum (BDLM). Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, managing trustee and director, BDLM, said the museum will co-present the centenary exhibition, which will co-present the centenary exhibition ‘Ocean Drive to Marine Drive: Mapping a Century of Art Deco’ in collaboration with the Art Deco Mumbai Trust (ADMT) and the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL).All events are open to the public. The festival starts Nov 6 with an exhibition at BDLM named ‘Ocean Drive to Marine Drive’ which connects Mumbai and Miami as “cultural cousins” in the century-old Deco movement. Over the next few days, street walks at Churchgate, Marine Drive, Shivaji Park, Matunga and Vile Parle, sketching tours in south Mumbai, symposia, film screenings and retail edits are on the anvil.Kanodia explained the significance of this style that shines like an oasis amid the onslaught of redvelopment in the city. “As Mumbai continues to grow vertically, we must celebrate progress while preserving the architectural identity that gives the city its timeless charm. Creating awareness is the first step in preservation. This is our endeavour — for a city to be livable, it must have soul and great infrastructure.“She said, “Art Deco wasn’t just an architectural style; it was a comprehensive design movement that influenced nearly every aspect of visual culture in the early 20th Century. Emerging after World War I, Art Deco reflected the optimism and glamour of a new modern age. Its bold geometry, rich materials, and streamlined elegance extended far beyond buildings — shaping furniture, jewellery, lighting, textiles, graphic design, automobiles, and even cinema. Designers used materials like chrome, glass, ivory, and lacquer to express luxury and craftsmanship, while motifs such as zigzags, chevrons, sunbursts, and stylized flora and fauna appeared across mediums.”Kanodia said that in Mumbai this aesthetic influence was visible not only in the facades of cinemas, residential buildings and offices, but also in interior details: terrazzo floors, teak furniture with stepped profiles, ornate grilles and even typography on signboards.In this, the connection between Mumbai and Miami is “both striking and deeply poetic”. “Miami’s iconic Ocean Drive with its pastel-hued facades, elegant curves and geometric symmetry evokes deja vu, as if one were strolling down Marine Drive.”UNESCO’s recognition to the Art Deco structures near Oval precinct as a World Heritage Site in 2018 was a morale booster, no doubt. Yet, heritage observers wish that Mumbai’s local authorities, the residents of these buildings and common citizens appreciate this glorious heritage in our midst. Kanodia said, “From my experience, while there is growing curiosity and admiration for these stunning buildings, many local residents and even authorities still see them as everyday structures rather than exceptional pieces of global heritage. There’s a gap between recognition and real emotional connection. That is how initiatives like Art Deco Alive! help people rediscover what has always been right in front of us. When citizens feel proud of their cultural identity, preservation becomes a shared responsibility. The journey does not end with UNESCO recognition — it begins there. It sparks a sense of shared guardianship.”
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