DISCOVERING A CITY THROUGH ‘MATERIAL’ISTIC STORIES
In collaboration with Majlis, Cinema City and Goethe Institut, 2010
A place is made by its people. But buried below are the silent layers of tarred roads, bricked walls, paper mills, textile prints and so on. Materials maketh a city. Some streets, markets and roads are named after the materials manufactured there or the settlements of labour classes named after their professions. Kapad Bazaar (Cloth market), Paper Mill Lane, Bangdi Bazaar (Bangle Market) are mutually shared markets across many Indian cities, while Tamba Kanta and Bori Bunder are more specific to Mumbai. Each one named after a different material. The archived histories of cities have been reinterpreted by Indian filmmakers who weave fictional stories around these real places or resuscitate forgotten biographies. The postcards were crafted from materials while the text reciprocated them with stories related to each place. The stamps were treated as miniature posters of Indian films connected with these places and materials.