Hamara Shehar (Anand Patwardhan) 1985

Hamara Shehar (1985)

Director: Anand Patwardhan; Writer: Anand Patwardhan; Producer: Anand Patwardhan; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit, Anand Patwardhan, Parvez Merwanji, Vijay Khambata, Venugopal Thakker; Editor: Anand Patwardhan

Duration: 01:14:28; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 48.880; Saturation: 0.111; Lightness: 0.334; Volume: 0.140; Cuts per Minute: 7.425; Words per Minute: 0.806

Patwardhan’s most acclaimed documentary, made on 16mm, tells of Bombay’s millions of pavement-dwellers. Throughout the early 80s there were several brutal efforts to evict families who lived in illegal tenements and on pavements although they provided the city with the casual (esp. construction) labour crucial to its economy. The film looks at the culture of Bombay’s elite, often contrasting what they say with the physical conditions in which they say it: the former municipal commissioner bemoans the lack of space in the city while his pet dog trots around his spacious garden; the Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro, in a speech at the Advertising Club, talks about the poor as ‘low-quality, low-intelligence’ people. The pavement-dwellers work in the construction industry in the city’s expensive Nariman Point area on land reclaimed from the sea, while massing clouds on the horizon evoke the possibility of an unbalanced environment which may cause tidal waves to wash away their seaside huts. The film achieves epic dimensions in three remarkable sequences. Street urchins sell the Indian flag on a rainy Independence Day, keeping their precious commodities dry while the huge Gothic facade of the Victoria Terminus presides over a police march-past; in the thick of the monsoon, a child in one of the homeless families dies; a woman pavement-dweller’s angry outburst at the film-makers, all highlight the issues involved in the making of this type of documentary.

Introduction to the Annotated Hamara Shehar:

Bombay-Our City, popularly known as Hamara Shehar was released exactly thirty years ago. It is not that before Hamara Shehar or even after it, the city of Bombay has not been the site of cinematic intervention or interpretation, but somehow the documentary still resonates and finds appeal with the viewer/s and stands in line with such other notable cinematic works including those falling in the genre of fiction film. A notable number of feature films have sympathetically narrated the lives of the workers of the city who are forced to live in the in-human conditions of settlements, generally labelled as slums. Noteworthy among them are K Abbas's - Shehar aur Sapna print of which is today hard to find but then one has Phir Subha Hogi, Gharonda, Salaam Bombay and many others. This film was released almost at the same time Adam Curtis's 'Inquiry-The Great British Housing Disaster' was released. It should be a question of inquiry that why the popular struggles around housing did not pick up any of these but in the city of Bombay there would be very few who would not have watched Hamara Shehar. The reason just not be the treatment of the question in the rest of feature films but might be a gap between the popular cinema and popular protests- a guess one can make.

This annotated version, that is being done exactly after a time period of thirty years of its release, is a journey across time and space, looking just not at the documentary but at the city also and attempting a dialogue between the two that is factored in by dimension of time and looking at transformations in space. 1980s was the time when the city was undergoing great turbulence. Although the docu-film narrates the slum struggles in detail but what now is remembered of those years is only the Mill strike. Interestingly the struggle of the mill workers is still going on but somewhere long time got transformed into the struggle of workers for housing but the two struggles- of housing and mill workers for housing has hardly been in dialogue with each other or informed each other. One can assume that they were not talking to each other even earlier as the mill struggle finds no resonance in this docu-film. At the same time the struggle of the slum dwellers of 1980s finds little reference in the struggles of present day. The fragmentation of the struggle and the memory is the deepest loss and this loss has weakened the struggles on different fronts.

Our city...whose city...who is this "our" since this city just not exploits, this city alienates. If it exploits the poor, it alienates those who are not poor. At times the lived reality is beyond the binary of the rich and the poor. The documentary is a 16 mm film and the use of 16 mm camera has been a hall mark of independent film makers. An article mentions that "as early as the 1935 film Housing Problems, a documentary classic about Britain's slums, which showed the inhabitants relating their experiences in their own homes", 16 mm has been in use.

The documentary's title is an answer, it does not ask to whom the city belongs, Bombay-Kiska Shehar (Bombay-Whose City) but is an answer or an exercise of claim making... our city. The lens through which the claim is made is of housing, and the struggles and confrontations around it.

Hamara Shehar received a National Award in the year 1985 and since then much has changed in/around the city. While the annotation of the film was being done the news came that Anand Patwardhan is part of the group of the film makers that have returned the National Award to draw the attention towards the growing intolerance in the country..

police brutality
The docu-film opens with a scene of a demolition site of a slum settlement. A group of policemen are shown dragging a slum dweller who is trying to protect his house from the demolition squad. While is being dragged on the ground, rest of the slum dwellers are either busy collecting what ever remains they can or are just looking at what is happening. An old woman wails...and another laments that all the men folk had gone out on work and the demolition squad came suddenly and thus they could not even save their meagre belongings. In this shot the act of demolition is not shown but the aftermath of it. The responses of people during the shot (all of them women) are not spontaneous but they are speaking to the camera in an interview mode and it seems that they are in response to questions. Amidst the demolition that has taken place a half lit hearth remains. The responses range from what all they have lost in the demolition, the humiliation faced by them from the policemen, their helplessness; anguish and what it means to be in city. Shot in late seventies and early eighties, the period during which slum dwellers in Bombay faced renewed demolition drives across the city in the name of beautifying the city and upholding of "rule of law". The act of demolition of a human habitat in the context of Bombay/Mumbai city has been justified by using the axiom of rule of law. In the year 1898, the Bombay City Improvement Trust Act was brought in which gave powers to the Improvement Trust the authority to demolish houses that it considered unfit for human habitation. Under this Act thousands of hutments were demolished and this in-human intervention has continued till date. Post independence, the central government brought in the Slum Clearance Act-1956 and in the year 1971, the state of Maharashtra brought in its own slum act which justified and legalized slum demolitions.

Vimla Hedau

song

Avahan natya manch
Vilas Ghogre
Vilas Ghogre, and the Avahan Natya Manch appear in the film, Ghogre's song, Ek Katha Suno Re Logon एक कथा सुनो रे लोगों resonates throughout the film, filmed here in1983.

Interestingly, Anand's latest film Jai Bhim Comrade(2014) revolves around the issue of caste and class and Vilas and his death by suicide after the police firing at Ramabhai Nagar in Ghatkoper becomes the entry point.

Here, the troupe moves throughout the documentary, shown at different locations and times but with the same song.

Vilas (http://www.caravanmagazine.in/arts/revolution-will-be-sung) was part of the group by the name Avahan Natya Manch that was at the forefront of the people's cultural space of the city (http://infochangeindia.org/human-rights/crackdown-on-cultural-activism/jung-ki-pukar-avahan-s-cultural-revolution.html).

The struggles in the city in the past always had a cultural motif. Over decades this has changed, now hardly does one see or experience the cultural frontier of the struggles.

For a glimpse of some of the recent protest songs of slum struggles please visit: https://pad.ma/texts/padma:Mandala/110.

Present-day struggles are devoid of the cultural arm and need to be explored into, what are the turns and twists in this regard.

Olga Tellis

stay
Supreme Court judgement
People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had filed a PIL in Bombay High Court and later at the Supreme Court in the year 1981 in response to the massive demolition drive of the pavement dwellers and the slum dwellers by the then Chief Minister A Antulay. At the same time Olga Tellis through her lawyer Indira Jaisingh also approached the court on the same matter. Interestingly although the issue was the same, the course of action demanded was different. Olga Tellis and her lawyer raised the fundamental issue of the fundamental rights of the urban poor and went on to say that it was the fundamental right of the pavement dwellers to squat on pavements. While on the other hand PUCL through its advocate ...Desai argued that they did not favoured the construction of houses by the poor while disregarding the city's planning regulations, what they asked for was implementation of policies that would solve the problem of housing shortage and if the demolitions were to be carried out then they were to be in a non-brutal way. Interestingly in an interview Indira Jaisingh mentions that while the case of PUCL was being heard in the Court the PUCL lawyer had to give an undertaking on behalf of the pavement dwellers that they would not resist eviction and demolition of their homes. And to this, Olga "felt really upset at the way the rights of the pavement dwellers were being bartered away" (http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20files%209/8.%20Two%20Women%20Fight....pdf). What remains unexplored is that why the case filed by Olga Tellis find no mention in the film and only the PUCL case which although was of less importance for the slum dwellers. It is also noteworthy that in the 80s, the Vice-President of PUCL Durga Bhagwat who was also a noted marathi writer resigned from the post since she was not in the favour of fighting for the rights of the hutment dwellers. And similarly in the year 2005 a group of intellectuals and artists approached the Bombay High Court asking for an order restricting the right of the slumdwellers to vote. In the year 2005 when the demolition drive in the name of transforming Mumbai into Shanghai was going on, I as part of GBGB had approached PUCL for supporting the cause of slum dwellers but was refused saying, they do not support the people who are illegal!!!

Supreme Court Judgement

T: Bombay, Our City (Hamara Shehar), 1985 Anand Patwardhan

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Municipal Commissioner D.M Sukhtankar at his quarters on M.L. Dahanukar Marg, talks about protecting the slaughter house plot from "rank encroachers and trespassers".
rank encroachers and trespassers
slaughter house

DM Sukhtankar
municipal commissioner

The slum settlement that is referred to in the documentary is the Shastri Nagar, Bandra West which stands there even till today. Just few months back there was a reported incident of fire outbreak in the slum (http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/fire-breaks-out-at-slum-adjoining-bandra-station-rail-services-hit/) which has been a regular feature here like other adjoining slums. At this site, till early 70s a slaughter house existed which fulfilled the meat requirements of the city but then the same was shifted to Deonar and the vacant land was taken over by slum dwellers. A section of city dwellers have always been fascinated with the idea of putting a curb on people entering the city. The idea of restricting and regulating people coming into the city is a historical one, in context of Mumbai and even otherwise. During the time of Britishers as early as #### an Act was introduced that classified a certain section of city dwellers as "un-worthy" individuals and thus removing them from the boundary of the city was justified in the late nineteenth century. These contestations are interesting as well as absurd. New categories emerge out of these and the older ones gain new meanings. So its just not citizen but more importantly "law abiding citizen". Before this historically is the narrative of a slum dweller, arguing for the reasons why they are there and what brings them there. The camera talks to and of two camps in the city.

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citizen vigilance committee

Slum dwellers trying to physically obstruct the entry of demolition squad. "Municipality ko andar nahi aane dene ka he" A shot taken from above, shows on one side of the gate a group of people trying to obstruct the entry point to the slum on the outer side a small group of police constables.

demolition

PPF

Ziauddin Siddique or popularly known as Baba Siddique who at that time was the General Secretary of Bandra Youth Congress, later on became MLA from Bandra for three consecutive terms and lost only the last election. Like most of the politicians, he arrives when the action of demolition is over and a stay has been granted by the Court. Interestingly, when he is faking the claim of being pro-people, none of the local residents questions him of the same.

T: Baba Siddique, President-Youth Congress of Bandra

Ahmed Zakaria surrounded by Congress acolytes. Ahmed is the father of Asif Zakaria, long-standing and current (2016) Corporator from Bandra (H West) ward.

Ahmed Zakaria
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slum street theatre

A nukad natak by members of Avahan Natya Manch (ANM). The street play depicts the bad condition of the slums and no attempts by the elected representatives, while they do enter into a conspiracy to grab the land on which slums are situated for the purpose of constructing high end user buildings like a five star hotel.

PPF

Generally it has been understood that the economic reasons play a foremost role in people migrating from villages to cities, but the role played by social factors like caste and patriarchy is not given due importance and consideration. It is a tragedy of urban living that those who live in slums themselves are to deal with and perform the duty of demolishing houses of others. The film shows this in this interview and it has not stopped. Some 25 years later, the same story is to be repeated in the lives of Santosh Thorat, another migrant in the city from rural Maharashtra, who is given the duty to demolish the nearby slum in the year 2005 and the very next day finds out that now its the turn of his own house and slum to be demolished. (http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=Santosh_Thorat_CSM. Conservancy workers or Safai Karamcharis form an integral part of the municipal corporation's workforce. But the abyssal work conditions can be gauged from the fact that there are records which show that every three days two safai karamcharis die. There has been a PIL in the Bombay High Court in the year 2008 which ordered taking up of steps to improve their work and living conditions but the situation has not changed much. Since the Municiapl Corporation does not provide for their formal housing to all, most of them end up staying in slums. (Insert-http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/over-1000-safai-karamcharis-died-in-6-yrs-bmc-orders-study/.

Demolitions will go on, says Sukhtankar
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bulldozer

Entry of the bulldozer...The term bulldozer technically refers only to a shovel-like blade, over the years people have come to associate the term bulldozer to the entire vehicle both blade and crawler tractor combined.t appears that the word bulldozer came from the habit of stronger bulls pushing their lesser rivals backwards in not-so-serious contests of strength outside of the mating season. These contests take on a more serious note during the mating season. According to "Bulldozers" written by Sam Sargent and Michael Alves: "Around 1880, the common usage of 'bull-dose' in the United States meant administering a large and efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment. If you 'bull-dosed' someone, you gave him a severe whipping or coerced or intimidated him in some other way, such as by holding a gun to his head... In 1886, with a slight variation in spelling, a 'bulldozer' had come to mean both a large-caliber pistol and the person who wielded it... By the late 1800s, 'bulldozing' came to mean using brawny force to push over, or through, any obstacle." One can say that till late 80's the demolition was carried out by pulling down the structures with ropes or hammering down. Post 80's the work of demolition got mechanised and the Bulldozer was introduced. It has taken the brutality and the destruction to another scale and dimension. Within few minutes hundreds of hutments could be demolished and turned into debris with its introduction. When was the first time that a bulldozer or more aptly a JCB machine used to demolish the slums, remains an important line of enquiry.

wire fence

Post demolition one of the thing authorities have been doing to prevent re-squatting has been put wire fence. Although the fence does not prevent re-entry of people physically in any way but it is more symbolic and acts as a mental deterrent, a declaration that beyond the wire one is not supposed to enter. The wire-fence acts not as a physical deterrent but more as a symbolic one. Although it is transversed too.

photo of poor

During the interview, the then Municipal Commissioner-DM Sukhtankar when asked by Anand Patwardhan about what happens to the people who are now on streets, in the open and the monsoon is about to start. He responds by saying that he is aware of the deplorable state of the families that have been evicted but then there is no way that they can be provided any sort of rehabilitation. The only option available to them is to go back to place from they came to the city initially. Actually, the political establishment at that time under Chief Minister Antulay had decided and declared that the slums will not only demolished but the slum dwellers will be deported out of the city. And at that time slum dwellers were actually forced into bus and trucks and dropped far away from the boundary of the city, assuming that they will not return back. The consensus amongst the ruling class as well as the middle class was that it was enough for the city, no more poor could be tolerated; the city had reached a saturation point and there was a need to throw people out. The argument of city reaching saturation point was again used during the demolition drive of 2004-5 when it got reinvented as 'carrying capacity' of the city. Demolitions at that time were justified by saying that the city had crossed its carrying capacity and could not take any more new people.

Municipal Commissioner

DM Sukhtankar
Municipal Commissioner
slum rehabilitation

Cut-off date

proof of residence
documents

In Mumbai, the documentary proof of existence and residence has taken predominance over all other things. Because of the state practice of slum rehabilitation and not providing housing in general, the idea of protected slum dweller emerged which in turn gave rise to the "eligible" and "non-eligible" slum dweller. The idea of citizenship got diluted by such a construct of eligible and non-eligible. The documentary evidence come as a maze in which the lives of slum dwellers get enmeshed. Thus its just not living in the city but living in the city while creating a proof in the form of a paper trail that proves that living.

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Social Worker Anna Kurien explaining about the occupation of the residents of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar and how the school was built by the residents themselves.
Anna Kurien

T: Anna Kurian, Social Worker
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Anna Kurien narrates how a demolition notice about demolishing a garage was used to demolish the school they had built.

construction worker
labour

The history of the city in a way is history of construction, it would be an apt description to say that "city is work under construction". Hundreds and thousands of workers work at the construction sites, day in and day out. Till the time the work is under progress they are accommodated or tolerated but then the minute the work gets over, they are thrown out. Construction work exhibits alienation to the highest order. The worker labours to make houses for the other but throughout his or her life is never able to make one for themselves. This has been the the reality in the past and even remains the same till date. Neither the state nor the employer-the contractor or the builder take any responsibility of providing housing to the construction workers. After decades of struggle the Building and Construction Workers Act has been brought in force but has not made much difference in the lives of the construction workers. With no formal housing being provided to them, they have no other option but to stay in slum, which face periodical demolitions.
Even at construction site they have no safety, there have been many instances of accidents at the construction sites during which workers have died but the cases have been buried and no action taken.

The scene is of a group of labourers who are pulling a cart fully loaded on a busy road. This reminds one of a similar such scene in film Phir Subah Hogi where Raj kapoor is shown helping a labourer who is trying to pull a fully loaded cart up the road but is not able to as he is alone and Raj kapoor, seeing this joins him in pulling the cart..

Darryl Dmonte
M B Shah

Darryl is interacting with a group of women in a fancy apartment and trying to rationalise with them that how those who live in slums are the ones who work and run the city, how their labour is very important for the functioning of the city but the women are not convinced but in return say that 60% of the slum dwellers are criminals and a bad name to the city. One of the woman, an english one reminds the motley group of the Bombay of the 1920s and then few photographs of Raj's Bombay slide on screen. The slum population that was 4 million at the time of making of this film has now crossed 5 million.

"Servants are not allowed to use the lift". This is something which might be practiced even today but no one would have an audacity to write it in black and white, so blatantly. And yes things have changed. In the super expensive and super high rises, we today have lifts designated for servants and others who serve these buildings. Remanences of class prejudice, although reformed but still operate.

greater bombay vigilance committee

godrej
PPF housing

The post of Sheriff has been a colonial invent and is an political post with the responsibility of attending civic functions and receiving foreign dignitaries who visit the city. SP Godrej is lamenting the fact that minus slum dwellers the city is such a nice place to be, with the gothic structures and beautiful sky line. The only point of worth he makes is that we as Indians we should hang our heads in shame for letting people stay in such a condition. But then the way out he suggests is that of removal of slums as well as slum dwellers.
He says nothing new or nothing old. As back as during the decades of 50s, Jawahar lal Nehru on a visit to the city of Kanpur after making a visit to the slums over there declared that we cannot let people live in such conditions and as a result the Slum Clearance Act, 1956 was introduced.
And he is also agitated that they spend lots of money on advertisements in glamorizing the city before the foreign tourists but when they arrive here they get disillusioned and face the reality that is full of dirt of slums.
This view is not an view of an individual but of establishment, to look good to the outsider and to hell with the people who are otherwise next to you. As late as the year 2007, the Ministry of Finance-Government of India came out with a report titled Transforming Mumbai into an Internal Finance and Business Centre. And in the Report, the direction of the transformation given is this......
So it has always been the outsider that dictates the direction..but then not that outsider who labourers but those who invest.
SP Godrej sounds like he is saying.."I am the captain of this ship. You are welcome to swab the decks and polish the brass, and I will pay you. But there is no way you can live here. You have to spend the night overboard swimming the shark-infested seas.
If you're still here tomorrow morning, report at eight for another day's work. Don't be late, because there are a dozen eager other people ready to take your place at even lower wages." when he says that those who came in the city, worked at the construction sites; should have been asked to leave the city the moment the construction work was over. This is a very typical argument and an expectation that we need people, we require their labour, but then they should not be residing in the same space where we are.
Godrej's own vast tracts of lands in the city. As a recent survey by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of Mumbai nine private land owners and private trusts control around 6,600 acres of land out of which Gordrej company controls 3400 acres of land around Vikroli, Nahur and Kurla.
(insert-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Nine-landowners-control-a-fifth-of-Mumbais-habitable-area/articleshow/45839026.cms)

Tulsi Pipe Road

Construction Worker

Ghogre's Song:
Apni mehnat se bhai,
dharti ki hui khudai...

construction work
labour
mill loom
vilas ghogre

PPF

Tamil
Rag picking is another very important activity for the city but which has not been duly acknowledged and recognized. A large number of people who are engaged in this activity are forced to live in slums since their work is not recognized and is very lowly paid.
carpenter
coolie
garbage dump
ragpicker

eviction
hawkers

Street vendors and hawkers have been part of the Indian street scape since time immemorial. The bazaar never constituted of the shops but also of the hawkers. According to historian Prashant Kidambi, the Britishers always considered the street hawker to be a nuisance and thus always wanted to remove them and not regulate them.
Somehow that continues till date, even after having the national street vendors act. The same section of the society that has been up in arms against the slum dwellers have been against hawkers also.
Ironically, the labour that comes from slums and the products that come from hawkers is agreeable to them but not the human beings that produce that.

demolition man
Indian merchant chamber

Mr BK Bohman Behram, Mayor of Bombay says that as DM Sukhtankar began a war on slum dwellers and pavement dwellers, Mr Pinto began the war on hawkers...clearance of the parts of the city from slums . In a war there are two camps, one who is in opposition is the enemy, does the Mayor of the city consider half of its population as enemy population? Or may be this is a statement of exaggeration or stupid to think in these terms. But if real, then they tell us a different story of the Indian state and democracy. DM Sukhtankar has been representative of the state machinery which has aligned with the vision of the city that has little place and space for the urban poor. The Demolition Man...Mumbai has a long list of 'demolition man" or "One Man Demolition Army". From Sukhtankar to G. Khairnar 1988.1993, 2000-2002(Autobiography-Ekaki Zunj ) to Vilas Kolambe Patil(2004-2007), Chandrashekar Rokade (2008-2011). The city has "demolition man/s" but not "housing man/s" and this is the tragedy of the city. The Indian Merchant Chambers(IMC) organised this felicitation. IMC was set up in the year 1907 to represent the interests of the indian businesses vis-a-vis the British and for this reason, it was supportive of the Swadeshi Movement. During 1930s Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was elected as a Honorary member of IMC. It has been a matter of debate that whose interests Gandhi actually represented. An insight from the city, Amongst the 2000 or more slum settlements in the city, not a single slum is called Gandhi Nagar but Ambedkar Nagars are in abundance in the city!!!

urban land ceiling

godrej

When Mr Godrej is asked about the hundreds of acres of land owned by them and under their possession which could have otherwise be made available for providing housing to the slum dwellers, he reacts back that this is not true. According to him, neither the company nor the family owns any land, but it is the trust that holds the land. He further laments that there can be no solution or nothing can be done as people themselves did not want to improve their life. According to him there were many slaves who did not wanted to be freed but wanted to remain as slaves. According to him, the slum dwellers themselves want live near the garbage dumps, beside the sewerage lines. This is how he covers up their own land occupation. Godrej's has been always taking this position that they do not own land but while all these years they have enjoyed occupation of hundreds of acres of land in Mumbai. A recent government survey of the biggest landowners in the city, mentions Godrej to be the biggest land owner of the city, with possession of 3400 acres of land. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Nine-landowners-control-a-fifth-of-Mumbais-habitable-area/articleshow/45839026.cms

PPF_Housing

PPF Housing
slaughter house

caste
conservancy workers

PPF housing

demolition
PPF
PPF police

For a brief moment the iconic Kanchanjunga Apartments designed by Charles Correa appears on the screen followed by a news report titled "politicians protect builders" which is followed by a street play which depicts the nexus between the politicians and the builder lobby, the winning of the politician which is aided by the builder and who in return now wants a slum settlement to be cleared so that he can build a five star hotel. A bit rhetorical but a real story.
Charles Correa

builder theater

PPF

Bombay arguments
BOMBAY WANTS
D.M. Sukthankar and J.F. Ribeiro
The advertising community comes out in support of the municipal commissioner and police commissioner.
Ceremonial independence day outside the BMC building. The municipal commissioner is taken up on the crane of a fire engine to shower the statue of P Mehta with petals and garland him. The Police force offer a salute. Across the road, Slum dwellers organised under Nivara Hakk Suraksha Samiti shout slogans, "This freedom is false, the nation's people are starving. Stop demolishing huts".

J. Ribeiro was the Bombay Police Commissioner during the period of 1982-85. While addressing the audience consisting of advertisers, he scares them by saying the there is nothing stopping the slum dwellers as they have no respect for the law. They are going to take all over the city and the day is not far when they are get into people's houses and take over. He refers to slum dwellers as an "evil", "illegal", people of "low intelligence and low status". The next day there are banners on street by advertisers declaring: "Bombay wants D.M. Sukthankar and J.F. Rebeiro".

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Julio Ribeiro
Police Commissioner Reberio
Police Commissioner Riberio asking the Bombay Advertisement Club in helping them to improve Police's image among public while he says from now onwards the removal of pavement dwellers will be his priority.

T: Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro and Municipal Commissioner Sukhtankar at a meeting of The Bombay Advertising Club
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15th August
1983
1983
1983
PPF police

Bombay Wants
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T: Ad Clubs support for Police and Municipal commissioners.

T: Independence Day Celebrations August 15, 1983 .

water rising

bandra
death child
shastri nagar

The most moving part of the documentary. Depicts a wailing mother sitting beside the dead body of her dead child- an infant. Death is the only reality of life, one may say...one who is born has to die but few deaths are untimely. May be this child got an un-timely death. But then who is to be blamed. If one agrees to the then Mayor of Bombay, this death was result of that war and now someone should try them under war crimes. Such instances still loom large across the slums. If one looks into the life expectancy or the infant and child mortality rate in present day slums of the city. They are comparable only to sub-saharan region.

"Lets keep Bombay Looking Good", "Do not give alms to Beggars" to "Mumbai Chakachak", "My Mumbai-Green Mumbai" the slogans have been many. Who said only poor gave slogans.

PPF housing

Another demolition and another morcha, the only truth of mumbai's slum dwellers. The rally shown there moves through the streets of south bombay, around CST Station and BMC building, a thing which is not allowed and somewhere accepted by the protesters. A taste of shrinking spaces. Vilas Ghogre rallying "things will be fine when there will be a rule of the workers" a dream seen by many but not realised till date. The documentary ends with a beginning. A family preparing its hut for the monsoon, spreading the tarpaulin on the roof so that it can face the onslaught of mumbai monsoon and the child stands at the door but shies away from the camera and goes inside the hut.

morcha

housing1

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