In this webinar event, Dr. Vandana Baweja, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and the Sustainability Program at the University of Florida, looks at the representation of Bombay’s waterfronts in the Hindi film Deewaar (1975). Since its inception, Bombay has had intrinsic ties with the waters surrounding it. These waterfronts, whether the docks, promenades or beaches, have shaped neighbourhoods in the city, established (formal and informal) economies, and have become microcosms of the city in many ways. Many of the Art Deco precincts in the city, notably the stretch along Marine Drive, have emerged in close proximity to these waterfronts. Dr. Baweja looks at the film (and the waterfronts represented in it) in the context of three foundational ideals of the Indian state — socialism, secularism, and urban modernity.
About the speakers:
Dr. Vandana Baweja is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and the Sustainability Program at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She was trained as an architect in New Delhi, India, and got a Master’s in Architecture at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London, UK, followed by her PhD in Architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Her areas of research are – global histories of Tropical Architecture, histories of Sustainable Architecture, and their representation in film and photography.
Dr. Mustansir Dalvi is Professor of Architecture at Sir JJ College of Architecture. His PhD from the IIT-Bombay (IDC), examined Bombay’s Art Deco Architecture from a semiotic perspective. He has also lectured, read and published several papers on architectural education, architectural history and heritage, urban transformation and architectural semiotics. He is the editor of ’20th Century Compulsions’ (Marg), a collection of writings about early Indian modernist architecture. His research is widely published including ‘Buildings that shaped Bombay: the Architecture of G. B. Mhatre’ (UDRI) & ‘Mulk Raj Anand: Shaping the Indian Modern’ (Marg).
