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COTTON 56, POLYESTER 84
The City That Was Mumbai …

A play in Hindi
(Two Acts, 125 mins.)
Written By Ramu Ramnathan
Translated by Chetan Datar
Directed by Sunil Shanbag

Cast:
Nagesh Bhonsle, Charusheela Sable-Vachhani, Kumud Mishra, Pramod Pathak, Nimesh Mehta, Hridaynath Jadhav, Aanchal Nandrajog

Music: Devdatta Sable Musicians: Bali Deshmukh, Sada Mulik Original Lyrics: Ashok Mishra, Sambhaji Bhagat, Prakash Holkar, Chetan Datar Traditional Lyrics: Sant Tukdoji Maharaj, Sant Janabai, Sant Kabeerdas, Patthe Bapurao, Shahir Amar Sheikh Costumes: Suheta Thatte Set Design: Vivek Jadhav, MADe Light Design: Sunil Shanbag, Hidayat Sami Sound Design Suresh Rajamani, Nirupama Kaul, Sunil Shanbag Sound Operation: Kannagi Shanbag Production Support: Suresh Yadav, Vinay, Shilpa Madnani Print Design: Zoya Chaudhary Publicity: Manhar Gadhia, Kajal Gadhia Executive Producers: Shishir Sharma, Lata Sharma,

Acknowledgements:

Prithvi Theatre, Neera Adarkar, Meena Menon, Datta Iswalkar, Irfan Engineer, Chander Patil, Shanta Gokhale, Sanjna Kapoor, Reetha Balsavar, Ashok Mishra, Ishan Trivedi, Suresh Rajamani, Hidayat Sami, Sanjay Dadhich

About the Play

Welcome to Girangaon, the village of girnis. The township of cotton textile mills.
 
Parel, Byculla, Lalbaug - once, the centre of Mumbai, one of the greatest cities in the world, the foundation of its prosperity and growth, its cosmopolitan character, and its rich culture.
 
The story of Girangaon is the story of Mumbai. 
 
From 1840 to 1860, Mumbai grew rapidly, and its claim to being an industrial centre was based entirely on the cotton mills. The number of workers employed in the mills increased exponentially with the growth of the industry.
 
Most workers were migrants to the city. They came from impoverished villages and made Mumbai their home. But they almost always held on to their connection to the village, returning there to help with the harvest, in sickness and old age, or in a crisis, like a labour strike.
 
In Mumbai, they lived in chawls – one or two storeyed buildings, in which rooms shared a common corridor, and washing and toilet facilities. Chawls were densely packed. In fact once the mills began working in shifts, almost double the number of workers began using the same space in rotation. Inevitably the street became an escape from the suffocation of the chawl.
 
Workers met on the streets, shared news and gossip, read newspapers, settled disputes. This was also where Girangaon’s popular culture was at its best. Chawl committees and neighbourhood associations celebrated religious festivals, organised staging of performances, and local competitions.

Girangaon’s influence came to be seen in popular music, theatre, and cinema, both Marathi and Hindi. Its ripples can be seen in almost every aspect of the artistic renaissance witnessed by Mumbai in the 1940s and 1950s. Indeed, Mumbai’s cosmopolitan character came to be shaped by this unique phenomenon.
 
None of this can hide the reality of poor wages, or working conditions in the mills. The workers were not passive victims,  and they learnt to resist the demands by their employees and even the state. Mill owners refused to tolerate the presence of strong trade unions and sought to weaken them , or co-opt them.

The vagaries of demand, more efficient production by power looms, and the refusal of mill owners to invest in modernisation saw Girangaon in the throes of a major crisis by the mid-1970s.
 
The year long general strike by textile workers in 1982 led by Datta Samant was seized as an opportunity to shut down mills, rendering thousands of mill workers jobless.. Many returned to their villages, but many stayed on, hoping the mills would re-open, and seeking unpaid back wages.  

The land on which the "silent cotton mills" stood was now of tremendous value. This became the new battleground, attracting politicians, real estate developers, and inevitably, the underworld. Today we are witnessing the final round in the battle for Girangaon’s future. The skyline in Girangaon is changing – chimneys being replaced by glass and steel towers, and mills by malls. The girnis who built this city have become outsiders. And the rest of us have no say as to what sort of development this city needs.

COTTON 56, POLYESTER 84 is the saga of Girangaon. It’s about dignity in the face of human suffering, about celebration in spite of impoverishment.

Above all, it’s about The City That Was Mumbai.

SUNIL SHANBAG

Sunil Shanbag has been in theatre for almost three decades, directing and producing plays for TheatreArpana one of Mumbai’s most respected theatre companies. The defining characteristics of Theatre Arpana’s productions are strong original texts, innovative staging, and powerful performances by talented actors. Sunil Shanbag’s productions have been showcased frequently as part of Prithvi Theatre’s local, national, and international festivals in Mumbai and New Delhi. He has also worked intensively as a designer and ideas person with India’s best known contemporary dancer Astad Deboo, and is very involved in using theatre training techniques in education and training.

TheatreArpana and Sunil Shanbag can be contacted at 98201-21394 or sunil_shanbag@yahoo.com

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