100 Years
100 Stories

40
100 Years 100 Stories
40

Did you Know? Sculptural Art was also our thing

A panel from the Onlooker's Building, previously the People's Insurance Building, in the Fort neighbourhood of Mumbai. Courtesy: Art Deco Mumbai Trust

Panels in Maladcrete protraying scenes of rural Indian life on the Onlooker's Building, in the Fort neighborhood, Mumbai. Courtesy: Art Deco Mumbai Trust
The topmost panel on the Onlooker's building, in the Fort neighborhood, Mumbai. Courtesy: Art Deco Mumbai Trust

What happens when an excellent material finds its way into the hands of a skilled artist? Visually stunning artwork is born. This was the case when Bharat’s ‘Maladcrete’, a coloured cement plaster that gave the impression of Malad stone finishing to a structure, was used by Mr Shiavax Dhanjibhoy Chavda to make relief panels for the People’s Insurance Building, now called the Onlooker’s Building. Mr Chavda was a graduate from the J.J School of Arts and later received a grant from the Ratan Tata Charity Trust to study painting at the Slade School of Arts in London. He later attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris and learnt mural decoration with famed Russian artist Vladimir Pulonin.

Panels in Maladcrete protraying scenes of rural Indian life on the Onlooker's Building previously called the People's Building, in Fort neighborhood, Mumbai. Courtesy - Art Deco Mumbai Trust

The panels are heavy on symbolism, each consecutive one representing Progress, Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, depicted in scenes from daily life in the country. The topmost panel carried the crest of the company, a figure carrying two Swaraj flags with charkhas on them, with the words Service and Security conveying the principles of the financial institution. Some vividly depicted figures include a pair of bullocks, a man spinning the charkha, a marketplace and a group striding confidently into what can only be the bright future of the country. The flexibility of Bharat’s Maladcrete allowed the depiction of such fine, fluid figures.

The topmost panel on the Onlooker's building, previously called the People's Insurance Building, along P M Road in the Fort neighborhood of Mumbai. Courtesy - Art Deco Mumbai Trust

A Times of India report from 3rd May 1941 cites it as giving a “It gives a symbolic expression to the face of the structure and as essential it also gives a strong distinction to a commercial house with a moderate frontage on a main city street”.

Jamshed Nusserwanji Mehta, BFT Archives, Mumbai.

Below the striking panels, Bharat also executed marble work in Onice Tregarth marble, while the entrance had Bardiglio Venato marble with matching veins. The interiors of the building, staircases and landings had a mix of terrazzo, Colourex and marble mosaic tiles.

Swadeshi Poster, Indian History Pics, Twitter

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