Bombay Framed

Once a scattered group of seven islets joined by land reclamation, Bombay grew from a colonial port into a bustling industrial, financial and cultural centre. From its early role as a trading hub of the eighteenth century to its emergence as a site of political resistance during the freedom struggle in the twentieth century, Bombay has continually been forged by history and significant events and people.

No two individuals have ever viewed this city in the same way. Bombay has always been a tapestry of overlapping worlds: crowded streets and quiet shorelines, mills and markets, neighbourhoods of hardship and comfort, moments of relentless motion and unexpected calm. Bombay Framed: People, Memory, Metropolis invites viewers to see the city through the many images, stories and memories that have shaped it over centuries. Bringing together paintings, photographs, prints, archival material and film memorabilia, the exhibition seeks to hold its shifting soul.

Early colonial views illustrate how British artists mapped and mediated the city’s landscapes, architecture and coastline. In contrast, modern Indian artists turned their gaze inward—to the Bombay’s everyday rhythms and the people who animate it and make it their own. Portraits of royalty, political leaders, reformers, philanthropists and working communities highlight the many individuals and groups who shaped the city’s civic, social and cultural fabric, from Parsis and Kolis to migrants who have built its mills, docks and neighbourhoods.

Cinema, too, finds it place here, for no story of Bombay is complete without it. Vintage posters and J. H. Thakkar’s luminous studio photographs reveal how the city did not merely host the movies—it became their heartbeat and their muse.

Seen across media, Bombay emerges as a city of contradictions—restless yet resilient, chaotic yet dream-filled. Its monsoons, trains, crowded pavements and sea winds form a rhythm that artists have long tried to capture. Bombay Framed celebrates these many impressions, offering a reminder that the metropolis is shaped as much by its people and memories as by its skyline and sea.