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Menka Shivdasani

Mumbai's malls are making every effort to lure the average consumer away from the local kirana wallah. They do this in a variety of ways.

Arzan Khambatta's sculpture.

There was a time, when if you wanted to go shopping in this city, you took the long journey down town and made your purchases in Colaba. These days, the number of malls springing up all over town can take your breath away. Whether people are really shopping enough to justify so many malls is another issue — the retailers who met at the CII conference Retail India 2004 a couple of weeks ago, didn't seem so sure — but there's no doubt that every effort is being made to take your average consumer away from the local kirana wallah. They do this in a variety of ways.

For instance, right now, as half the city is dancing late into the night, Inorbit Mall has organised a `Raas Razzmatazz' between noon and 8 p.m. up to October 24, Rock n Roll Dandiya performances in the evenings, and a `Dandiya' for kids on Navratri Sunday mornings.

The new malls are buzzing, certainly — but whether people are going there to shop or for sight-seeing is a question that begs an answer. Like Piruz Khambatta, chairman and managing director of Rasna International Ltd, pointed out at the conference in Ahmedabad, when people go "sight-seeing" to the malls, the only money they spend is on the bhajiawallas outside. The situation isn't much better in Mumbai.

The malls are finding some truly innovative ways to ensure footfalls. The Wadhwa Group's Raghuleela Megamall coming up between Borivali and Kandivali, for instance, will be centrally air-conditioned, all four lakh sq ft of it, spread over four floors with 900 shops to choose from. The mall, which is expected to be ready by December 2004, will have 14 escalators, 11 food courts, a four-screen multiplex and even a `fun city' spread over 24,000 sq ft.

What's really smart, however, is that there are two multi-purpose banquet halls and party terrace areas as well, coming up for parties and marriages. The exit points of these halls have been placed in such a way that visitors who come for meetings here have to pass through the mall on their way out. "Gujarati weddings happen in the morning," said a representative, "so surely people will do some shopping on their way in or out." For such customers, there is even a 20,000-sq-ft `Gold Plaza' planned, with top jewellery brands available.

Mumbai's shoppers, however, are die-hard value-seekers, and Khambatta, drawing on paanwallahs, came up with a novel suggestion at Retail India. "Instead of 30-40 big stores, what we need are 1,000 no-frills, small stores that purely offer the benefit of price. After all, when Indians go out to buy soap, they are not necessarily looking for a day out... "

As our stores become more swank by the day this is one concept worth thinking about.

Exhibition time

As the festive season gets underway, it's exhibition time. Clothes, artefacts, furniture, property ... this time of year, the city becomes one big marketplace.

Two exhibitionsstood apart from the rest in terms of art and creativity. The first was an exhibition of sculptures by Arzan Khambatta at Jehangir Art Gallery.

It was inaugurated by Amitabh Bachchan, no less, who took time off on his birthday (October 11) for the event. Arzan had done a sculpture of the Big B last year, and Bachchan wanted it. Instead, Arzan promised to make another one for him later. "Bachchan told me he had seen lots of photographs of himself, but this was the first time someone had done a sculpture." says Arzan.

The sculptor, who has made his reputation on `scraptures' — art created out of junk metal — dreams of designing and constructing the tallest metal sculpture in the world to break all existing records. He also wants to take art to the masses and see it installed not just in galleries but also in everyday life.

His exhibition may have ended on October 17, but the next time you drive around the city, take a look at the rhinoceros made of scrap at Nariman Point, and the dolphins at Worli. Both have been done by him and have a permanent place in the city.

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