Mumbai nightlife: From copycat to trendsetter

2009 was a year of recovery and growth. Of coming back from the terror attacks and surviving the recession. The city’s nightlife took it on the chin, but regained its stride towards the year's end, even managing a little strut and wiggle. Will Mumbai be a livelier town in 2010? Absolutely.

Stunning interiors and abundant space define Tote on the Turf, a new favorite among Mumbai partygoers and lunchers.

Among the newest destinations for high-end cocktails is Tote on the Turf at the historic Mahalaxmi racecourse. Its stunning interiors and abundant space took our breath (and our bucks) away. Tote's owners, Malini and Rahul Akerkar, are leading the pack when it comes to Mumbai's fine wining and dining. Not far away, the Four Seasons hotel gave us SanQi (its delicate all-glass walls are a visual treat but an acoustic nightmare; numb the earache away with house-special saké cocktails) and Aer (34 flights up, with the best roof top bar view of Mumbai and champagne by the flute).

Up the road, The Studio Grey Goose Lounge opened in an attic at the Blue Frog complex amidst much exclusive chilled-vodka pomp and oyster-on-the-half-shell splendor. Joining Lower Parel’s mill area gentrification was Zenzi Mills, the townie version of Bandra’s beloved Zenzi, featuring cutting edge urban dance music, international DJs and one of the best launch parties of the year (UV-friendly everything, nurse costumes, face paint, wigs, yeah!).

Back in South Mumbai, swank Spanish tapas lounge Valhalla wooed moneyed yuppies with excellent service and a decent sangria as old faithful Henry Tham inexplicably closed its doors, though promising indignant regulars a relocated resurrection in the vague future. The neighborhood local The Elbo Room, tucked cozily in a Bandra by-lane away from the honk and bustle of Linking Road, stood alone in the category of relaxed new places for a chilled beer and chat.

"What is nice to see are places like Blue Frog and Zenzi that are music focused," says Rahul Akerkar co-owner of Tote of the turf. "A few years ago we had traditional outlets like a staid bar and a disco-type nightclub, but now the people have a yearning for alternative entertainment."

Perhaps he's right because we did feel a small but definite surge in the suburban live and indie music scene, a most welcome replacement for the city’s fading, third-rate nightclubs. Smaller venues including beachfront Aurus, al fresco Il Terrazzo and Bonobo, plus Gadda da Vida at the Juhu Novotel hotel started presenting live music with varying regularity, giving hope to veteran rockers and inspiration to aspiring indie musicians (look out for singer-songwriters like Ankur Tewari, Arijit Datta and Nikhil D’Souza). This is being nutured by some much needed professional representation in the form of Indiecision, India’s first proper resource for independent music news and Only Much Louder who multi-tasked at artist representation and event management while launching an independent record label and distribution arm.

The annual Jazz Utsav tried to move from the open-air Bandra Amphitheatre to the larger, perfect Priyadarshini Park in an attempt to add another outdoor venue to the list, but this was not to be: local municipal authorities picked a last-minute bone with the organizers and closed off the venue, forcing the festival to move indoors to eleventh-hour savior Blue Frog.

Blurring cultural boundaries in 2009 was contemporary Rajasthani folk band Rajasthan Roots who packed The Frog Tuesday nights and got Mumbai’s global elite dancing to mystic Sufi melodies and Indian desert blues. Homegrown favorites Something Relevant launched their first album independently -- after six years of hard work and harder play -- with a jazz-funk-groove sound that would go down well anywhere in the world.

Although not a patch on Mumbai’s swinging music scene of the sixties (when Mumbai was still Bombay and Churchgate was littered with clubs hosting impromptu midday jazz jams), 2009 was a collective effort to revive live music, even if in fits and starts. The barriers are many, though, and the champions few.

Several alternative-style Electronic live music DJs came to town (thanks primarily to venue Zenzi Mills, newly-formed artist booking agency Krunk and Indo-French DJ collective Bhavishyavani Future Soundz.) As things stand, however, Mumbai has precious little by way of live music (excluding Indian classical concerts and Bollywood tamashas) compared to our global brethren: compare the nightlife listings of San Francisco, London, Prague or Tokyo to ours, and we’re left limping in the dust.

That said, Mumbaikers are laughing a lot more now as stand-up comedy clubs opened, offering an alternative to the well-worn weekend of music and the movies. The UK’s Comedy Store did their India tour in preparation of their Mumbai franchise due to open in early 2010, testing British, Kiwi and Ozzie humor on the Indian funny bone with decent results. The renowned Russell Peters returned, as did rising star Papa CJ in an attempt to create a more regular stand-up comedy circuit in India via the Big Laugh Festival. Mumbai local Vir Das took his solo show on the road, too. Venues like Bonobo, Blue Frog and Bootleggers hosted stand-up comedy nights for a local audience which is still learning to laugh at itself. Life’s too short to be taken too seriously; we anticipate more -- and better -- stand-up comedy in 2010 as well.

Still, with all this growth. What's keeping Mumbai from earning a 'world's best party city' badge?

Most fingers point to official restrictions and antiquated laws. The difficulty of putting on live music events is a perfect example as local talent is limited or dormant and out-of-town and international acts are too expensive to bring in because audiences are low in attendance and reluctant to pay for concerts.

Meanwhile, indoor venues supporting live music are limited and cannot operate beyond 1:30am and outdoor venues get slapped with an exorbitant entertainment tax (anywhere from 25-40 percent). These factors still result in organizers getting the raw end of the deal most of the time.

Jazz Utsav organizer Prakash Thadani says it's too much of a struggle. “It’s a clear demarcation between Western and Indian culture,” says Utzav who had one show cancelled though permissions had been previously obtained. “Instead of telling us there was a problem with our permissions so we could sort things out peacefully, the BMC showed up when the festival gates were to be opened and cordoned off the area with police bearing guns and night-sticks. We’re jazz lovers, music lovers, not unruly hooligans. Mumbai used to be a cultural hub for arts and music, but now we’ve regressed.”

Nevil Timbadia, partner of Bandra hotspot Bonobo, thinks the effort is rarely worth the returns. “Most people don’t realize the tremendous cost and effort that goes into organizing live shows. The entertainment department takes an entertainment tax, a cut of the sponsorship amount and a cut of any barter deals -- so many of us are running up a loss even before the event starts. We need a massive change in rules and regulations or nothing is going to change.” Timbadia continues to do his bit to support live music and DJs, but he’d rather host sporadic high-quality gigs than a regular range of lukewarm ones.

Blue Frog CEO Simran Mulchandani would like to bring more top-class international artists to town, but needs a consistent audience to make things commercially viable. “In order to pay for a big-name artist, we need to be able to have at least three full-house shows,” says Mulchandani. “In addition, if we can create an ecosystem of several venues around the country, international musicians become much more affordable. We can’t do this alone.”

That's the take-away line from 2009 as the new year gets underway. Like a dance in slow motion, individual players are slowly converging, realizing the power of collective action. Healthy competition is a good thing; shared knowledge and resources are even better. Mumbai nightlife is currently in second gear, but the fire’s been rekindled in the city’s belly, and with a bit of luck and a lot of persistence, we may eventually get to top speed in the first half of the new decade.

The Mumbai Nightlife Directory 2010

Aer and SanQi, Four Seasons Hotel, 114 Dr. E. Moses Road, Worli; tel. +91 (0) 22 2481 8444

Aurus, Ground Floor, Nichani Kutir, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Vile Parle (W); tel. +91 (0) 22 6710 6666 

Bonobo, Kenilworth Phase 2, 2nd floor, off Linking Road, behind KFC, Bandra; tel. +91 (0) 22 26055050

Blue Frog and The Studio, D/2 Mathuradas Mills Compound, N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel; tel. +91 (0) 22 4033 2300

Gadda da Vida, Novotel Mumbai, Balraj Sahani Marg, Juhu Beach; tel. +91 (0) 22 6693 4444

Il Terrazo at Del Italia, Opposite Juhu Beach, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu; tel. +91 (0) 22 2618 4050

The Elbo Room, Plot 500, Sant Kutir Apartment, behind Levi's Showroom, Linking Road, Khar (W), tel. +91 (0) 22 2648 3316

Tote on the Turf, Mahalaxmi Race Course, Keshva Rao Khadye Marg, Mahalaxmi; tel. +91 (0) 22 6157 7777

Valhalla, 1st floor, East wing, Eros theater building, Churchgate; tel. +91 22 67353535

Zenzi Mills, Todi Mills Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel; tel. +91 (0) 22 4345 5455