A day in the life of Mohammed Muslim: Night Ride on Mohammed Ali Road
Cinematographer: Shaina Anand
Duration: 00:52:02; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 32.919; Saturation: 0.149; Lightness: 0.150; Volume: 0.080; Cuts per Minute: 5.074; Words per Minute: 7.072
Summary: Mohammed Muslim lives in Colaba and moves around on his bicycle delivering bread and plastic bags. His beat stretches from Navy Nagar, the southern most tip of Bombay, to Mohammed Ali road and Dongri. We spent a day with him documenting his daily movement patterns. He had some reservations filming his pickup and delivery of plastic bags since they are banned in the city. In his evening shift, he is on his way to Masjid Bundar to pick up wholesale quantity of plastic bags. He speaks with the owner at the store and the owner prefers not to have it filmed. So Mohammed tells us he knows of a bakery further down in Umerkhadi, Dongri. We could go there and he would pick up bread. Its a long ride from Masjid Bundar.
It was a bakery he didn't frequent, and to be honest it was truly a beautiful find, worth the journey for all of us. We had paid Mohammed Bhai an honorarium for letting us spend the day filming him. On reaching the bakery, he seemed very happy to spend 200 rupees on stocks and supplies, and loaded his bicycle with pav bread, loaf bread and savories and biscuits.
Mohammed walks on Yusuf Meharli road and heads out towards Mohammad ali road. Traffic sounds, honking, stores, school bags.
Mohammed Ali Road
South Bombay
Mohammed Ali Road
Mohammed walks on Yusuf Meharali road and heads out towards Mohammad ali road. Traffic sounds, honking, stores, school bags. shops for garments. lots of pedestrians. bulbs in shops. book shop, slippers, savories, mobile covers,
Yusuf Meherali Road
goods
market
sale
shops
stores
Mohammed Ali Road
We head out to Mohammed Ali Road. Mohammed waits at the traffic light. The monopod JJ Flyover in the background. We cross under the flyover.
flyover
goods
haatgaadis
traffic light
-yes, sir. stop the care here.
Mohammed cycles down Mohammed Ali Road. clothes shops, cafes.
Mohammed Ali Road
flyover
honking
shop
Building with fairy lights in background. JJ flyover on our left. Women wearing burkha carrying an infant. Men on bike. cabs. static traffic. Mohammed walks a bit, then mounts his bicycle.
Flyover
Traffic
bike
cab
pedestrians
taxi
JJ flyover
Mohammed Ali Road
Behind Mohammed on the bike now. He cuts across to the other side of Mohammed Ali road, under the flyover. A cab crosses us. Mohammed gains momentum and mounts his cycle.
Flyover
JJ flyover
Mohammed Ali Road
Mohammad cycles upto the signal. 2 women in colorful Riddhas on a bike. Cyclists, haatgaadi wallas, cabs, 2-wheelers, a board wishing people 'Eid Mubarak' courtesy Milind Deoa and Murli Deora, Congress Party. A silver car with a dent on rear bumper.
2-wheelers
JJ flyover
Mohammed Ali Road _
cab
car
cyclist
dent
eid
haatgaadi
hoarding
JJ flyover
Mohammed Ali Road
We pass AK Zainuddin and co, Bombay Mercantile Bank, other stores, shops abnd businesses, a bus stop.
A haatgaadi loaded with huge bales covered in gunny sacs. Being pushed and pulled by 2 haatgaadi wallas.
Jafferbhai @ company, Est 1942, Saifee Saddler & harness stores, Flangwala Enterprise, Gulshan-E-chist mattresses, Bombay Motor upholsteries store, Rose Mattresses, Nitesh cloth...
punctuated din of car horns.
We pick up some,e speed and zip a bit under the flyover.
businesses
cycle
haatgaadi
horn
movement
shops
trade
traffic
Mohammed waits at signal. a man misses the bus that zips by. people gear up to cross the road. density. people move, coolies, haathgaadi with a cycle loaded on top of the goods. a girl on kinetic.
Mohammed Ali Road
bus
coolies
crossing
density
haatgaadi
kinetic
Dongri
JJ flyover
Mohammad cycles on. Taxis on left. Petrol pump. we overtake him. JJ flyover on the left. Mohamed behind. He gets off the bicycle ans asks for imamwada road.
Jabbari restaurant with Coca cola advertising in background. asks a woman for directions.
Mohammed Ali Road
imamwada Road
-the imamwada road...?
she points ahead.
-in the lane at the next stop? ok.
We cycle further down Dongri. shops on the left. Mohammed take a left at the next crossing and gets off the cycle and walks. we pass more shops. he asks for directions to Imamwada.(imambara)
Mohammed Ali Road
haatgaadi
shops
clothes being sold on the street. A juice center, sugarcane and oranges. Hindustan biscuit shop with snack packets. Menfolk hanging around on chairs at the juice center. Mohammed chats with them.
Dongri
Imamwada Road
cafe
conversation
juice
snacks
Cafe Kaushali, Siraj enterprise on the right.
The stunning and very unique imamwada (also known as blue mosque, turkish mosque, Moghul Mosque and also imambara) on the right.
Mohammed walks.
blue
mosque
Dongri
Imamwada Road
imamwada mosque
Dongri
Imamwada road
Mohammed reaches the bakery. Fotowatt bakery. Parks bicycle and heads inside.
bakery
Imamwada Road
Rows of freshly baked bread. we follow Mohammed. He tells us hes buying stuff worth 200 rupees.
he buys khari butter biscuits and other savories.
bakery
biscuits
bread
sale price
shop
-im taking 200 rupees worth.
-ok
- give me khari butter?
- how old is this bakery ? will you tell us?
-will this come on TV?
-Yes
-No
-give us what's nice.
-its all nice.
- give me the sale price, ok.
-yes, yes brother, don't take 'tension.
Exterior of Fotowatt bakery.
Imamwada Road
bakery
Wide shot. Exterior of fotowatt bakery.
Dongri
Imamwada road
Mohammed buying a whole load of biscuits, pav bread and loaves of bread.
Dongri
Imamwada road
-what all are you buying Mohammed Bhai?
- khari...
- so you will delivery this from shop to shop.
yes.
shopowner to Mohammed:
-are you taking this for home or for the shop.
-oh, for the shop.
Interiors of the Fotowatt Bakery. Chequered tiles. tube lights. Men in tehmat- banyan kneading the dough. white flour all around. Baking trays.
Dongri
Imamwada road
White flour, pan to bakers kenading the dough. pan further to the furnace, ovens.
Dongri
Imamwada road
New batches of pav bread going into the oven. Hot brown pav bread coming out. Zoom into the wood fired oven. Baker in tehmat banyan loads trays.
Dongri
Imamwada road
bakery
bread
wood oven
Bakers kneading the dough and rolling into balls for the pav.
Dongri
Imamwada road
Electric machine kneading the dough. pan to trays and bakers kneading the dough.
Dongri
Imamwada road
High ceiling, fans, tubelights. beatuful bakery. Work force comprising 15-20 men. 4 wood fired ovens in the back. Trays.
Dongri
Imamwada road
A worker sleeps in the backroom. Sacks of flour in the background.
Dongri
Imamwada road
Close up of hands rolling dough into balls and setting them on a tray.
Dongri
Imamwada road
Mohammed has finished his shopping and has loaded his bicycle with his goods. the basket is overflowing. Meticulously he covers it with the sack and the rubber tyre. moves his bicycle.
Dongri
Imamwada road
food
Mohammed cycles back on imamwada road past the blue mosque.
Dongri
Imamwada road
Umerkhadi
Mohammed turns on to Mohammedali road. flyover on our left. We move ahead, he waits at a crossing. Haathgaadia, trucks pedestrians corss the road. men wth baskets. Mohammed comes, we continue moviing on MOhahmali road towards VT. We pass a coolie with a huge crate. Another cycleist ovetakes. Buses in the background. we can also here an azaan call. not much traffic now, its also opssite firection from rush hour. a row of bikes pass us, thier talilights shining . pedsetriangns on our right. cars parked uder the flyover. haatgadi walla on our left. another crossing. cards honktraffice gets congested for a moment. the signal clears. momahhmed comes up to us, stops.
JJ Flyover
M: Well take the Vt road, the Vt road...keep left.
- straight...
Mohammed Ali Road
JJ Flyover
Mohammed Ali Road
Mohammed cycles at a steady pace, the road is more or less empty now. we are close to Crawford market on our right now. he gets off his cycles as the signal approaches. A haathgaadi walla with long pipes. Cabs. Another Haathgaadi walla with bales. Mohammed mounts his cycle. A police van parked. A bus overtakes. bikers with goods. Mohammed gets off his cycles and walks now. A bus runs parallel to him as it leaves the bus stop. Mohammed mounts his bicycle and we are in motion again. the flyover under lights and street lights glint. We pass another haatgaadi walla, bikes and cabs. A milk van wants to turn left, signals to Mohamed muslim. Another crossing and we encounter several haatgaadi wallas. Then again as usual the traffic clears a bit we soon reach another signal. cabs crowd the road.
Mohammed Ali Road
Mohammed runs to catch up with us. we lost him for a bit in the crowd. another crossing, but we are in tandem now. cycles in the left lane, cabs on the right.
JJ flyover in the background. We have reached the end of Mohammed Ali Road and also the JJ flyover that runs on top of it. The road is less lit now. The ramp of the old flyover on our left. Hajhouse on our right. people cross the street. pedestrians, a couple with a suitcase, cyclists. people walking briskly towards VT station. Mohammed gets off his cycle, as we have paused.
cyclist
flyover
haatgaadi
motion labour
trade
traffic
- your not tired?
oh not really...its fine. i do this again and again.
DN road
Flora Fountain
MG Road
Outside VT station. Mohammed mounts his cycle. Man sleeping on a bench by the station. We hit the traffic. Haatgaadi with big bales. A bus overtakes. we maneuver around. Mohammed emerges. Man with popcorn bags loaded on a cycle. Vt in the background. We ask Mohammed to step back a bit. He hits a cab. now we wait at the signal. Us on a motorbike, Scot and camera on a cycle and Mohammed on his. signal opens, bicycle with popcorn overtakes. VT glows in the distance, illuminated. Street light twinkling. DN road arcades on the left and right. old banyan trees, colonial heritage buildings, also camera street. We pick up some speed. its a total distance of about 80 km that we care doing.
Reach Hutatma Chowk roundabout. Man grins into camera. Cab honks. Flora fountain in the background.
straight down MG road heading towards Kalaghodha.
VT station
VT
arcades
JN Heredia Marg
sugar cane stall. Mohammed walks into a lane.
Mohammed makes a small delivery to the same shop he had delivered to earlier in the evening. He seems happy. He waits for his money. Goes back to cycle, covers basket with sack and tyre.
JN Heredia Marg
-(ambient conversation with shop owner...something about Mayawati)
delivery
pav
Cycles back to MG road. Kalaghoda. Pass Jehangir Art Gallery. Tourist buses parked alongside the Prince of Wales Museum. BEST buses lined up at Bus depot at SP Mukherjee Chowk.
Kalaghoda
MG road
Cycling past the circle and Regal Cinema, onto Colaba Causeway.
Victoria on Colaba Causeway. Cycling past Citywalk shoes, Leopold, Food inn, etc.
He walks a bit at the intersection. Traffic jam. Car owners honking. Traffic cop (audio) whistling.
Ming Palace, Piccadilly restaurant, adidas, woodland etc...
Another Victoria (horse drawn carriage)
Cafe Churchill, Globetrotter, Olgas...
Road construction begins. Cement machine,
Pass Hanuman Mandir behind the corrugated barrier painted yellow and black.
Construction work continues till the end of the causeway. Left side is being concretised. The part we are driving on is newly done in concrete.
Pass the petrol pump. barricades. Cafe coffee day.
Scaffolding on building. The barricades are made of corrugated metal resting on plastic and metal cans. the tarmac road has been dug out in places and flattened in others.
Colaba Causeway
construction
restaurant
Colaba
Colaba Post Office
Heading back towards home now. We pass Sassoon docks where we had stopped earlier in the day for Mohammed to deliver bread. A few minutes to reach home. Close Up of Mohammed.
He enters the building.
He walks into the compound. Connaught Mansion on the right. The into his lane which is dark. We head up to his house, there is a light on and the TV playing as it was in the morning.
Sassoon Docks
Colaba Post Office
M:ImamBara + M:Masjid Bunder + M:Cuffe Parade + M:Regal Cinema + M:Ballard Estate + M:Reserve Bank of India + M:J.J. Flyover
We are interviewing Mohammed in his lane, just to recap the route. Someone in Connaught Mansion is listening to some Jazz.
- In the evening, I pick my stock from there and come back. And in the morning I make my deliveries as I go along to go pick up a new stock.
- And where do you get your stock?
- From the bakery.
- No but where is that?
- To the one we just went to.
- Yes but tell the camera, not me.
- Alright, the bakery near Imam Bara.
- Tell me the way to go there from here.
- From here I go to Masjid Bunder and from there I turn into Imam Bara.
- So tell me how to go from here to Masjid Bunder. Imagine I was asking you the way.
- OK, so you just go straight to the Cuffe Parade road. Then ahead of that is the cinema. From the cinema you cut across and go to the Bank road. From there it's a straight road to Masjid Bunder and then you turn into Imam Bara from the J.J. Flyover road. OK?
- And you don't get any signals?
- No I don't.
- What else?
-What else?
- What meaning does the cycle have for you?
- I ride a cycle. And, it's alright.
- You like the cycle.
- Yes, I like it.
- No but what I am asking is that what is good about it? Because in my opinion it is actually faster than other vehicles. What do you think?
- It's alright.
- It's alright ha?
- Yes.
- OK
- OK, sir.
Khudha Hafiz.
- Goodbye.
(Hindi)
Colaba Post Office
Kid looks into camera.
TV
khudha hafiz...bye bye.
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