Shoba Narayan says that watching the 2023 Bollywood hit Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani left her wondering when a character hailing from Karnataka would appear in a mainstream Bollywood film. “We all know Bollywood is full of Punjabi characters because, for a long time, they were the producers and directors,” says the Bengaluru-based journalist and writer, adding that, more recently, Bengali and even Tamilian characters have entered the world of Bollywood.
“But why is a Kannadiga character not rising up to the national consciousness,” she asks at a recent talk titled Glimpses of Namma Bengaluru: When a City Becomes a Character at the Bangalore International Centre in Domlur before offering a theory. “Bengaluru is (simply) not a Bollywood film. It is a Karnataka film,” believes Shoba before going to announce the other three panellists at this discussion, singer M.D. Pallavi, food expert Kunal Bysani aka Ghatotkatcha, and historian P.L. Udayakumar.
Decoding the character of the city and its people, something Shoba has already attempted in her recent book, Namma Bengaluru: The Soul of a Metropolis, became one of the major themes at this session, with Shoba delving into her craft, process and characters while the other panellists offered their expert take on the city’s music, food and history.
A wonderful experience
Shoba starts by asking Pallavi, who has sung all over the world, about what makes the audience and music of Karnataka so different. According to Pallavi, the one thing that has always struck her about performing in Karnataka is how lovely the people are. “There’s so much hospitality, such warmth, always,” she says, recounting her experience of singing at a big jatri in North Karnataka around the time of Sankranti.
The concert, part of a 3-day festival, which had farmers coming in from over 20-25 villages, took place on a hill surrounded by many more hills, says Pallavi, adding that almost 6-7 lakh people ended up camping at this site, cooking in large community kitchens and sleeping under the open sky. “I can’t even explain what a feeling it was to sing and to see an endless number of people listening to your music,” says Pallavi, who still remembers how warm, welcoming and hospitable every person there was. “There was not a single bad moment,” she says.
She also talks about the diversity of music available in Bengaluru, specifically from Carnatic to Hindustani to jazz, pop, rock and Indie music. “It is like a melting pot,” she says, something Shoba echoes.
A view of Indiranagar 100 ft road. | Photo Credit: BHAGYA PRAKASH
A city old and new
Inhabitants of Bengaluru, many of whom are migrants to the city, often assume that the old part of the city is the Pete area while the swanky, happening bits such as Electronics City, Indiranagar and Whitefield are newer. Nothing could be further from the truth. “The core of the city — Chikpete, Balepete and all of this — is probably the newer portions of the city,” says Udayakumar, pointing out that these are only four or five hundred years old.
The crowd is busy purchasing for the Diwali festival at S.T. Road at Chikpete. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
On the other hand, the locality of Indira Nagar is actually designed around the village of Binnamangala, believed to have been set up over 800 years ago, while Koramangala has been around for 1100 years, while Pattandur, where ITPL is now located, is even older. “It’s exactly the opposite,” he says.
A view of Vidyarthi Bhavan at Basavanagudi. | Photo Credit: SREENIVASA MURTHY V
The dosa debate
Food blogger Kunal Bysani brings up the huge, ongoing food fight in the city — which place has the best masala dosas — CTR or Vidyarthi Bhavan. His own preference? Anything in South Bengaluru, therefore Vidyarthi Bhavan, which has “stunning” dosas, says Bysani, who is also a fan of Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room in Gandhi Bazar, which was started in 1928.
He also talks about how the food of Bengaluru is highly impacted by the migrants from other states, from Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, listing some dishes with origins from other states, including Vada curry and Donne biryani.
Inherent cosmopolitanism
It is not just the food culture that all these migrants have impacted but the linguistic culture too, with the writings of Tamil or Telugu in Karnataka, which go back a thousand years. “Most native Bengalureans have a very difficult time if you ask them this question: what’s your mother tongue? It’s really hard to say that because at home you speak three or four languages,” points out Udayakumar, adding that it stems from an inherent cosmopolitanism prevalent in the city.
“The welcoming nature of Bengaluru that everyone’s talking about is rooted back in history,” says Kumar. “The culture itself is essentially a mixed culture. So, everybody feels at home and that’s probably what is the very fundamental nature of Bengaluru itself.”
