The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) was inaugurated on March 31 in Mumbai, marking the opening of the country’s first-ever multi-disciplinary cultural space. Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani were joined by their children Akash and Shloka Ambani as well as Anand Piramal at the grand opening.
The Centre is highly inclusive with free access for children, students, senior citizens, and specially abled (divyang), and will strongly focus on community nurturing programmes, including school and college outreach and competitions, awards for art teachers, in-residency Guru-Shishya programmes, art literacy programmes for adults with an exquisite showcase of the best of India across music, theatre, fine arts and crafts to audiences from India and the world.
The Cultural Centre is home to a 2,000-seat grand theatre, a 250-seat studio theatre, and a 125-seat cube, all of which are equipped with cutting-edge technology and top-of-the-line facilities. The event also saw the likes of Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, BJP MP Hema Malini, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, actors Anupam Kher, Vidya Balan and Rajinikanth.
Celebrating Bharatiya culture
It was the last day of the March month, and suddenly all our phone screens burst out with a vision. Nita Ambani, the business magnate of Reliance Industries Limited, doing an elegant dance number on Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram. As “Sita Ram Sita Ram” mellowed the surprised senses, one started searching what the occasion was. Who is now getting married in the Ambani family? That is when India woke up to Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. The biggest business family of the country and one of the most prominent of the world, yet again left everyone gasping for breath, in one swift move.
The opening of Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai on March 31 heralds a new age for an India that is poised to look forward, upwards and beyond.
But more importantly, what left everyone stunned was the fact that a business house had taken the most important step that should have been taken long back, i.e., the opening of a Grand Cultural Centre for the country that has birthed and given art to the world.
As a textile designer working with heritage crafts, I often pore over old coffee table books, or spend hours visiting various museums, architectural marvels, to piece together heritage of Indian fashion, and would wonder, as to why no organised space ever got created, that housed every gift India has given to the world for art – spiritualism, music, art, textiles, crafts, Natyashastra, dance, and so much more.
After all, India is where the first sound of music was heard in Aum; this is where theatre took birth in the shape of Natyashastra; this is the land that gave dance to the world with Natraja; the temples of this country were the earliest proponents of depictions of expressionism rooted in “Darshan” (philosophy); the language of the Gods and Sanskrit was first spoken in this land to humans via Saptarishis. We have the earliest reference of weaving and craft traditions displayed in full glory on temple art and in scriptural references. This is why, pre-colonisation, Bharat was considered the conscience of the world.
Targeting Ancient Culture
This is precisely what was attacked and subdued with colonisation of India. Our music, language, dance forms, textile traditions, philosophy, were bound and gagged by the East India Company, and we were reduced to an outsourcing unit of raw materials, while cultural forms that were meant for worshipping our Gods, were reduced to entertainment for the masters.
The official enslavement may have lifted off but the mental trauma remained. India had forgotten what all it had gifted to the world, and it was frustrating that no one centre remained where Indians could find their cultural cornerstone. Not one ambience displayed a window of culture that guests in India could see and understand the nation’s deep and rich legacy.
In that respect, the opening of NMACC is exactly what India should have had long back and wanted. This was the right time and this should indeed be the right move. The event is plastered all over social media. When it is an Ambani event, it will get noticed. There are no arguments to this.
The social media, as is predictable, went abuzz with glitterati guests pouring in dramatic costumes. Global entertainers, Indian talent, spiritual gurus, business magnates, designers, the grand family which made all this possible, and Bollywood. The costume representation on guests from entertainment, went on to showcase that NMACC could finally be India’s answer to MET, and so much more. Hence the drama on the opening night. The brief was to wear costumes that showcase Indian crafts and arts, which is a fabulous move and allows Indian designers to have a global platform to create that drama.
With the European luxury label, Christian Dior, doing a much talked about show in front of Gateway of India, and collaborating with an Indian atelier for their latest ramp collection, all of which focused on Indian craft forms, the bar is already raised high to see
Indian crafts take centerstage, with a global appeal.
For the NMACC event, entertainers like Gigi Hadid, Zendaya, Emma Chamberlain walked decked in exotic representations of Indian crafts like Chikankari and a variety of Indian hand embroideries by local designers like Rahul Mishra, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, Shane and Falguni Peacock. The Ambani family themselves was most elegant in simplest crafts to dramatic outfits that focused completely on the rich legacy of local crafts like Kadhua Banarasi and Patan Patolaand Chikankari. The family stuck mostly to classic cuts, beautiful colours, controlled drama and heavy jewellery of precious gemstones with deep clarity.
The jewellery could have been better, but the outfits were elegant. Apart from exotic looks displayed in full regalia by entertainers from the West, Bollywood was all over social media and left a lot desired.
Crafts and arts are something that current Bollywood system seems alienated from except a few aberrations like the classic Rekha, who has always single handedly promoted Indian weaves like Kanjivarams, or Aditi Rao Hyadri, who is known to regularly patronise Indian crafts, and maybe a few more.
Sari is an Indian garment that is wholesome to create drama, exude power, and speak of thousands year old Indian heritage and culture and its evolution. The possibilities that can be seen with a sari are endless, to say the least.
India has almost 100-plus drape styles of saris. One cannot imagine the power this six yards of fabric can have over fashion. Bollywood could have gone wild with a variety of drape styles celebrating India in all its glory. The mind boggles to think of the endless possibilities that would have made the world give a standing ovation to the grand platform that was given to showcase their creativity.
Just imagine experimental weaves custom ordered, revivals done, craft envelopes pushed to create something truly exotic and outstanding. Imagine the historical drapes and avatars that could have been assumed. This was just the platform that any creative industry would require and receive.
It would have been an exotic milieu that ancient India was fabled for and is at the very least expected from an industry of performance arts.
Instead, we got half hearted repurposing attempts that didn’t quite make the mark that we all were hoping for and embarrassing gigs that are better left at the altar of award functions.
To be fair, some creations did try hard, it was evident; but here’s the thing with culture. You have to live with it, to be effortless in expressing it. This is why the Ambani family was coming across as elegant; this is why singers like Sona Mohapatra and Shreya Ghosal looked classy. But this is exactly why Bollywood missed this bus. Here’s hoping NMACC brings the cultural revolution we all desperately need.
