This Art Deco mansion in Kolkata is home to modern Indian masters

A charming paradox underlines this home designed by architect Rajiv Saini for a family of five on Belvedere Road, in the heart of south Kolkata. It is suspected to have been built in the 1920s or ’30s in the Art Deco style, and makes for an impressive sight with its three floors combining generously to create an area of approximately 50,000 square feet.

The C-shaped home is a congenial island on a plot of luxuriant green that measures well over an acre. Manicured lawns and trees dot its peripheries while a modern pool flanks it on one end, and yet, the bones of the structure are quietly—but visibly—vintage. You see, despite its intimidating expanse, it feels warm and lived in.

Saini has known the family for decades now. “We worked on one wing of this house when the son—one of the inhabitants of the home with his wife and toddler—was getting married four or five years ago. Then we worked substantially on this project, the ground floor of the residence, around three years ago. It was almost ready but we couldn’t finish it the way we wanted once the pandemic set in, so it just got completed now,” he says.

While Art Deco buildings aren’t hard to come by in Kolkata—laying over the cityscape like palimpsests of its colonial past—they are largely in the form of decadent theatres, government offices, and imposing commercial structures. A home of such stature, therefore, is a rarity. The building meanders in gentle curves and opens up through grand archways that are signature to Art Deco. However, what’s truly arresting are its modernized strands and artworks, and Saini’s masterful storytelling through their layout.

A ‘lady in red’—a giant disembodied head of a woman with a bejewelled bun, quite obviously by Ravinder Reddy—faces the entrance, positioned at the flat end of the C-curve. Her dramatic eyes follow the symmetrically lined archways that tunnel through the living areas on the ground floor, with one leading into and mirroring the other.

The idea, right from the outset, was to modernize the home without losing its inherent old-world appeal. When surveying the space, Saini remembers walking through its corridors and peeking into rooms that lay unused with furniture wrapped in white slipcovers—like stepping back in time and catching glimpses of the house’s history. “In Kolkata, you’ll see how old homes have a series of windows that have their own rhythm and symmetry. Some rooms had doors and eight or nine large windows made of teak with a dark brown polish. What I realized was how they were visually overpowering the rooms, so my first response was to turn the windows white, which took a little bit of convincing the owners,” he laughs. The architect borrowed cues from the existing palette to create more comfortable nooks for the family that hoped to huddle for grand soirées on the ground floor. The black portoro marble in the lobby, for instance, is original to the house, as are the bronze balustrades along the curved staircases, the heavy cornices and mouldings, and the arched doorways stringing the house together. Some required minor modifications, others needed retouching, but none warranted replacing.

Saini is a man who uses colours conscientiously—a fact that stood at odds with the family’s love for them, as is abundantly evident in how the home is awash with the rainbow on its furniture, upholstery, and, of course, the art. The architect loved playing around with their placement across the floor, grouping evocative N.S. Bendre works opposite an Akbar Padamsee metascape and some of his works in charcoal, to complement two carpets in rich reds and blues in one of the living rooms. The other living room flaunts three Ganeshas on a canvas by M.F. Husain that covers the breadth of an entire wall, foregrounded by stone figurines from the Gupta and Pala periods. The floor is clad in a bright orange rug, and this riot of colours is offset by a sombre cluster of Rameshwar Brootas in moody tones opposite the flamboyant Husain.

While walking past the staircase, a meditative array of Ganesh Pyne frames greet you, beyond which lies a passage with two poignant Atul Dodiya works facing the lady in red. The walkway leads to an informal dining space, one wall of which boasts an enviable collection of F.N. Souzas and an Atul Dodiya. However, the real pièce de résistance is the opposing wall with its powerful display of numerous tiny sculptures moulded out of stainless steel blades depicting objects of personal use for women—from blouses and shoes to a sewing machine—by Bangladeshi artist Tayeba Begum Lipi, scattered around a horizontal piece by Souza. “I keep my mind totally open while installing art, and it’s an extremely critical aspect of how some of these homes we do shape up,” Saini says. In this instance, it had everything to do with three dimensionality.

On stepping out into the corridor, you encounter walls lined by an installation of 300-odd cast-aluminium sculptures by Riyas Komu. On a neighbouring wall, a group of Indian miniatures overlooks a second dining space that hosts an arresting collection of paintings by Arpita Singh. 

This home, undeniably, is more than just a gallery for modern Indian masters, because if you look closely, you’ll notice how its walls are equal parts brick and art.