But it isn’t so for everyone. No longer, at any rate. A city musician who had performed there some time back complains of an indifferent and unappreciative audience. Yet another musician talks about the constant pressure to pamper the audience with whatever’s-on-TV kind of music, even the commercial Bollywood variety.
“But Trincas has always been with the times,” reasons Nigel Gomes, bandleader of Sweet Agitation, the in-house outfit of Anglo-Indian musicians which has been a regular at Trincas for 25 years. The band’s set list says it: Alan Parsons Project, Van Halen and Bheegi Bheegi and Pehli Nazaar, all together in a marketable mix. “Our music too is in the zone. We play for the audience,” says Gomes.
Admittedly, much has changed. The Anglo-Indians, Jews, Europeans, Armenians and expats who once patronized the place have been replaced by a different set of people with a vastly different ear for music. Puri shows us old photographs of actors Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu at Trincas, and talks about Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand visiting, Vishu Mohan Wadehra, who has worked at Trincas for 40 years and is proud to have been in the frame in Satyajit Ray’s Pikoo when the film-maker shot at the restaurant, points to the window table Amitabh Bachchan used to occupy during his early days in Kolkata, before he made it big in Hindi films. Two men wearing T-shirts of a mobile telephone company occupy the table now.
The photographs also tell another story. The wide arches that once dominated the hall have been replaced by a loudly painted low ceiling. The round comfortable chairs have made way for wrought iron ones; ordinary white tiles adorn the floor where once there were carpets.
Yet, at Trincas, where the music never stopped, the photographs throw up an important element that remains unchanged: The stage continues to be where it was.
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