Actress Hema Malini and daughter Esha Deol perform at a Calcutta Club function: Colonial to contemporary

• A fresh coat of wooden polish and a few contemporary paintings provide “more relief” at Reynolds Room, the regal lounge in Bengal Club (1827)…

• New etched-glass panels complement the Italian marble floor at Calcutta Club (1907), highlighting the footwear fashion of the party crowd inside…

• Lighter panels, a plain painted surface and indirect illumination lifts the “melancholic mood” at the main bar of Calcutta Swimming Club (1886), which was earlier burdened by “an overdose” of wooden panelling…

From the stylised, colonial and ornate to the “contemporary with restraint”, with even a “soft semblance of deconstruction” at times, Calcutta’s grand old clubs are feeling the need to reinvent their look and feel.

“The world has transformed beyond recognition around us and we can’t allow ourselves to get frozen in the past,” observes Amiya Gooptu, past president of the Bengal Club, which now hosts the occasional musical evening and fashion night.

Makeover plans — slow but steady — have been drawn up at “the oldest surviving social club in the sub-continent and the third oldest in the world”, where the membership profile was once the exclusive preserve of the British male.

“All that’s history now and the needs of members and family today are distinctly different,” stresses architect Dulal Mukherjee, the pencil-and-set square brain behind the “conservative surgery” facelift at all these three traditional clubs.

Mukherjee has given the majestic Nagraj Bar at the Bengal Club “a new freshness” by using steamed-beech wooden panelling, with lots of glass for “quality chic”.

The overbearing false arches are gone, the vibrant wooden flooring blends with the abstracted stained glass pattern, and concealed lights at the club.

At Calcutta Swimming Club, life fitness equipment adorns the health club, while the main bar flooring has been changed from Indian marble to vitrified.

The diffused lighting and bright glass tiles have given the sunk-in bar a “contemporary ambience”.

The club on the Strand plans to add squash and badminton to the Friday karaoke night.

“After all, this was the only club in town that had a disco blasting pop tunes during the Naxal period. We want to bring the same lively character back to the Swimming Club, because today’s more cosmopolitan crowd demands it,” declares president Nandu Belani.

From the solarium near the sports complex to the etched glass and pine vertical panels in the Hall of Fame to the modernisation of the ceiling and display pattern, the stress at Calcutta Club, too, is very much towards the contemporary.

The huge popularity of the Bakery Festival, the International Nite and musical evenings at the club has emboldened the chimes of change.

“With more than 2,000 people taking the dance floor on International Nite at Calcutta Club or Bibi Russell showing off her collection on New Year’s eve at Bengal Club, these clubs are sending out a wonderful message,” feels architect Mukherjee.

But any initiative towards change at such heritage institutions must be tempered with “restraint,” he cautions.

Gooptu agrees: “While giving trendsetting youngsters a reason to drop in on weekends, we must also be careful not to allow the essential brand of the club to dilute too much.”