Malavika Mohanan’s house is proof that a home can carry its roots
In a busy corner of Mumbai, Malavika Mohanan’s family home feels like a small piece of Malabar. It wasn’t put together from a showroom catalogue, and that was the point. “We were very particular that we didn’t want the space to look like a cookie cutter home,” she says. “We wanted it to reflect where we are from, our love for the arts, and our love for heritage.”
The work was led by her parents, who chose pieces slowly and with intent, mixing the local with the global. The house is a summary of both the family’s roots and how widely they’ve travelled.
You see it from the first step. The red floor, made to resemble Athangudi tiles, a fixture of South Indian homes, is the living room’s signature. It’s one of Malavika’s favourite things about the house.
Nearby hangs a Tanjore painting she and her mother sourced from a craftsman in Tanjore itself.
In a corner sits a small temple, the first space the family designed, its top detailing echoing the temples of Kerala.
Beside it hangs a brass Vilakku, a lamp that has been with the family for almost fifteen years. “My mother was very particular that she wanted it done in a South Indian way,” Malavika explains.
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Greenery matters just as much. Three balconies, a rare luxury in Mumbai, are filled with plants gathered from across the country over years of travel. Her parents tend them.
“If it was me living alone, I don’t think any of the plants would be alive,” she laughs. Her mornings still begin there, coffee, a book and twenty quiet minutes in a corner of the balcony.
Her bedroom is where she spends most of her time, by her own admission as an “absolute homebody.” Books and travel finds fill the shelves, including a carved brass lamp from Fez, Morocco, made by an artisan whose family has practised the craft for generations.
The walk-in wardrobe, created by absorbing half of the neighbouring room, holds one of her most treasured pieces, a deep green vanity with brass details, designed around her taste and the colours of her room. “It’s one of the most thoughtful and beautiful gifts I’ve ever gotten,” she says.
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At an age when moving out is often seen as the marker of independence, Malavika has chosen to stay. “They’re my support system. Why wouldn’t I live with them for as long as I can?” Her father is a cinematographer, her mother a writer and her brother an archaeologist, so conversation in the living room tends to circle back to art. That, she says, feeds her own work as an actor. “Home is my recharge space and creative haven.”
(All images used in this article belong to Rohit Singh. We do not claim ownership of any of the photographs.)