Movie Mania

Sangeet

12 Nov

The other day I was travelling through Secunderabad. In passing my eyes rested on the sign board of Manju Theatre. I slowed down my vehicle and ultimately came to a stop. That road - Sarojini Devi Road brought back lot of memories. Back then I was a movie buff. Be it Hindi Telugu or English movies we used to be the first in the line - preferably the evening or the matinee show. Beyond that the 2nd show used to invite the wrath of both the parents alike. I think the first movie that was released in Manju was Shaan. Kulbhushan Kharbanda was portrayed as the new 'Amjad Khan ' on the horizon. It was predicted that He would become as big as amjad , after sholay.. It did not work for him. Shakaal proved to be a dud. While I was looking at th dilapidated state the theater was in , a great sadness overtook me . Another day and another time movie halls were the in thing > We always used to try and see the movies as early as possible so that we could spoil the fun for others , by relating the story first . Not the newspapers for us . We had become experts at making our own review. While I was thinking about the old times my mind wandered all over Hyderabad. At one point of time Hyderabad boasted of more than 105 cinema halls. At that time the cinema  ticket was only 75 Paisa. And we used to sit up close  to the screen. We could hope to look up the scanty clothes of the heroines. A good song like "Khayke Paan Banaras wala" and we would be dancing in the aisles. And also in the space between the screen and seats. Dances by Helen or Jyothilakshmi or Jayamalini and we used to hurl change of 10 paisa and five paisa on to the screen.

Ramakrishna 70mm

At one point of time this turned out embarrassing as some of my brother's friends saw  me and reported back home. This friend of my brother and me are still not on talking terms after all these years. Slowly it was all coming back. In 1975 when Sholay was released I was detailed by the family to purchase tickets for the movie in Shaam Theatre. Shaam was at Lakdi - ka - pul and since the movie was a hit we had to buy the tickets in black. There were about 20 family members and I would like to think that with the money the black marketeer made , he started an alternative and a more respectable profession.. We also saw Bobby in Shaam theater . It was one of the movies that my father was persuaded to watch. The movie so riled his senses that he left the movie half way. Next to Shaam was regal theater . Once in a while when the movie we wanted to watch at Shaam was houseful, we used to go to regal and watch some old hindi movie or some telugu movie. One of my favourite theaters was Ramakrishna 70mm and 35 mm. At that time only  pictures were screened at Ramakrishna 70mm. I remember watching Guns of Navarone, Operation Day Break etc . But by far our favourite actor was Charles Bronson. Some of his best movies which we were fortunate to see were Death wish series  , The Magnificent seven , The great escape, Breakout etc  . We also used to love watching Westerns those days mostly at Liberty, Plaza, Tivoli , lighthouse and palace at abids.

Maheshwari

But two theaters which were we looked forward to go to were Nataraj and Sangeet. Both the movie hall had style and we would go there - to ogle at girls in their sunday best - as well as watch movies. I saw tomorrow never comes at Sangeet as also most of the James Bond Series. Then inlater days when the minimum ticket became Rs 2.30 , Theaters started becoming more opulent. Among them were Royal theater at Sultan Bazaar. It was love at first sight with this really royal theater. The first movie released there was 'Chhupa Rustam" - a Dev Anand movie. We enjoyed the opulence of the theater as well as the movie. Other theaters which were good were Dilshad - next to Royal (Saw Be naam there) . At Mozum jahi Market there were Navrang, Ashok and Vikrant. Near the GPO there was Zammarrud (Khoobsurat) Rahat Mahal at Mushirabad, Minerva On SD Road Where the minerva complex now stands, Prabhat at Kachiguda, Shanti at Narayanguda, Skyline and Sterling at Himayatnagar(Towering Inferno) Venkatesa (Telugu Movies) We used to get passes as the theater belonged to my mother's friend Srinvasa where I saw some of the most memorable movies of my life ( 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Enter The Dragon', Poseidon adventure  Crazy Boys etc)

Anand

Most of the theaters are now gone ,,, The Pirated Videos and Cds and the cable television saw to that... They are either Marriage Halls or warehouses or some theater have been razed to ground to make way for housing complexes /Shopping Malls, road widening or are simply in a horrible state of disrepair.... A movie for two now means spending at least a thousand Rupees. People go out in the interval eat properly and dispose the waste in dustbins no more of the hawkers clinking soft drink Bottles in the hall or another hawker hissing chipsss in the hall. Movie watching is no longer fun - it is an imposition.... It is more than 10 years since I have seen a movie in a theater...