Friday has a special meaning in my life . It was a day of new film release and takes me back to Allahabad where I spent my youth. How single Cinema theatre was my Mecca! Regular rounds of Cinema halls was part of routine. If not to see a movie, to see and admire posters of the running and to be released films. ‘Matinee show’ was sought, unlike today when weekend cinema is the norm. Specially during college days, as the show matched with college timings. All of us who skipped college classes for ‘Matinee Show’ are doing well in life! There are many moments of the past which make me happy. Strangely, incidents in modest and simple surroundings/circumstances have given me more happiness than even travelling to foreign lands. Among many such adolescent/childhood memories are the moments watching those countless films in Allahabad.
The ticket sales would commence a week prior to the new release and I would make it a point to be an hour early for the window to open ; well! I was not the only one! Only two tickets per person were permitted . Much pushing, jostling and climbing on the front person’s shoulder would ensue while waiting for the ticket sale to commence . Sometimes ; when one would be near to the closed window the sound of the stamping on the ticket book by the booking clerk would kindle a unique joy and expectations . The clerk would stamp the date and show timing on the tickets . This ticket book consisted of leaves very thin and fragile like the petals of bougainvillea flowers- pink, blue, green and yellow. On obtaining the tickets one would verify the details on it for correctness and then neatly secure them in the purse or the top pocket and on reaching home hide them inside a text book as a prized possession.
We had priorities clear from early days .We watched ‘Matinee Show’ to watch our ‘Matinee Idols’. First Day first Show was an achievement we boasted of. Money was scarce and lower stall was therefore preferred. Some money was always saved for Samosas during interval; which was must. As the interval approached the smell of freshly ‘deep fried’ samosas in ‘Dalda Vanaspati’ was awaited expectantly. After the show there was no rush to walk out but we leisured out of cinema hall much after the screen was darkened ( those days titles/credits appeared in the beginning and this western trend of titles rolling out at end had not commenced). Outside we looked out for the vendors selling song lyrics along with peanuts. The lyrics had to be obtained and songs memorized . I remember many songs and still when they appear on TV I can sing them along, though I do not remember syllabus of the many subjects I studied in college and school. Such was our devotion and passion! The story of the film with action and dialogues was narrated to our neighbours who had missed the fun. It was considered normal to fall in love with the heroine for a certain period and many days and nights were consumed thinking of her. Minute details were noted-colour of her sari, the jewellery she wore, the cut of her salwar kameez , her haircut etc. Soon after the first Matinee show the verdict on the film was announced . Hit or Flop? This has indeed been the norm and famous Directors such as Subhash Ghai among others have stated that fate of a film was decided by the audience during ‘First day First Show’. There was no hurry to return home , after pulling out our cycles from the stand the film was discussed threadbare with heated arguments to drive home our views and to defend the performance of our –‘Matinee Idol’.
The craze was such that when we visited other towns and cities the first preferred location hunt was cinema halls and the movies playing. I visited my friend in Kanpur and the next morning I skipped an important marriage ceremony of his sister and saw ‘Nau do Gyaraha’ ( Dev starrer) at the local theatre. During my job interview at Bangalore where luckily I spent many days the fullness of Cinema scene in that great city , in the late seventies was explored with a missionary zeal. I may not remember many historical places in important cities but I still remember the cinema halls there ( I am a history student !)
Now that the era and its magic is past , there is tremendous lament. Cinema is now captured and arrested in mobile sets ; from 35 MM screen to the hand held mobile screen ; Oh ! What a fall! Entertainment is acquired effortlessly with least investment of emotion. No one suffers the loss of failure to obtain opening show tickets; how it haunted one for days! The finest Art creation of 20th Century shall be victim of IT revolution to such an extent one could not fathom.
Looking for some saviour, I cannot see this charming beauty to fade in such a manner! Those days the popular culture was not hit by the Television invasion and the citizens were not caged in their drawing rooms. . Many cinema Halls screened old films at ‘reduced rates’, because the new releases could not keep pace with the number of Cinema Halls, and therefore the ‘rerun’ of old films were a norm. More so, as the cost of print at that time was very high ,even new releases were screened in only one Cinema Hall, and very rare we would witness a release in two Halls- ‘Sholay’ and ‘Bobby’, were exceptions . The reruns gave us a chance to see the Cinema of the yesteryears and appreciate the Art of Dilip Kumar, Balraj Sahni etc. They were still in reckoning but the best years were behind them. They belonged to the generation of my father, but still we liked them as the world was moving slow then and the gulf between the generations was tolerable..
The film ‘Daag’ ( 1954, Dilip Kumar-Nimmi starrer) had an intense impact on me when I saw it in the late sixties/early seventies. I may have been 12-13 old then and had by then bitten by the movie bug. My parents too never restricted my love for the movies and the entire family on occasions witnessed the new releases by booking tickets in advance. It was always a big family outing and often an award at the end of the Annual examination or receipt of results. We three brothers would dress well, make our hair in style of the Hero we were worshipping at that point in time, make gestures copying the Hero on the poster, utter some famous dialogues from the film or recite songs made famous by then; this used to be our ritual prior to witnessing the film.
However at the beginning of my cinematic affair the avenues and opportunities were few owing to my age as I had yet not embarked on college life and therefore my solitary movements were marked to the borders of my colony; Ashok Nagar .Hence, I looked for alternate cinematic experience and my friend’s residence was one such place. His father too was fond of cinema so much so that he would regularly see a movie in the evening after the end of his walk and return home on rickshaw; he was an eminent professor in the University. He was member of the ‘Chalchitra vibhag’ and could loan films for private screenings. We brothers therefore saw many good films at my friend’s place on his 16mm projector- ‘Kanoon’, ‘Bahu-Rani’, ‘Kundan’ are some of the films I still recall. Films were also shown to us at our school- St Joseph’s College; ‘Kohra’ was one suspense film which terrified us to the extent that we students had made a cluster in the middle of the hall and our chairs were all hugging each other ;it was a sight at the end of the show!
Returning to ‘Daag’, it remains in my memory as the earliest film I saw for free , on the Annual Day celebrations of the ‘Valmiki School’ which was just opposite the ‘Chakbandi’ office at the beginning of the Ashok Nagar crossing. ‘Valmiki School’ as my memory goes was a municipal school with rudimentary structure , classrooms with tin roof in straight lines on three sides. A big tamarind tree provided shade to a large grassless ground in the centre. As it grew dark we were on the ground swatting on a mat which was partly provided and covered some portion of the ground. Soon the ground was filled with people , they were standing along the wired boundary wall, on the roof top, on the adjoining trees.
The film began and I was transferred to another world. Even in that young age I could fathom the greatness of the thespian . Dilip got his first Filmfare award for acting for ‘Daag’ . It was a simple story of Dilip Kumar whose weakness was drinking, despite his girlfriend’s and mother’s ( Nimmi and Lalita Pawar) advise and remonstrations he was unable to quit this habit , however one day he quits drinking and decides to leave his village for a job in town, on his return one day he finds his mother was dead, he takes to drinking again and dies in the end. However what has remained with me forever ‘etched’ is the song – ‘Aye mere dil kahin aur chal, gham ki duniyan de dil bhar gaya, dhoondh ley ab koi ghar naya’ Sung by Talat Mahmood, composed by Shankar Jaikishan and penned by Shailendra, this song is soul stirring and appears in the film on many occasions. The long shot of Dilip returning triumphantly to his village suitcase in hand and the song on his lips still haunts me. The strong and yet melodious sound of the ‘Piano-accordion’ is the core of that song.
Even now, whenever I hear the song the sound takes me to those happy moments. Moments of freedom, imagination, creativity.