VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
The year long celebration of
Indian cinema turning 100 has started. It was 99 years ago in May 1913 that the
first feature film was released. A lot of water has flown down the Ganges
since the days of Raja Harishchandra. In fact, in the last 25-30 years so many
changes have come about that if anyone watches a movie made in the 1970s now in
a theatre, he would realise the technological limitations which the producers
and directors faced then.
I am not a film critic or a film historian
and so I will not delve into movies which received international or national
recognition or failed to do so. Being a movie buff, I will simply go into the
joys of watching a film in a theatre over the years.
In my growing up years in a small
town in Bihar , which is now in Jharkhand, films were the
only source of entertainment for almost everybody. I am sure in the late 1970s
and early 1980s that was the case almost everywhere in the country. There was
no cable Television and Doordarshan was limited to a few state capitals and
showed the immensely popular dance and song show, Chitrahaar and a movie every
Sunday. But I watched television for the first time only in 1983, shortly after
Asiad 1982 made the medium popular and owned a set a couple of years later.
It was movie and cinema halls
which fascinated everybody then. I remember going to the two movie halls in the
town of Hazaribagh with my parents
and later alone. On the first few days, it used to be impossible to get a
ticket due to the massive crowd. Almost the entire town descended on the
theatre if it was a multi-starer. You could only get tickets in the Black then
in the first week of release of most of the movies.
When Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan
Sinha or Jitendra kicked or boxed anybody, you could see that a sound of dhishum dhishum was coming from the
background. But no one took it otherwise as the movies were wholesome entertainers,
lots of songs, dance, fight, emotions – masala and curry mixed deftly. There
was no body contact in the fight scenes then and it is only now that you can
spot it when compared to the films made in the last 10 years or so.
But movie going always remained a
memorable experience. Watching Deewar,
Sholay, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Silsila,
Noorie, Jaani Dushman, Naseeb, Dharam Veer, Nadiya ke Paar, etc. etc. was such an experience that I remember
the entire sequence even now. Seeking permission from parents to going to the
movie. Then there was a phase when I bunked classes to go to the movie.
The movie theatres then hardly
bothered about the viewers. Most of the seats in the two theatres where I
frequented were torn with the sponge from the seat coming out. Others in the
front rows were plane wooden seats where the bed bugs feasted on the viewer.
Many avid movie goers returned with bloody butts due to the bed bugs present in
the wooden seats. It was only when the third theatre, a relatively modern one
and that too having a screen of 70 mm opened in the small town that people got
a taste of “good cinema”. Now the other two also made some cosmetic changes in
their theatres. But the crowd still used to be so huge that few bothered about
the inconvenience. They only wanted to see the movie. Once the movie was out of
the theatre, there was no way you could see them. The VCRs arrived later and
became popular only after the mid 1980s.
Air conditioners were a distant
dream then, only fans whirred in the movie halls. Something like the commercial
of a fan company featuring Rajesh Khanna being aired on TV these days.
Remember, the impact of carbon dioxide generated by over 1000 people in a
cramped space on a hot and humid day sans the air conditioner.
But then, people were so involved
that they identified themselves with the character of the movie. This was the
only medium of escape from the harsh reality. When Amitabh Bachchan died in
Deewar, Sholay and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, the entire audience wept. Some loudly,
others silently but I remember almost every eye was moist when they left the
theatre.
Now, movies are one of the
numerous sources of entertainment. You know that once you miss even a great
movie in a multiplex, it will be shown on television within the next two
months. Though I haven’t seen many movies in the last few years but certainly I
haven’t seen anyone crying in a movie hall whenever I went for a movie. Perhaps
the emotional drama was a hallmark of the movies of the 1950s, 1960s and the
70s. Making people cry made good business sense then, now people go to theatres
simply for entertainment and if the producers and the directors make people
cry, they will lose audience and revenue.
When a hero or heroine wore a
certain type of apparel in a movie then, people went to the tailors and told them
that the new cloth should be stitched exactly the way it was being worn in the
movie. The movie heroes were the role models for the teenagers and the youth.
That is no longer the case now.
You no longer have to fight for
tickets and look for menacing looking black markeeters for tickets. Even on
first day first show in the multiplexes, you get tickets without even waiting
for long if you haven’t booked on the Internet. At least, this has been my
experience in Chandigarh and New
Delhi . The
multiplexes run 12-15 and even 20 shows of the same film in a day, each at an
interval of half an hour while earlier at best, a movie theatre could screen
the film four times a day. Not even a blockbuster runs for more than 3 weeks in
a theatre now. Then Silver, Golden and
Platinum Jubilee was a norm with some movies running for years together.
As a film enthusiast, I enjoy
going to the multiplexes and would shudder going to the theatres I frequented
as a child and a teenager. I also like the way films are being made, the way
cinema has advanced and the way technology has made viewing a memorable
experience. But I also miss the emotions which a movie-goer expressed then and
bemoan the detachment with which films are watched these days. People used to
talk about a movie they watched for weeks together and wear clothes styled on
the pattern of actor for months. Now movies
at best are remembered just for three hours and at the most for the day on
which the movie has been watched.
Cinema is evolving gradually like
everything else. It is changing. While most of the changes have been for the
better, a nostalgic trip makes you realise its importance in shaping
personalities.
Much before the first film was
released in 1913, Ghalib had said, Iman
mujhe roke hai jo kheeche hai mujhe Kufr, Kaaba Mere peeche hai to kalisa mere
aage. I cannot risk translating it but roughly it means a person in utter
confusion who cannot decide whether to go forward or backwards, whether to
listen to the soul or to the head. (May 6, 2012)
(The writer is Senior Editor, The
Pioneer, Chandigarh )
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