World of Single Screen Cinama
(recollections of a walk to single screen cinemas of Grant Road on 14th October,2018.Courtesy: Sahapedia)
Restoration of Eros- A trigger for this narrative
Almost at the fag end of 2018, a news item in a Mumbai tabloid caught my eye- concerned authorities had put their seal of approval to convert part of a landmark at Churchgate-the Eros Cinema- into a 300 seat cinema. Rest of the space would be a department store. However, the art-deco elements in the theatre’s lobby and the atrium will be retained and rejuvenated. The project would help preserve a 1938-constructed cinema, which had shut business in 2017 due to inability to sell adequate tickets of its 1380 seats capacity. Not all single screens have been that lucky to survive the changing trends in cinema going fan preferences; especially after advent of multi-screen cinemas.
The location on Google maps
A walk earlier in October hosted by Sahapedia had helped be develop a perspective on the single screen cinemas, as we took a guided walk in a Grant Road neighbourhood where some single screen cinemas still manage to survive! Let me share this perspective with you:
Cinematograph, an invention to exhibit moving black-and-white images, was a major invention by Lumière Brothers in late 19th Century. This was a considerable advancement over Edison’s peep show and soon due to curiosity in experiencing the new medium, cinematographs, which were very short in length found a market in Mumbai. Cinematographs usually exhibited short films in pop-up theatres and attracted audiences. By the time the World War I ended in 1914, an era of silent films had begun. Initially, even though most films were shot in B&W, cinema had begun attracting audiences. However, movies were exhibited in Theatres or Opera Houses. Migrant labourers, sailors, mill workers among others were the cinema goers- often accompanied by women picked up from the Red Light area which had mushroomed in Grant Road with the acquiescence; if not the patronage of the East India Company to meet the ‘needs’ of sailors who undertook long voyages ferrying cargo of goods traded by the Company.
Play Houses to Cinema
So while the ‘sahibs’ and the ‘brown sahibs’ went to the plays and operas at theatres in South Bombay, some movies- including some prints of earliest ‘talkies’ produced in Hollywood were screened in these theatres- or ‘pila’ houses – as they were pronounced by the locals (Alfred Cinema was one such theatre) . Sensing a growing market among the enamored audiences who seemed to have found a great source of entertainment where entire stories were narrated; in contrast to the shorter expositions in Lumière Brothers’ cinematographs which were very short, some businessmen and traders, mainly Mohammedans approached the Collector , Bombay Presidency to allot land for building Cinema houses. There was a vast piece of land from where Metro Cinema stands today to Girgaon Chowpatty, which was infact a huge graveyard, the Collector magnanimously allotted for this purpose. This was sometime in 1925 or so, I guess. I was among the 2 dozen participants of a walk arranged by Sahapedia (https://www.sahapedia.org) in October last year, as we sipped chai at Cafe Gulshan listening to the history of single screen cinemas as narrated by its owner, Janab Syed Akhtar Qureshi. Qureshi’s father was among the pioneers who acquired a piece of land with a desire to build a cinema and Ahktar, his son and the present owner of Gulshan Cinema narrated some interesting accounts on advent of cinema houses in Grant Rd. Alfred was the oldest in the area- Ripon Theatre in its ‘play house’ era.The name ‘ Ripon’ is there to see even today on engraved glass at the first floor level.The Play Houses were a place for social assembly. Therefore it had a card playing room, café etc… too.
Alfred Talkies stands apart. Its distinctly European architecture occupies pride of place at a busy intersection, painted in what hopeless artists call “skin colour”. Constructed in 1880 as the Ripon, it was amongst the first to stage plays in local languages. Reborn in the Hollywood-crazy ’30s as the Alfred, it retains its original architecture, complete with brown balustrades and wrought iron framework supporting stained glass murals above the entrance. (https://thecitystory.com/alfred-talkies-grant-road-cinemas-mumbai/)
Next to the Alfred,stands the New Roshan, which was once adorned with distinctive mosaic tiles on its façade. Further down is Gulshan where we met Qureshi. With advent of Digital Screenings as also loss of patrons to Multiplexes, these single screens with seats for 800-1000 viewers are finding it difficult to attract audiences or get reels of new age Bollywood cinema. So they survive on re-runs of yesteryear thrillers or Bhojpuri films. About 25-30 years ago, they were very vibrant hangouts and screenings had saucy subtitles, creatively coined by brilliant minds in the eco-system. Even today I remember some of the ‘double entendre’ hindi titles to some Hollywood cinemas screened at cinemas like Alankar,Diana,etc not too far from where we sat and listened to Qureshi.
Qureshi’s narrative included some hair raising anecdotes- How a maulvi interpreted a recurring dream which led to him digging up the grave of one ‘pir’, Baba Shaheed Sheikh Badruddin Shirazi. Qureshi Sr resolved to build a befitting dargah within the premises of the cinema hall and respectfully offer prayers to the noble soul. Till date Akhtar Qureshi too worships the saint whose memorial is housed in the basement of his cinema hall. He told us that most single screens in the vicinity had similar ‘dargahs.’
Nishat ,Royal and Super Silver on the M S Road
We traced our steps back towards the Maulana Shaukat Ali Rd (M A Rd) since venturing any further would have taken us into the avoidable red light district. There was the Nishat Cinema, which ran a Bhojpuri film with an imposing title ’ Power Unlimited 2’ and Royal Cinema on its opposite side , also running a Bhojpuri film ‘ Niravuha Rickshawala 2’ . I wondered whether these were sequels to earlier super hits!. Finally on the M S Rd was ‘ Super Silver ‘, which was comparatively newer
Believe it or not- this used to be the famous Naaz Cinema! “Industry ko jis par Naaz tha kabhi,kahaan hai,kahaan hai,aaj woh kahaan hai?”
