My hometown... My movies...

Recollection of movie watching experience in my hometown

The age and maturity influence a lot, being a young kid then cinema hall is always exciting; the projector room was some sort of mystic place.

Most of them say go to the theater to watch films, not in a TV. The following will be my recollection of movie watching experience in my hometown, let’s stick only to the English movies here.

Its Environment and locales

Set in the foots of a huge rocky mountain Syed Basha, which can be a perfect backdrop to mountain-trekking , Krishnagiri is a small town situated from just 90 Kms from the so-called silicon valley of India has to consider itself lucky, but it doesn’t much cash on it. It’s a usual kind of town that is sometimes unique in its own way. 


Having an almost equal number of population,  constituting Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, the town  shares its boundaries to Karnataka and AP, also adding is a good number of Muslim population which adds a cosmopolitan feel in this town. So it’s no wonder that all language movies are realised here and in Hosur. Much importance is given to English, aka Hollywood movies. Now-a-days the English movies are dubbed in Tamil which attracts a wider viewership.

Syed Basha Mountain

The town got theatres’ named Anand, Santhi, K, Sri Murugan, Apsara, Nayantara (known as Tara), and Raja. With abandon ones like Central, Ravi and Royal. Yes there is a hall just named in one letter, “K”, it has to be a distinctive theatre in India or in the world named after a single letter.

First Film

My first taste of an English film came from the movie, The Lion Of The Desert (LOD) by Antony Quinn, I just remember the protagonist name as Omar Mukthar and the final scene when he was hanged with a boy colleting his broken spectacles. The film was screened in my favourite theatre, Central.

The Lion Of The Desert

Its customary in India or at least in Tamil Nadu to find a movie hall named as “Central”, you have one in my hometown, one in Dharmapuri, Coimbatore, Thirunalveli, the list goes on. Coming back to the movie, LOD, it has to be 1985-86. 

Then my English movie experience relied on the home videos, and then came the arrival of the Jackie Chan English-dubbed films from Golden Harvest, which was seen till the end of the credits.

Central Theatres

Abyss

During my 10^th grade, right after finishing my last final exam, my friend Venkatesh called for a movie named Abyss, in the Central, it was a jaw-dropping experience. The film with such a high magnitude in the end of the under-sea-world raising, then later I came to know that the theatre has changed the screen as PANAVISION, means huge screen with big picture and adding a terrific sound which made Abyss a wonderful experience.

This theatre was indeed helped me in seeing many Hollywood blockbusters, Pierce Brosnan James Bond films released simultaneously here in the India Release, which is a common now, but not then. Titanic ran for more than 50 days with packed house and so was the re-run of the Evil Dead which posted a huge banner with red-evil eyes.

English cinema appreciation was there unlike other films the audience was not dull to the Hollywood blockbuster, I remember in the movie Jurassic Park, the scene when the helicopter lands beside the waterfall got a huge applause from the audience.

As I mentioned earlier with the same name as Central there was a movie hall in Dharmapuri, which was special for its sound system, still the DTS or the Dolby hasn’t been installed in these area, this theatre had a sound system called as STEREOSCOPIC sound (if my recollection is correct), the film Matrix was a good experience with its vibrant sound in the action sequences.

Home Video and its developments

This phase was predominantly dominated by Video cassettes. Small Video stores, like Om Shakthi, Greenland in the Colony Road sprang up in the town, which rented movies for Rs. 10, it also depended on the print if it’s a good quality then it was Rs. 20. Most of the yesteryear blockbuster like Jaws, Indiana Jones, Terminator and kid-section like Honey I Shrunk The Kids were circulated well.

Then came the cable guy, who made the cassette renting out of business, regional language movies in weekdays and English movies on the weekends. This phase made a cable TV revolution all over India and my town was not left behind.

 Not so long the satellite TV caught into the race, with BBC and Star TV entered the town, then came India’ most loved English movie channel, Star Movies, with its daily dose of unending films, still one of my favorite channel. 

The Compact Disc and DVD’s still hold its share even now with the grey markets, going to the internet it’s now online streaming and torrents and rapidshare download.

Multiplexes

Call it as nostalgic, but I never get the same familiarity in a multiplex now as I used to get in the theatre in my hometown. The age and maturity influence a lot, being a young kid then cinema hall is always exciting; the projector room was some sort of mystic place. Technologically the multiplex gives a delight in viewing, with its cosy seats and Rs. 90 popcorn.

The advancement of the technology, like VCR, cable, satellite TV, DVD’s, internet download has made easy access to the films, I can download a Korean film “3 Iron” using the net, but I can’t find it in a store. But the real understanding and the magic is in the screen, it makes one enchanted to a surreal effect, that’s why the screen was coated with silver earlier and called as silver screen. A movie is meant to be watched in a theatre. The real essence of a film is felt only when watched in a theatre.

Recent Times

With all these advancements and hurdles, those theatres in Krishnagiri are still surviving, in fact the Raja theatre which used to run second-run films has started screening new releases and Tara which used to screen films for mature minded people! got renovated and started screening new releases, which is also the costliest movie hall in the town.

Kudos to the theatre owners to impose fresh blood in their screening system, like UFO’s. They are becoming more corporatized and even stand-alone ones are not left behind. This is good for the cinema and its audience.