by Viswanathan Subramanian
[box]Viswanathan Subramanian recalls fond memories of watching Tamil movies during the sixties and seventies.[/box]Tamil flmdom is one phenomenon that has dominated many memorable moments of my past. Tamil Cinema of the 1960s and 70s, which has defined present-day politics in Tamil Nadu, has a special place in my heart.
Black and White used to be the order of the day. Colour – Kewa, Eastman, Technic – was a luxury and rarity. Despite some colourful interventions in those days, reality in celluloid was still with Black and White. In fact, the beauty of Black and White and the clarity of focus in camera in old films are cherished and remembered, even today.
Films were to be seen only in Theatres – be it the concrete ones, as was in semi-urban to metro areas, or tent or hut-like structures in rural centers. TVs, VCDs and Digital Media at that point of time were still in the womb of the creative human brain. Would you believe that television was a wonder in those days; so much so that there was a queue waiting at yearly exhibitions in centers like Coimbatore, just to watch something on a television!
Theatres were few and far between. At Coimbatore, during my school days, seeing a film was a great event. However, there were not too many posters. No big banners. We would only see bullock or horse-drawn carts distributing bills of movies. Such notices were thrown out of moving carts with children running and seizing copies and waving them across. There were boys who prided themselves in possessing record number of such notices!
Once, I remember my father announcing in advance that all except grandma (to be left alone at home) would be going to a particular movie. With great excitement we waited for the day; then, we went by bus; we got seated at the second-nearest row to the screen.
A majority of the theatres were non-air-conditioned. With devoted canteens, eatables were also available in these theatres. The menu included vadai, murukku, tea, soda and other coloured aerated versions. The boys who sold biscuits and vadais also used to sell the ‘Song book’ of the film being screened. I remember specially designed song books for the movies, ‘Pudhiya Paravai’ (starring the famous actor Sivaji Ganesan) and ‘Anbe Vaa’ (starring the legendary M.G. Ramachandran, MGR). The books looked like gramophone records.
Watching films took lot of preparation and strategy. There were long enervating queues to view films. In the initial days of screening, people would not mind forming the queues from the previous night. I remember going with my father for the matinee show of ‘Pudhiya Paravai’. I chose to stay inside the sheltered queue space itself for the evening show, when the matinee show became house-full and the counters got closed.
Another typical feature of theaters in Coimbatore was the special tickets across all classes, reserved exclusively for bicyclists. Mind you, not for mopeds, scooters or motor cycles, which were not considered on par with cycles, at least as far as the exclusive tickets were concerned!
One would see lengthy queues of cycles well before the scheduled show time. The parking charges for cycles used to be only 10 paise to 25 paise. Reservation of tickets was confined to only the upper-most class, which used to cost Rs.2.90.
Looking back, I can’t help smiling at all the fun and planning that used to accompany a movie-watching experience in my younger days. Seeing a movie was a great event, indeed! Although, technically, the films lacked the grandeur and extravagance seen in today’s movies, their simplicity and charm never failed to attract us, as we flocked to the theaters, our hearts beating loud in excitement!
