Daily 4 shows — II [ Chen­nai : 600029 ].

This post is ded­i­cated to Kathirvel — my only friend from ‘Arum­bakkam’ area.

The period is set between 1981–85 [ 1st to 5th std — Skipped 2nd std — dou­ble pro­mo­tion :) ]. I was taken [ obvi­ously ! ] by one or the other senior at home. Every­one had their own way of watch­ing movies. My father used to take me to Sivaji / Kamal/ K.Viswanath/ KB/ Vit­ta­lacharya [ u know what — V.Acharya is a Kan­nadiga ] kind of movies. My mother had her own cir­cle of friends. My chithappa and his friends were the film freaks who took me to the cin­e­mas, most of the time.

Direc­tor Vin­cent Selva [ Sel­vam ] was my classmate’s elder brother; they stayed just 6 houses next to us, in Amin­jikarai. V.Selva was a good artist. He drew us a few pic­tures on our sci­ence note­book. I used to watch ‘olliyum oliyum’ and Sun­day movies in his home [ BW Sol­idaire with slid­ing doors — Remem­ber Sub­ra­ma­nia­pu­ram TV :) ].

Lak­shmi

Lak­shmi the­ater is an impor­tant land­mark of Amin­jikarai and it’s a small world on its own. It has so many small shops, lodge and the the­atre behind. It’s the bus stop too. Lak­shmi has been the same since my child­hood days. The same 2nd qual­ity pic­tures used to come [ even now ]. We watched Sakalakalavalla­van, Thanga magan, Tha­laima­gan, Pud­huk kavithai, uyir­ullavarai usha, Bhak­tha pra­galatha, Shaan, Payanan­gall mudi­vathillai, Mann vasanai etc here.

For “Sakalakala valla­van”, my mother took me daily to Lak­shmi and we returned with­out tick­ets. We were suc­cess­ful on the 3rd day. I am curi­ous to see how this the­atre is now. But it’s still screen­ing the best pos­si­ble junk in the list.

Mura­likr­ishna

It’s the class A the­atre for Chennai-600029 peo­ple. The good thing is that it’s close to Lak­shmi so that we can eas­ily choose between these stand­ing in front of Palace or Gowri Shankar hotel. I ve seen the Nen­jathai Kil­ladhe, Theer­adha vil­layaatu pil­lai, Paayum puli, Naalai unadhu naall, Thoongathe thambi thoongathe, Nanayam illadha Nanayam [ இந்த‌ ப‌ட‌த்தை எடுத்த‌வ‌ங்க‌ளே ம‌ற‌ந்திருப்பாங்க‌ :) — First screen appear­ance of Judo Rath­nam ]. I have col­lected all these use­less trivia and became a blog­ger. Ha..ha..

Once, my father grabbed me out of my tamil exam [ half-yearly ] in my 4th std. I didn’t have the least clue about where I was run­ning towards. My father took me to “Mura­likr­ishna” the­atre and we went in — some news reel was going on with Indra gandhi speak­ing some­thing furi­ously in hindi [ Most of the times, I remem­ber see­ing “Neenga nal­laa irukkOnum” MGR song before movies]. The movie was Salan­gai Oli. I still remem­ber the large ban­ner where Kamal bows his head to the ground level and watch­ing the danc­ing foot.I was madly danc­ing [ நென‌ப்பு தான்.. ! ] the next 2 weeks.

Pazha­niappa

We were taken to this the­atre in a short cut from the back side of Vel­lala street [ too many buf­faloes :) ] pass­ing on the koovam wooden bridge to the the­atre directly. Pazha­niappa is the 3rd class the­atre [ the the­atre started it’s oper­a­tion with “Pal­laandu Vaazhga” ] — you can under­stand by the list of movies. Thooral ninnu pochu, malaiyur mam­bat­iyaan [ Hindi remake Rajini’s ‘Gang­war’ was screened in Ega -ஐயா.. ஸாமி ஆளை விடு.. நீயும் உன் த‌க‌வ‌லும்.. :) ].

Ellaam inba mayam — The best of those times. In return after 27 years, I took my father to Dasa­vatharam in PVR — Ban­ga­lore. Ellaam inba mayam was far bet­ter. மாம‌ன் வூடு ம‌ச்சு வூடு.. ப‌ரிச‌ம் போட்ட‌து குச்சு வூடு :)

I never won­der why I remem­ber all these things. There are only 2 ways to remem­ber a thing — either you like it very much or you do it repeat­edly [ once I read this in Kumu­dam ]. I like cin­ema — simple.

Ega and Sangam were high class the­atres and we used to visit them, once in a blue moon. I skipped Sindhu Bhairavi [ in Ega ] and watched Mard [ later remade by Rajini as Maaveeran in Tamil ]. I watched Velaikaran, Andha 7 natkal, African Safari, My dear Kut­tichathan in Ega.

GRAND– I have seen only one movie — Lolita [ 1997 ] directed by Adrian Lyne. Don’t get afraid that I have men­tioned about the direc­tor — Wrong n atrac­tive posters tech­nol­ogy :). Anna nagar badly needs a The­atre — I still won­der why none has tried build­ing a the­atre there.

My friend Crankx watched 3 shows in a day in the same Abi­rami the­atre com­plex. :). The sad thing — Roxy has been demol­ished and get­ting replaced by Sar­a­vana stores. Peo­ple are too busy in buy­ing rather than spend­ing time with fam­ily in enter­tain­ment. Too busy to fill up gas :).

–Toto.

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