When Cinemas were a Different Type of Culture

For those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 70s as students, cinemas were a very different type of culture. Very different from today. First, with no television, no computers, no internet, no video games, with only the government controlled All India Radio, cinemas were like a window in our little lives to peep through now and then. But at the same time, as per the standards of those days, cinemas were also expensive. With an average price of 1.50 rupees for a chair ticket, it was equivalent to the price of a lunch in a casual restaurant or the price of an RTC bus ticket to travel to another town 40 km away or to reach a city that is 100 km away by train.

With the small amount of money students living in hostels used to get from their parents every month, they need to budget their other requirements to save enough to go to as many movies as possible every month to avoid monotonous life in hostels on weekends. This budgeting often led to some funny incidents which remain in our memories even today.

In those days, many cinema halls were breeding grounds for bedbugs. If we had suspicion, after coming home, we used to change clothes first, dip the removed clothes in a bucket of water, and look for floating bedbugs. This was our dip test.

To watch as many movies as possible with the money they get from home, a few of our colleagues in medical college used to go to bench class (75 paisa) during the second show (girl colleagues would notice that if they go to first show). We were not welcoming those bench goers to our rooms as they were known carriers of bedbugs.

There used to be a lot of commotion when power failed in the cinema hall. There were no backup power or generators in those days. Suddenly, vendors selling pakoda, bajji, and tea appeared from nowhere, and people were struggling for change in their pockets. If they dropped a few coins on the floor, they would remain in the hall after the show and search for them desperately. Lost coins were more precious in those days. And if the power was not restored within a stipulated time, it was hard to sit in the hall. So, the cinema hall management used to give “passes” to those who wanted to leave. They could come on some other day and watch the movie by just showing the pass. The passes have their own market value. They can be sold for a discounted price compared to original tickets. But many people liked the passes because they could watch the movie from the beginning, including the news reels and advertisements (15 min worth of movie time) again from the beginning. For some people, it was like sitting at the banquet table starting from the appetizer again after taking a short break.

After coming home from the cinema, the next day friends and neighbors used to ask us how the movie was? We had enough work to narrate that to everyone for a week. That was the primitive piracy recorded in history. If it was a suspense movie, there was a real loss in the market value of the movie. Those who were good narrators had a good reputation, and their status in the neighborhood was high. Of course, I was one of them. Too bad we did not receive any remuneration from the distributors for our efforts. Based on what we narrated, others used to decide whether to go or not to the movies. Most of my friends and neighbors used to go to the movies based on good reviews. But there were some odd guys who used to go to only those movies that received bad reviews. These compassionate ones helped every movie make at least some money in those days.

A few of our colleagues used to go only for movies that were 30 or more reels long. Their contention was that they had to get the bang for the buck. These were the ones that know the value of money. Movies are just entertainment for them.

Finally, this is the greatest thing about cinemas in India even today. To my knowledge, cinema is the only event where all Indians show up on time with an extreme degree of punctuality. Many of them arrive even before the doors to the hall are opened.

Thus, in the good old days, cinema was a different culture. There was nothing like the mega movie craze in those days. Cinemas were simply a part of our little lives. It was not just entertainment. One can write a book on this old cinema culture in India. Thanks.