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Silver screen, golden moments...
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East Delhi's good old Swarn cinema hall makes a grand comeback this Friday with Priyadarshan's "Hungama". Movie Palace continues to appeal to the classes even as Gianand and Radhu continue their age-old ways by screening age-old films, finds out KANIKA DHAWAN... .
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Winds of confidence in East Delhi... Movie Palace, Gianand and Radhu Palace have their own patrons. Photos: S. Arneja.
CHANGE IS welcome only if it is for the better, not worse. Many down town cinema halls of East Delhi like Radhu Palace, Radhu, Gianand, Laxmi Palace, Swarn and others will quite agree with the statement for they are undergoing a complete metamorphosis in the wake of tough competition put up by multiplexes and cineplexes and wish to prevent the Humpty Dumpty cinema business and its walls from having a great fall.
Visit Radhu Palace at Laxmi Nagar and one will be greeted by the stench of a garbage bin adjacent to the building's wallflowers. It owner K.K. Radhu, who also owns Gianand at Shahdara, says: "This unpleasant smell can be dealt with by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, but so far they have failed, despite our endless efforts to have it removed." Talking about business, he reminisces about the time when both the halls enjoyed a monopoly, for they were the first to inhabit East Delhi.
"Times have certainly changed. With new age cinemas, cable television and piracy, how can one expect the business to be the same? We keep overhauling the cinema, but in vain." While Radhu Palace screens A-grade films, Gianand often shows C-grade ones. Explains the owner: "With the new cinema, Movie Palace next door, Gianand faces a real setback. Screening old films comes as the next best alternative." He claims: "The tickets at Gianand are very low, but I still have to pay 30 per cent entertainment tax as compared to Movie Palace that comes under the Government of Uttar Pradesh and enjoys an entertainment tax exemption for a period of five years.
Revamping Radhu Palace is definitely on the charts but Gianand will remain the same. "I have great sentimental value attached to it."
While Radhu Palace and Gianand are complaining, Radhu at Shahdara, which was built in 1950, is quite satisfied with a "very low business". The manager of the cinema, Mange Ram Sharma, puts it: "Not only us, but almost all cinemas have been hit hard by cable television and new age halls, we are all sailing in the same boat." So, is converting the hall into a cineplex in the pipeline? "No," says Sharma, adding, "We screen old films as `Shaktimaan', etc because family movies fail to run in this locality. Our aim is to sustain the cinema and so, we keep renovating it off-and-on. The question of breaking it down and building a new one does not arise as of now." Similar seems to be the fate of Kalyan in Seelampur, for long screening weather-beaten films.
Also in the vicinity are cinemas like Swarn at Vishwas Nagar and Laxmi
Palace at Gandhi Nagar. While Swarn is all set to make a comeback with Priyadarshan's "Hungama" this Friday after months spent revamping, the latter has been shut down and bears a deserted look.
Meanwhile, even as Swarn tries to win over cinegoers again, it is boom time for four-screen cinema Movie Palace near Dilshad Garden. The blue and yellow cinema building resembles a PVR prototype; reiterates its manager Suresh Chandra Attri. "East Delhites did not have a decent cinema. We explored the possibility and built this up. Only three screens are in use, as the fourth one in the basement cannot be utilised because of Government rules. But we still have good weekly collections and an overwhelming response."
Even as, the proverbial saying `old is gold' fails to gain a foothold on cinematic lands, patrons agree to blow with the winds of change. As a local resident, Kuntal Jain states: "Movie Palace has good air-conditioning facility, in-house parking space and a lot more. Why will I visit a B-grade hall when I have better options?"
Why indeed?
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