Motion pictures or movies as they are called comprise a major part of the entertainment industry. With the advent of the Internet and availability of videos (of films) the footfalls at movie theatres has lessened to a great extent. Also the two year long Corona nightmare has caused irreparable damage to the movie theatre business. However, despite all these odds, people still visit movie halls to watch films. Because many believe that the experience of watching a film in a theatre or Cineplex is unparalleled.
The sheer popularity of films can be judged from the fact that even in the second decade of the last century when a full length silent feature film was made in India; it was screened in a remote part of the country. This remote part of the country (in those days) was our very own Guwahati. Raja Harishchandra the first full length feature film was made by a person named Dada Saheb Phalke and was released in Bombay in 1913. Although the film did not have a single dialogue or sound people watched it with gusto- after all it was a new creative phenomenon. Screening of films started in Guwahati in the later part of the second decade of the past century. Incidentally, Raja Harishcandra was not the only silent film that was screened at Guwahati. The screening of silent films continued till a more advanced version of film known as 'Talkies' came into being.
Late Kumudeswar Hazarika who has written two books on Guwahati of the olden days has referred to two places where films were commercially exhibited. The first place was in a small hall opposite Nagpota Pukhuri of Panbazar -- more precisely near present day 'Guwahati Diary'. Here films were shown with the help of a single projector. The name of the hall was Kamrup Cinema Company. It is actually quite interesting to learn about the arrangements pertaining to the screening of films in those days (as elaborated upon in the book by late Hazarika). The floor of the hall was "katcha" - (uncemented) .The walls were made of common reed and done with clay plaster. The sitting arrangements varied according to the ticket prices. The ones who paid more were offered chairs and the rest sat on the benches made of bamboo (fixed to the ground). There used to be two screenings or two shows during evenings. A whistle was blown at the start, at the interval and at the end of every film show. This arrangement of film screening lasted till the silent era was over and the era of 'Talkies' started. Another hall showing silent films was located in the Takobari area. The name of the hall was 'Lakshmi Talkies'. There is something interesting about this hall too. The residence of the owner of the hall was close by and in the evenings when his cattle returned (after grazing in the open grounds) to their sheds they used to walk past the open hall where the film screening was underway.
The first cinema hall that exhibited a talkie or a film with dialogue, song and music was a hall named Bijulee Cinema Hall in Fancy Bazar. The first Talkie named Alam Ara was released in 1931 and this hall as mentioned in the book by Hazarika was commissioned in 1937.
Bijulee Cinema Hall is still in operation. In chronological order (the now nonexistent) Kelvin Cinema was the second cinema hall of Guwahati. A German national named Kelvin had bought this building from a Marwari businessman who had used it as a godown to store potatoes.
Kelvin turned it into a cinema hall. Personally I remember something very vividly in relation to this particular cinema hall. It was in Kelvin Talkies that I watched the first ever Hollywood film. I was barely about 12 years old when I saw the film named Ben Hur. Another memorable film that I saw in this hall was Shakuntala, an Assamese film made by Dr Bhupen Hazarika. It was the first Assamese film that was made (partly) in colour. One reel of the film was in Eastman colour.
The now defunct Rupashree Cinema Hall that came into being a few years later (after Kelvin Cinema) at Takobari had mostly screened Bengali films. Choudhury Talkies and the now defunct Rupayan Cinema had come into existence almost simultaneously. Choudhury Talkies still exists at A T Road. The Meghdoot, Urvashi and Apsara Cinema halls came up during the late sixties. Anuradha Cinema Hall and Vandana Cinema Hall were established during early seventies. The movie theatres that came up in the eighties are Pragjyoti, Anupama, Udeshna and Mayurkrishna. Udeshna and Anupama are no longer in existence.
The period between the end of the last century and the beginning of the present century has witnessed a new phenomenon -- the mushrooming of the multiplexes. Cinemax within the Dona Planet Complex was the first Cineplex of Guwahati. As the trend of cineplexes started growing in Guwahati, traditional cinema halls like Anuradha too turned itself into a cineplex of sorts.
Screening of films in Guwahati is a century old story indeed. It shall be interesting to see what trends unfurl in the years to come.
By: Bhaskar Phukan
The writer can be reached at bhaskarphukan67@gmail.com
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