The world of entertainment
By: K S S Pillai
We visit our friends’ houses sometimes, though we know that our hosts are not as enthusiastic about receiving us as they were in the past. The children and even some adults are busy with smartphones, listening to us half-heartedly, nodding their heads, or making occasional remarks. We understand and leave early.
Parents usually complain that youngsters are almost always busy with their smartphones. Thanks to modern technology, the entire world has become a large village. They see the latest films on their phones or laptops. They make all payments digitally.
Their food habits have changed, making them fat due to hormone-added fast food and sedentary life. To keep them fit, many have joined health clubs that have mushroomed.
Sometimes, I compare my childhood life with that of the new generation. We used to assemble at vacant plots in the village in the evening and play different games. The balls we played with were made of the green leaves of coconut trees.
Some would draw lines on the ground with their feet and play various vigorous games. By the time the games ended, all would be tired, go home, take a bath in the nearby river, pray loudly sitting before bronze lights, read the schoolbooks aloud in the light of kerosene lamps, have supper, and lie on the mats spread on the floor to sleep.
The only cinema house, thatched and run with a generator fuelled with crude oil, was about two kilometres away. It projected films from the back of the theatre to the screen. Shows were held daily at six and nine p.m. except Sundays, with another show at 3.00 p.m. The films were usually in Tamil, as those in our mother tongue, Malayalam, were made only twice or thrice a year. The heroes mostly wore trousers and neckties while running around trees after heroines singing love songs.
The change of film was announced by the theatre employees sitting in a bullock cart with large posters of the new movie kept over them. Drums were beaten to attract people’s attention, and colourful notices with photographs of the main actors and the story of the film that ended at the conflict and asking the reader to see the remainder on the screen were distributed.
The lowest class, called ‘Thara’, was in front of the screen. It was a large, sandy area without seats. When children asked their parents to take them out to urinate, they would be asked to do so in the sand itself. Behind, there were benches.
Some sitting in the ‘Thara’ would jump over the barrier in darkness and occupy benches. During the ‘interval’ in the middle of the film, the spectators would rush out to the teashop to order tea with froth at the top of the glasses and smoke beedies. Vendors of roasted peanuts would roam the hall throughout, loudly announcing their ware.
If the films were religious, there would be special matinee shows for schools at concessional rates, and the teachers would be given free passes.
Another recreation we got was from circus companies that came once a year or so. They would erect a Big Dome on a vast ground, housing the staff and wild animals like lions, elephants, monkeys, and chimpanzees. There would be an animal trainer with each circus.
The other artists would include trapeze performers, women and children of both sexes who played with dangerous animals and rode on single-wheeled cycles. The circus would remain in the village for about a month and then move. All shopkeepers, fishmongers and meat-sellers would be happy as they did brisk business during the period.
Sometimes, it would be ‘death wells’ where performers on bicycles, motorbikes, and even jeeps would zoom on the wooden walls alone or in pairs.
There were frequent festivals in temples, churches, and mosques. Magicians, gamblers, pickpockets, beggars, and snake charmers made a fast buck during the festival. Teashops sold tea, coffee, and eatables. Intoxicated toddy drinkers lying on the roadside were common sights. Constables roaming the area would have a field day, collecting money from lawbreakers.
We often feel nostalgic about the past while viewing movies in multiplexes and eating expensive popcorn.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’, his articles and short stories have appeared in several national and international publications)
KV News
