The Hindu : Kerala News : Vanishing cinema magic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 13, 2007
ePaper

Kerala

Kerala

Vanishing cinema magic

P. K. Ajith Kumar

END OF THE SHOW: Blue Diamond Theatre in Kozhikode, one of the 400 cinemas that have been shut down in the State during the last four years.

KOZHIKODE: Cinemas in small towns are fast disappearing from Kerala's landscape. More than 400 cinemas across the State have been shut down during the last four years alone.

"There were more than 1,400 cinemas in the State four years ago but that number came down to 1,067 in December last year," said T.P. Vasu, secretary, Kerala Cine Exhibitors Association. "According to the latest figures we have, there are just 987 cinemas. And that number is dwindling fast. Within a few years, there may not be any cinemas in many small towns and villages at all. The cinema owners are forced to close shop because there is no other way out."

V. Viswan would vouch for that. Recently, his A.R. Talkies, Atholi, near Kozhikode, was razed to the ground. "My family had been in the business of cinema exhibition since 1972, and it was with a heavy heart that I took the decision to shut down my cinema. Having run into huge losses, it was the only option. Now there is no cinema at Atholi." Not too far from Atholi, another cinema, Saregama, Mukkom, ran its last show in March, barely a couple of months after A.R. Talkies shut down. "More cinemas in the nearby areas are also facing similar fates," said E. Chandrasekharan, who owns three other cinemas in Kozhikode district, besides Saregama.

K.M. Prabhath, a Kozhikode-based film distributor, said many proprietors were still in the business only because of some drastic measures they took. "Many proprietors I know double up as the employees; they simply cannot afford to have more than one or two staffers," he said.

Mr. Vasu said a variety of reasons contributed to the demise of small town cinemas.

"The spread of cable television in small towns and villages, the huge decrease in the number of good films that attract the entire family, the changing preferences of the audience - who prefer to watch the latest movie in an air-conditioned hall with digital sound - and the unsympathetic attitude of the certain sections of the industry have all contributed to this grave problem," he said.

"The problem could worsen if some necessary steps are not taken immediately. At the moment, only 48 centres in Kerala are allowed to release a film. On Monday, our association is staging a dharna in Kochi, demanding to include more centres in the list of releasing centres."

According to director Sathyan Anthikad, "when a cinema is removed from landscape, it is not just the end of a business, it is the end of a culture too." "I feel the main villain is the plagiarised CD. This Government's strong stance against the plagiarised CDs has already helped bringing the audience back to the cinemas. If we want to get crowds in our cinemas, we need to make good films, like we used to, back in the 1980s and '90s. A good film, be it `Classmates' or `Achuvinte Amma', has always done good business in all the centres, big or small."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail