Cinema Halls near NIT (REC) Calicut

There were many cinema halls near REC Calicut of our times and this was one of our unplanned entertainments meaning that the decision to see a movie was taken at the spur of the moment. We had an audio-visual club which was fairly active and I have seen many classics thanks to the A-V club as it was called. Madhumathi, Sadma, Tootsie, Double trouble; Super snooper;Masoom to name a few. One end of the auditorium had a screen and the hall was well designed with an enclosure for the projectors. The lady folk were seated on the dias and for the men folk the chairs were strewn all around and one could make oneself comfortable on a chair and position himself to his convenience any where in the hall. The auditorium would work in a reverse format when movies were screened. Rarely in the auditorium when the audio works the video wouldnt and vice-versa and the A-V club was sometimes called the Audio or Visual club.

Malayalam movies were a hot favourite among many for obvious reasons and though the hindi crowd didnt understand the language an iota were regular visitors for these movies and were more restless when the posters of these movies were stuck on college walls and trees. The malayalam movie that created the maximum ado was Uthpathi . I couldnt see this movie but have only heard of its attractions. My class mate Manjeet Singh Rekhi who rarely saw any movie also seemed highly excited the day after he saw the movie and was going around explaining the scenes sometimes hugging and clasping a fellow student venting extreme emotions.

The cenima halls around NIT -Calicut were as follows in the order of increasing distance. Dhanya talkies near Kettangal, Sindhu theatre in Kunnamangalam and another talkies in Kunnamangalam whose name I forget and another talkies in Mavoor and a theatre in Mukkom. Kunnamangalam is 07 kilometers from the institute and Mavoor and Mukkom must be around 10 kilometers. Dhanya talkies was walkable from REC and had maximum visitors from REC mostly for the second show. I have been weaned by many a friend to see a movie at Dhanya though seeing a movie was simply not on the agenda- just for the sake of company. I was on my way from kattangal where I went to purchase something only to be coerced by some and before long I found myself in Dhanya talkies with many batchmates and friends. Abdullah, Raftaar, Great Gambler; Thiruvilayadal and not to mention many malayalam movies were seen by me here. Actually I loose count but there were many. I cannot forget the movie killungatha changallagal- the first movie five of us who were staying at B315 saw and from then on started the saga of visiting Dhanya talkies. The mood was jolly and when you are in rome be a roman. I fully patook the gaeity at REC and pity people who could not revel in it for their own reasons. I beleive we should not loose any oppurtunity to laugh and be merry especially when life and heavens presents such circumstances to the exclusion of other concerns. To that extent I feel a sense of contentment when I look back to my days spent at this place that I did precisely what one should be doing under such unfettered and joyous environment. Such a situation would never present itself again in life is a reality and there are no regrets in having made merry for once in a place that largely presented the ground for the same and any shortcoming so resultimg could be ammended.

The best part of seing a movie at Dhanya talkies is the walking back to the hostels in the moon lit night. It was a very splendid feel with hardly any one on the road barring a few of us occassionally breaking into peels of laughter that rented the air. Most of the Indian languages could be heard from Bengali to Oriya to Assamese not to mention Hindi. The discussions revolved around the scenes in the movie. P V K Mohan from Bombay was there when we saw Abdullah. Friday evenings were the ideal time to visit Dhanya theatre as Saturday and Sunday were holidays and the friday night used to be an open night. After seeing the movie at Dhanya theatre the night is simply not over as some of us would assemble at the mini canteen again discussing many things over cups of tea upto 2 AM. (The tea at Mini-Canteen was special ;quickly manufactured in a dramatized set of sequences -filled slightly more than half full into a cleaned glass tumbler with few ants big and small on the surface which has to be carefully done away with and had a rare and differing taste on every occassion but was almost an addiction for many. Some of the students clubbed it with a cigarette and were not to be disturbed enjoying the deep enlightenment of the combination).The discussions would range from assignments to be submitted , lab records to be written and sometimes into philosophy and life not to mention the attractive species of the institute. As a matter of procedure no discussions of any kind are complete without the attractive species (female students or the opposite sex )of the institute being a subject with various kinds of nick names discussed and given to the more flamboyant in an instant flow of creativity.

I have seen Amar Akbar Anthony; Majboor; malayalam movie kinnaram etc at Sindhu theatre in Kunnamngalam. IIM-K students must be visiting this theatre more frequently now because it is only a stone throw away from it. After seeing a movie one evening my room mate Giri and myself had walked the entire 7 kilometrs to college just for the fun of it. Sindhu theatre was a full fledged theatre and not a talkies. I have seen the movie nakakshathangal in the talkies in Kunnamangalam. Note that the bus stop in Kunnamangalam came up in 1984 prior to which there was no full fledged bus stop. Every time I travel on this road I take a quick glace of the Sindhu theatre and it is still very much there hale and hearty as usual. We could not hoot and howl in Sindhu theate as we did in Dhanya talkies because we were simply not in our core territory. There were instances in Dhanya theatre where the ongoing movie was stopped for some particular scene to be re-shown with some of the students making menacing gestures threatening to break a few chairs if their desires were not obliged and the manager of the dhanya talkies had no other go but to recast the reels. This was the sway we had on Dhanya theatre. It was for all practical purposes our private theatre or takies what ever one would like to call it. The movies had parallel dialogues and commentories from students that were more enchanting than the dialogues of the movies itself. In one movie the hero averred to the heroine " come to me " as I have cleared 24 paper and got a BA and Martin my senior sitting in the rear commented vociferously that the had just finished the final exam thereby completing almost 58 papers to his count and that he was a better suit for the heroine. This was the uncontrolled free- for -all inside the talkies. There was a country arrack outlet near the talkies and the less temperant of the lot had a stomach full before they entered the talkies and their mannerisms and mood governed by the spirit with some of them shamelessly vomitted the extra that was forced down their throats within the talkies creating a scene. Lady students visited the talkies only for the afternoon show secretly sneaking in and sneaking out without a flutter and knew very well the conscequences of a publicised visit. They visited the talkies in large bands and carefully negotiating the road to the talkies that ran along side the hostels and the men made merry catching their glance from the hostels and making a list of all of them they could identify from far.

Waqt ke shehzade; Blue Lagoon were movies I saw at Abhilash theatre in Mukkom the first one in 1983 and the latter in 1985. I saw the movie Andha Kanoon in the talkies in Mavoor with my batch mate Gautham Balram Hendre.

These are the tents and theatres around REC that formed a part of our lives and the narration was about what happenned at them. Crown theate and Blue Diamond were two theatres frequently visited in Calicut town. Blue Diamond came up some where in 1984 and I have seen Ardh sathya and Akhri rastha here not to mention the scores of english movies seen at Crown theatre.

In retrospect I feel the authorities of the institute must not let film posters to be stuck within the campus as in the ultimate analysis it sets a downward precedent. Educational institutions must be isolated and insulated from environmental noises of any kind for the process of education to progress in its sanctity and students must land up invariably reading journals and text books of the subjects that they study or else they simply land up being a Roman in Rome which may not be their designated trajectory.