I had made mention that this Talkies near NIT REC Calicut is no longer functional and it made me sad. Dhanya Talkies contributed to the pangs and glory of students at that time. I was under an misguided conclusion that I had written something about this place but only recently noted that I had not written an exclusive page for this place which we sometimes referred to as our Hollywood.
To those of you who know nothing about this talkies. It is some 200 meters from Kettangal on the Mukkom road side. When we approach the road towards Mukkom it is on the right side.It is a typical talkies and not a full fledged theatre. Fifty percent of the area in the front for people to sit down and see the movie and the rear portion with benches. We students were always on the benches.On the approach road to this Talkies there were a couple of arrack shops.
There was a Matinee show , a First show , and a Second show. Our students very often could be seen in the Matinee and First shows. A Tamil film Tiruvillayadal was being screened here and Raghuvaran badly wanted to see the movie and asked me if I could accompany him which I gladly did. Many of our senior students were also present on that day.This film is basically a mythological film.
Seeing a movie in this Talkies was never a pre-ordained or planned affair.It just happens. Many times I used to be in Kettangal to buy something and people like Gautam Hendre coming from the other side forcibly changed my course to see some Malayalam movie.Hindi and Malayalam movies were mostly shown.
The first movie I had seen at this place was some Prem Nazir film KILUNGATHA CHANGALLAGAL..in 1982...second show....all of us ..i think seven of us made a quick decision in our room B 315 to see something at this talkies. We were so fleet footed that before long we were at the theatre and none of my cronies knew Malayalam and most of the time I was busy translating the dialogues for them.I think we also saw Great Gambler one afternoon.
The two key situations when we were at Dhanya were first the interval when some of us used to come out and the night used to be deathly quiet with no traffic on the road and an errie silence which was frightening and secondly the trudge back to the hostels which was sometimes moon-lit and on other occasions very dark and remote.
Friday nights were largely reserved for Dhanya. I remember a large contingent of us saw the movie ABDULLAH. , I remember even PVK Mohan who later studied at IIMB was also with us.It was a very well lit moon-lit night and a large contingent of us walking back to the hostels with lots of laughter and giggling is still vivid in my mind.The best part of Dhanya Talkies is that we treated it as if it were our own..a private resort where we all were very much at home.The best part of the experience at this talkies were the various comments students used to pass during the course of the movie.
Now it is a facility of the past,and the present and future generations at NIT, will never know what Dhanya Talkies was all about.The Talkies must have become an economic victim of changing circumstances. Good Bye to you my dear Talkies and thank you for all the fun laughter and smiles you brought on our tender faces and the climate of enchantment that you created and the scores of movies students must have seen at your place and there must be many all over India from Assam to J and K.......to Rajastan and the entire stretch of the country who would still remember with nostalgia the feelings and moments they had which once held the title "HOLLYWOOD OF REC".
