Thursday, May 01, 2008

Goodbye, Sangeet

Sangeet Theatre in Secunderabad will have its last screening this evening. On Monday, the nearly 40 year old theatre will be pulled down to make way for a multiplex.

I remember, like Sheetal, the way we all made crocs and walked across the road from school to watch films (Shaggy DA! Other films with dogs! Tom And Jerry as a special treat before!); I remember the awe with which I regarded my classmate, who was not only the inheritor of all this glamour but was a fantastic tennis player.

And the chutney sandwiches at Sangeet! The rolls which we learnt to put on every finger and wave at indulgent older people. Sigh.

More here and here.

PS: Impossible, of course, not to think of this film under the circs.


13 comments:

Falstaff said...

Or this?

Anonymous said...

Sad...Sangeet, if I remember, was once the only place where you could watch Hindi and English movies...

km said...

I am not from Hyd and I still feel bad about yet another single-screen shutting down. (I remember watching a film or two in Sangeet...more than 10 years ago.)

Hate multiplexes. Don't wave those rolls at me, young woman.

//Shaggy DA! Sigh, Summer of '77. "It was a very good year".

Space Bar said...

falstaff: haven't seen it, but it all sounds like the movie hall's pretty incidental to the story, no? you should watch bu san (though ideally not start ming-liang with that one).

lekhni: well, i don't know about hindi films, because i only watched english films there.

unfortunately, i have just remembered that the last film i saw there was a terrible one called le divorce and now it's too late to do anything about it.

km: i hate multiplexes also for all the annoying extras and if single screen theatres had good projection i would totally still go to watch films there (35 bucks a ticket; why would i not go?!) but they don't.

ElmerFuddnavis said...

Sangeet theater's final day....i graced the event by walking into a delicious romantic comedy named Tashan....what a wonderful bit of celluloid candy ... its neither wildly farcical nor mockingly cruel, but rather, for the most part, winningly gentle and observant....Saif and Kareena do make a sweet couple in this nimble, supple and moving comedy......the cozy, lived-in atmosphere created by the ensemble and the unlikely chemistry of Kareena and Akshay are so genuine.... it was truly the ideal movie screened for a
beautifully nostalgic(not half) movie theater's send off.

Anonymous said...

SAD ITS TRUELY SAD FOR ME. BECAUSE WE IN HYDERABAD/SECUNDERABAD ARE MISSING A SENSATIONAL THEATRE WITH SUPERB EVER SOUND SYSTEM AND THE LATEST XENON SYSTEM IT HAD.OF COURSE WE ARE GONNA SEE THE NEW SANGEETH BY MAR 2010 WITH RESEMBLENCE OF THE CURRENT DESIGN OF SANGEET AND IT WILL BE CALLED SANGEETH THAT GREAT.EVEN IF SANGEET IS RENOVATED NOW IT CANNOT BE THE BEST IN TECH AND STYLE AS IT IS KNOWN TO.iT WILL COME BACK TO US WITH A NEW FACE AND CREATE ANOTHER SENSATION.THIS TIME I EXPECT THE SOUND AND PROJECTION, THE AMBIENCE TO BE OF WORLD CLASS NO DOUBT.WE ALL ARE WAITING TO SEE YOU BACK BYEEEE.

Anonymous said...

OH NO THERE WILL NOT BE A THEATRE FOR US WHICH WILL SCREEN ENLISH MOVIES FOR QUITE SOME TIME I THINK NO PROBS SEE U BACK WITH A BANG WITH NODELAY COME BACK SOON WITH 6 SCREENS.


SANDEEP ..........

kuffir said...

passed by sangeet a few days ago and saw the 'tashan' posters. felt a little betrayed, i think. didn't know that was going to be the last film to be screened- haven't been to sangeet in a long time.

your classmate?

i remember other cinemas too- like lata which screened mostly old hindi movies in the eighties and early nineties. the theatre was poorly maintained, but the audience (sometimes, less than a dozen people) didn't mind, i guess.

Space Bar said...

Elmer Fuddnavis: Ah, well. That's a nice memory, then.

Anon/Sandeep: Lower case would have worked just fine, you know.

Kuffir: Yes, classmate. :D

I don't remember Lata. Where is it?

Sheetal said...

Kuffir: Oh Lata, and Palace!

kuffir said...

it was around a hundred yards from the ek minar dargah in nampally- less than a kilometer away from santosh etc..stopped being a main cinema in the late seventies, along with vikranti and other cinemas..survived purely because of the low tax rate for old movies- thanks to ntr (or god?).

sheetal,

:) and you remember dilshad, zamarrud, royal, navrang etc., of course- towards the end, i think, the bugs ate them up.

sb,

speaking of english cinemas- i hope you remember liberty, plaza, tivoli and other very 'english' theatres? plaza even had a bar during its heyday, i believe. audiences didn't have to settle for either coffee or tea during the breaks.

as for the classmate, i think she must have been younger than the person i was reminded of :)

Space Bar said...

Kuffir: I remember Zamarrud and Royal! (Royal had lilac furnishing and I remember being speechless at the sight of it).

Also, Manju, Liberty, Shaheen Faheen and one more; the escalator in Maheshwari and Parameshwari.

And if course, Tivoli which used to sow Tamil films on Sunday mornings. But if Plaza did all the alcohol stuff I was too young to notice!

Unknown said...

sangeet theatre holds a special place in my heart i started watching movies in sangeet since child hood, i had the experience to watch some most memorable movies in Sangeet.