Cinema Paradiso

Pazhayangadi Prathibha talkie was the institution which socialized the different classes of humanity like the tamils in Kerala, scavengers, beggars, sex workers, drug addicts, smokers, dalits, teenagers etc., These different sections of society ended up in the smoky hall of Prathibha talkies after their every day’s affairs. The patriarchal/brahmanical, socialization and streaming of dreams on celluloid, persuaded the different classes to move towards this talkie was the evolution from feudalized art viewership of older times. Prathibha talkies metamorphosized the style of viewership only by including more classes of society who had money, unlike the enjoyment in the older times even though it was still brahmanical. Money reduced the distance of untouchability in Prathibha talkie. Still, sex workers, tamils, dalits, beggars were bench viewers of Prathibha. A huge part of this money were gone to the elite/ brahmanical societies who owned Prathibha talkies and producers/directors/distributors/ actors of movie industry. Unlike Kadhakali in old age and other feudal arts which were only the privilege of brahmanic society where others were expelled, those who had their money to buy ticket entered into Prathibha tand the paradox was those who have less money sat on the front raw. In its long journey in the history of Pazhayangadi in Kannur and film industry, Prathibha talkie struggled and succeeded as a C class theatre in its struggle for survival through the implementation of DTS and rejuvenation of the theatre system according to the modern scenario.


It was in the year 2000 the film “Kinnarathumbikal” released in Prathibha. The film was house full on a second show when we wached and was rejuvenation for many third class theatres in Kerala which were struggling for their survival. Prathibha talkies on that second show became a place and reign of culture of patriarchy in a Kerala village. Women in Pazhayangadi waited for their husbands/fathers/brothers to serve their dinner, but they were watching other women Shakeela who was treated as a prostitute by themselves in Prathibha. Some intellectuals sat in Prathibha by lighting a Dinesh beedi as if they were to study the feminist politics of Kinnarathumbikal. Communists and Gandhians forgot their political ideologies and clashes in front of this woman. When in between there was a power failure, men scolded projector operator as “mother fucker”. There was complete unity in diversity by the patriarchy in virtual raping of Shakeela. Those who know each other, like friends, relatives, just smiled each other and didn’t talk. Somebody cracked a joke that if he gets a brassier of Shakeela he could buy his grains from ration shop. And some one in a corner loosened his underwear and was ready for masturbation. (In A class theatres in Kannur lady sex workers did this for men for money in theatre halls while playing movies). After a “bit” was completed they all had their foot prints on the seats in front of them. The hero in “Kinnarathumbikal” massaged the breasts of Shakeela and the viewers had their heavy breath. And the paradox was that the boy had committed suicide after the film released due to shame from his own “men” society in his native in Thalasery.


In the same year there was another movie “ Narasimham” released in Malayalam which was enjoyed by Malayalee in their living rooms. Father, mother, brothers and sisters enjoyed together the dance of the actress Alphosna. They didn’t find any sort of vulgarity in the song “dham tha nakka thillam”. The damn hypocrisy prevailed in the so called cultured family scenario of Kerala treated Shakeela as a prostitute and they had a voyeur look at the legs of Mohanlal together with Alphonsa in Narasimham. And they clapped for the most degraded dialogue by Mohanlal’s character “I need a woman...to hug in the misty night....and to cry when I am dead....” The masculinity of Mohanlal was a celebration in the social and individual spheres of Malayalam society which became fertilizer for the growth of fanatic Hindu psyche development of Kerala.


Sree lakshmi was another talkie in Vengara which had a distance of one kilometer from Prathibha. Sreelakshmi screened so many Kungfu pictures for the survival and were having a good audience. Jet lee, Jackie Chan, Ian bow and Samo Hung fought on the screens of Sree lakshmi. The audience clapped for Enter the dragon, Police story, The rebel, My father is a hero, Armed for action etc., The first shows were filled approximate to three fourth of Sree lakshmi’s hall. In between some spicy English movies rolled on. It was on an English movie, when all the sexy scenes were over after the interval, all were moving out of the theatre, one guy told to his friend: “We should know the story.. and watch till the end”. Sreelakshmi struggled a lot by screening some tamil movies besides Kungfu, English porns, underworld English porn films by Jai-tevan/Sajjan, but failed. When the new culture of porn CDs and internet came in the cultural realm Sreelaskhmi failed and the talkies was closed. Sreelakshmi, like a sex worker/feminine self satisfied the sexual/patriarchal intimate feelings of generations and received their masturbations on face and died.


Sreesakthi talkies collapsed on a rainy second show night when it played Vaishali, on the screen. Inside the screen Vaishali was dancing in front of Rishyasringan for rain showers and outside was heavy raining and storm and while men were raping the body of Vaishali. People got frightened and ran to different places for their shelters. Now days, people flew more to the bar nearby than Sreesakthi talkies. It had the culture of male domination/patriarchy in the eighties or before that for the Hindi and Tamil movies were not viewed by woman communities in these theatres or they never dared to do that. Woman, families and societies of villages around Pazhayangadi moved to Prathibha and sreesakthi on their vishu, Christmas and Onam to watch ‘family’/‘accepted’ movies. They Clapped Prem Nazir for his CIDs and Romance, Mohanlal and Sreenivasan for their jokes based on color, culture, caste creed and education, Mammootty for his briefcase male dominated family men and police officers. They treated Mohanlal as their family members and Sreenivasan as a complete failure l from a nearby Colony or so. People laughed a lot by correlating the dalit body language of Sreenivasan with his failures in “Vadakkunokkiyanthram” and “Thalayanamanthram” and treated him as a Charlie Chaplin which was paradoxical and a historical humor in the film viewership culture of Kerala. And reviewers rewarded are Mohanlal as a common man who portrayed Nair/Namboodiri male showenisms on the screens of Prathibha, Sreesakthi and Sreelakshmi (Sreenivasan was not in their common man’s list as a performer on screen/but was a common man’s script writer who created roles Nairised/brahmanised roles for Mohanlal and stories for Sathyan Anthikaad) .


The other theatres like Neruvambram National, and Pilathara Sangham also were closed due to economic liability. Pariyaram Smitha, Ezhilode sreedurga etc., are there for name And it was in eighties and in early nineties people from different parts of Kannur flowed towards Chirakkal Praksh , a theatre were played porn bits on the intervals of noon shows. It was on one day, when we looked back while watching a bit, a post man on uniform was standing on the door covering his face up to nose by a towel and watching the bit after interval for just ten minutes...