Bankura’s heritage cinema hall caught up in the throes of extinction – GetBengal story
For most Bengalis, Durga Puja celebrations still need the customary pandal-hopping ritual followed by a sumptuous meal and a movie night with friends. Moviemakers bank on the festival to revive ticket sales and release their feature films during the pujas to draw the maximum number of crowds. However, the plights of single-screen cinema halls have affected ordinary people in many ways. Many single-screen cinema halls have shut down for good and with them, a glorious chapter of mass entertainment has come to an abrupt halt. For a nation where theatres have been the primary source of mass entertainment for decades, these closures signify the end of an era.
Take, for instance, Bankura’s Cinema Road, once home to three popular movie halls — Beena Pani, Chandidas and Basanti — this one street once offered movie buffs much-needed respite and recreation. The road was named after the first hall, Chandidas Chitra Mandir came up in the locality. This hall was one of the five theatres in Bankura that once catered to a large populace. Rabindranath Tagore himself named the cinema hall Chandidas Chitra Mandir and inaugurated it on March 2, 1940. Initially, the hall had a seating capacity of 700. Tickets were priced from three annas to suit every pocket. The imposing, palatial building of the theatre was overwhelming. One had to walk through the majestic compound while heading to the Chandidas box office. Later, it was remodelled to accommodate 1,200 people in one go.
The hall downed its shutters in 2018 and with its closure, gloom descended on this once-bustling 'Cinema Para'. Most shopkeepers closed their businesses and moved to other areas. What remains of the once-majestic single-screen cinema hall now is dark and dusty aisles, lonely old chairs, torn posters and light beams seeping in from dilapidated ceilings. It’s pretty much the same all over the country. In fact, after the closure of five single-screen theatres located in the heart of Bankura, locals have no opportunity to watch movies in their hometown. Instead, they have to travel 45 km to Durgapur to watch a movie on the big screen.
It is a pity to recollect that these are the same theatres that had crowds clapping, whistling, dancing and even flinging coins at the screen in joy and appreciation back in the day while watching their most awaited new releases. On the first day of the first show, the atmosphere inside these single-screen cinema halls would be supercharged and hall owners would wait with bated breath for the audience's reaction to gauge if the movie would be a blockbuster or a flop. Sometimes even 1,000 seats would fall short of accommodating the sprightly crowds waiting in queue to buy a ticket. The ticket counter would then hang a ‘Housefull’ board and shutter its mini glass window. Undeterred by such impediments, cinema buffs would go to the extent of buying a ticket from shady folks who’d hoard extra tickets and sell them in black.
The cinema hall has been closed for more than half a decade. Although the present decrepit state of the theatre is uninspiring, old-timers reminisce the glorious days of the theatre poignantly. Nagendranath Dutta, who hailed from one of Bankura’s illustrious families, was a visionary, who wanted to provide entertainment to the masses at an affordable price. In 1940, Rabindranath Tagore was visiting Bankura at the invitation of Mrs. Usha Halder, wife of Mr. Sudhindra Kumar Halder, Commissioner of Burdwan Division and District Magistrate of Bankura. A beautiful theatre had just been built in the town and Dutta invited the poet to inaugurate the hall. Accordingly, on the morning of March 2, 1940, the people of Bankura welcomed the poet who spoke about the famous medieval poet, Baru Chandidas and named the hall in his honour as Chandidas Chitra Mandir. For the next eight decades, it was a dream run for the theatre hall. In 2001, the cinema hall was acquired by the Modi family from the Dutta family. Chandidas Chitra Mandir flourished from 2001 to 2018. The popular movie ‘Baahubali 2’ ran for almost a month in this hall. However, times were changing and technology played a pivotal role in this change. Running single-screen cinema halls was no longer a lucrative business. The owners of Chandidas Chitra Mandir were also incurring huge financial losses like other hall owners. According to an article in the Indian Express, the single-screen hall owners would rather have the theatre closed because they earn about ₹4,000 a day. So, shutting shop makes more economic sense. Because when they're open they have to spend on electricity, maintenance and other operational costs; and they end up losing something like ₹7,000. In the case of Chandidas Chitra Mandir, the situation was further complicated because there were about 136 business partners in the Modi family who had stakes in the business and among them, 50 had already died, yet the tussle continued.
Weeds have accumulated, dusty and rickety doors and windows look like they will fall off the hinges any moment, peeled and cracked walls create illusions of strange figures, and the collapsible gates at the main entrance are also rusted. The ticket counters are in a shambles. Signs of apathy are evident everywhere around Chandidas Chitra Mandir which has been providing entertainment to the people of Bankura for decades. However, locals are optimistic and believe in wizardry and hope Chandidas Chitra Mandir’s lost laurels will be restored with the swish of a wand.
