Films come and go, new genres
and trends are created and old are forgotten. It's a natural process. Spaghetti westerners are more or less through
and so are the wailing mothers and the homely housewives. Having seen many James Deans and Dev sa'abs we have willingly
moved on to newer, more updated options, par se. But there is one thing that remains a tenet
of the motion picture art form. The architecture, the shire rooms of films, the
theaters which have been the breathing oxygen for the dispensation of films.
Like any religious monument there grows a circle of faithful around cinemas which has an active participation in influencing the art and getting inspired in turn. It cannot be known how many times people come out of theaters turned into fans after which they see and feel life differently.
Although time and technological changes have much weakened the lure of cinema halls they still remain one of the major creators of social demigods and cults. But as things past which fall to disuse and eventually into oblivion, film theaters are following a similar path of decay and death. Televisions and computers which have been instrumental in this process are the new popular mediums of the motion picture art form in its various formats. Tele-series, TV programms and other shorter video formats have not only lead to a plummeting of cinema hall enthusiasts but have brought forth new trends with which the old ones have silently retired maybe to be celebrated sometime in future, if thought worthy.
One such relic situated in
the Temple city of Jammu is the Hari Theatre. This symposium house which during
its better days must have outnumbered the gathers in the nearby Raghu Nath
temple, today lies in shambles. The chipped-off paint, the slowly rotating
creaking fans, empty dusty glass shelves of the canteens beckons an age gone by, a purpose outlived.
Once the theater had catered to a raging plethora of cinema fans, reaching its height in 1993 when the main road of Raghu Nath market got blocked by film-goers in wait to watch Sanjay Dutt starer 'Khalnayak', if a present caretaker is to be believed. Now its condition seems as alien as that hit film or maybe even Sanjay Dutt for that matter.
This is hardly surprising as a new trend can already be seen emerging in the Indian cinema. The Naya Cinema movement which has slowly been gaining recognition world wide has set the wheels of time into action again, bringing an ebb to the flow. New directors with their contemporary and more immediate subjects are gaining popularity. Anand Gandhi's 'Ship of 'Thesus' or Anurag Kshayap's ' Gulaal' speak the voice of a new audience, an audience which is not only high paying but also deeply appreciative. The ball game has changed, its champions, replaced. Various Haris and Delights have seen and lived the glory but now is the time for them to step down, give way and maybe get celebrated in the future, if thought worthy.
The dying Hari Theatre will soon get renovated and replaced by a PVR Multiplex, a whole generation will go to sleep, images of which will only remain in the faces of those who continue to live outside the screen, the people of Jammu, those who shared their past with the theater while time carries forth its ruthless march of modernity.
