Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sangeet, A Special Place!

The good old single-screen, 35 rupees balcony, Sangeet theatre has been razed to the ground; it is no longer there! (That’s a reason enough for me to continue hating expensive multiplexes.) The last time I had been to Sangeet to see a film was probably in the year 2005. Back during the college days, I and my friend Armstrong once saw two movies there back to back. The first one was Sleeping with the Enemy and the next one was Pacific Heights. We both liked Sleeping with the Enemy better, although Pacific Heights was a good movie too. (That was only and the last time I ever saw two movies one after the other in a cinema theatre!).

Many memories are associated with this much-loved theatre on SD Road. I remember it used to feel so special and a warming experience altogether to visit it with friends and college buddies and see English movies there, often with a bottle of Coke or Thums Up in hand, and munching on chutney sandwiches, sometimes on egg puffs or onion samosas bought at the stalls - just too good to be true. Those days will never come back, ever again. I still can’t believe why do they have to demolish such a historic landmark and build a stupid multiplex there? A clear case of greed I suppose.

- excerpt from my short story The Memory of Love, a short story

By Arindam Moulick