INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
region, known for the creaminess of its milk, succulence of its sweets, and mellifluousness of Maithili, the local dialect
2022, as PVR brought Don back in theatres, Saharsa is not much different from how it was in 1978
It is still small and marred by illiteracy and poverty
A few things have changed, though
The silent rolling of e-rikshaws has elbowed out the tinkling of cycle rikshaws, there is a raft of boards announcing sale and service of
mobile phones, and many green patches have got covered by garbage, mainly polythene bags
theatres were the heartbeat of the town
movies, or movies which became random by the time they came to Saharsa
In the era of single-screen theatres, movies started screening in the prime territories of Delhi and Mumbai before fanning out to the
created a celebratory atmosphere that permeated through theatre walls and fanned out, enveloping the little market around the railway
crossing that divided the city and reached as far as the mohallas (the old settlements) as well as the colonies (the new ones, mostly
With no television, no internet, and a bevy of children to keep engaged, families visited one another every evening and colleagues became
were.
The successful movies drew repeat audiences in hordes
Movies such as Nadiya Ke Paar (A Rajshri offering later remade as Hum Aapke Hain Kaun) and Sanam Bewafa (starring Salman Khan) ran for
Mother India, already an old classic, packed the theatres every time it re-released
The odd Bhojpuri movie did well, too, the most notable being Ganga Kinare Mora Gaon.
Once inside the theatres, you followed a strict
Their entry was through passes issued by the manager and they were often supplied with soft drinks and snacks on the house
The second stratum was Dress Circle, whose tickets were the priciest, followed by the Balcony
seemed to have the most fun
Armed with cheap tickets, they thronged their favourite movies over and over, and often recited the thunderous dialogues along with the
They whistled and hooted and catcalled at the paisa wasool moments, and threw coins on the screen if they liked a song
The young and the restless would sometimes get up and dance in the aisles
Some of them brought flashlights even for the day shows and, during the inevitable power failure, switched them on and pointed them at the
But it was not the hoi polloi of Saharsa but the hoity-toity swish set of the Millennium City that was doing the whistling and hooting and
dancing and the dialogue baazi.
It started right in the opening scene, as Bachchan emerged from the car he had just driven through an open
field, and was now facing three men holding guns pointed straight at him
And so it continued from there on.
Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, the duo that wrote the screenplay, would be delighted to hear the cheering
that erupted when their names flashed in the credit sequence
It was a mixture of age groups
Some of them looked young enough to be watching it on the big screen for the first time, and they showed their appreciation with unflagging
There was no power failure, but there were moments when the audience did not find the volume to be loud enough and shouted for raising it
The management promptly complied.
Political correctness went out of the exit doors when Bachchan turned around in his swivel chair, his
first appearance after the credit sequence, and shot a man because he ostensibly did not like his shoes
Everyone in the audience clapped and cheered as he, after the shooting, went on to fix a drink for himself and light up a cigarette
Of course, the real reason was that the man he shot had secret papers hidden in the heel of one shoe.Nearly the entire chat between
Mohan.
But what really brought the house down were two of the songs
Everyone clapped and whistled through the title track, Main hoon Don.
But that was just the appetizer
By the time Khai ke paan banaras wala came on, people could contain themselves no longer
They got up from their seats and began to dance in the open area in front of the screen
Often dubbed someone who could not really dance, Bachchan moves with abandon and with none of the self-conscious aura he appeared to acquire
The audience matched him step for step.
It did not matter who you were, how old, and what your sensibilities were
For the duration of the song, and for much of the movie, there was Bachchan in all his glory and there were people showering him with all
the unfettered adulation at their command.
Fourty-four years after first enthralling audiences all over the country, Don not only rekindled
writer studied from Grades III to V at Jawahar Institution, Saharsa, which, much like some new-age schools of Gurgaon, did not have a
