Residual Memory

AS we lose the uniqueness of our urban visual history, with the soulless replication of commercial spaces at the cost of hundreds of beautiful old architectural landmarks, we also lose the stories of the people and their human relationships with those spaces.

- Hemant Chaturvedi

While progress and change cannot be stopped, I doubt if millennials will ever tell their future grandchildren stories of shopping malls and multiplexes, and how attached they were to them, and the social or cultural impact they had on their lives.

The Thakur of Wadhwan, Gujarat, was present at Watson's Hotel in Bombay in 1896 when the Lumiere brothers showcased their Cinematographe for the first time in India. As per the available oral history, the Thakur was so enchanted by this new device that he immediately paid for one to be shipped to him from France. The Cinematographe arrived 10 years later, in 1906, and was operated at an open ground in Wadhwan to show silent movies after sunset. The ground and the ticket window still exist.

In the days of silent movies music would be played live by one or two people, or even by an orchestra, in an effort to make the viewing experience more engaging. Many of the old proscenium-style theatres had a pit for the musicians, which allowed an easy transition to the silent movie era. The stage would be covered by a screen, and the musicians played on. The owner of the long-since defunct Bharat Talkies in central Maharashtra told me of the time it used to be a silent cinema. His educated grandfather would read the story of the film being screened off a sheet of paper in real time, while the grand uncles would play live music on the harmonium, the flute and the tabla.