And the Curtain Rises Again

After 23 years, cinema makes a grand comeback in Kashmir as the Valley gets its first multiplex

- Moazum Mohammad and Suhani Singh

Just 100 metres away from the now-defunct Broadway cinema in Srinagar, Vijay Dhar, 80, is beaming with pride over a newly opened INOX multiplex. Dhar, chairperson of Taksal Hospitality, recalls how the launch of the 750-seater Broadway, set up in 1965 by his father-in-law, Tirathram Amla, was pushed by three weeks just so it could open with Janwar, a film starring the region's then-favourite actor, Shammi Kapoor. Broadway, however, like other cinemas in the region, shut down in 1989-90 after Allah Tigers, a militant outfit, declared a ban on liquor shops and cinemas. The violence that followed replaced the sound of drums in Srinagar's streets announcing new releases with the thunder of gunfire and grenades. A decade later, Broadway-along with Regal and Neelam-dared to shun the militants' threats and reopened, only to be forced to shut shop again after an attack on Regal in September 1999.

Today, Dhar, through Taksal's collaboration with INOX, has brought to Kashmir its first multiplex, which also marks the return of cinema to the Valley after 23 years. Much like Amla, who let go of an existing structure-a workshop-to accommodate the cinema hall, Dhar gave up an eight-bedroom family guesthouse to welcome the INOX multiplex. A four-storey structure, the three-screen, and 522-seater multiplex shares a wall with Broadway and sits adjacent to the Valley's biggest army garrison. For Dhar, it was all worth the sacrifice. "They [the residents have nothing. A majority of the people in the Valley have never seen a film on a big screen," he says. Dhar wants to change that, though he knows that seeing houseful signs at Kashmir's cinema halls is still a distant dream.

BEGINNING AGAIN