VANISHING MAGIC

• I remember Chennai only by its cinemas.
• Mount Road had all our favourite haunts. I remember watching Godfather and Jaws at Casino. Magnificient Seven, Bond movies Sathyam, Bridge Too Far, Battle of the Bulge, Safire, Wild Geese Pilot. Devi theatre once featured a Chaplin festival. Blue Diamond had continuous shows.
• After cutting classes, I would always go home, tell my mother I was going to a film and then go after changing the school uniform. We would go to one film watch it and reserve a ticket for another. Sometimes we would go for matinee and if we did not get tickets will wait and watch the evening show. English films were our favourites.
• With DVDs powering themselves into the scene, the mountain has come to Mohammed. The rare charm of waiting and watching the stars has faded. Their greatness has been robbed by the frequency with which we see them. The silver screen had a magic that made stars and stories appear far off and mysterious. Films used to dictate our life. We had to cut classes according to the show time and wait.
• But now, thanks to DVDs we can control all the stars, we can watch any film any number of times whenever we want.