1952 Jaipur, India

Shyam Iyer
1942
Jaipur, India
Interviewed on September 19, 2019
By Neelam Shaikh

(Some of the interview was translated from Hindi)

            The first movie I remember seeing… it was called Waqt. I must have been around 10 or 12 years old. It was a very serious movie about life—about how people in life should not overly flaunt their success and wealth. It’s called Waqt [which means “time” in English] because it shows that in just a split second, people’s lives can be completely overturned. I remember this message very vividly because it was the reason my dad took us to see it. He used to like to learn about what the movies were about before going to see them. In our town, there were only four or five movie theatres and each would show only one film, so these films would be advertised in the newspaper and in posters put up all over town. The whole town would be very excited about what movies were coming out and which stars would be in them, so it was very easy to find out information about these movies before going to see them. My dad would make sure that a film had a positive message before letting any of us go see it. I remember there was a movie called Awaara that came out. Me and my brother really wanted to see it, but he didn’t let us because he told us that he didn’t want us seeing a movie about some Awaara [Awaara means vagabond]. So, he really emphasized that the moral of Waqt was important and that we should pay attention to it.

This was one of the first really big drama Bollywood films—most movies at this time were either historical or religious movies based on the Ramayan. There was also access to Hollywood movies, but only on Sunday mornings. Since movies were at least three hours long, there would only be four show times: 12-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12. We went to the 6 PM one. Most kids would ride their bicycles to the theatre—it was a very short ride. Me and my siblings used to do that a lot. I remember the theatre—it was called Polo Victory Cinema—and it was on Station Road, because it was just passed the railroad station. For this showing, my whole family went, so we went in my father’s “tanga” [horse drawn carriage]. I think three of my siblings came with us. I was really excited. My parents used to go to movies every so often, but they never brought me with them.

The theatre was very big—I remember walking in and being confused about where to go. There were several rows of seats—tickets for the front row were really cheap so you could tell a person’s class based on where they sat. I was caught off guard when the usher led us to our seats in a private box in the back. There were around 10 seats in the box and it was separated from the next section by curtains. I didn’t expect for there to be a private area like this. I didn’t get anything to eat, but the theatre sold “chai,” cold drinks, “samosas,” “kachoris”—there was no popcorn. I think they had some toffees.

Before the movie started they would show trailers, but it was very different from how trailers are now. No one had TV’s at this point, so during the trailers there would be news segments, which would cover what happened that week in politics. Segments would be about international and domestic politics, politicians, and generally what was happening in the nation. I think there would usually be one preview for the movie that would be showing next, but I can’t remember what the trailers were for this movie. I wasn’t really paying attention during this part, but I remember thinking that the screen was so big.

When the movie started, I was so excited to see all of these famous actors on a big screen. I had heard of Balraj Sahni, Raaj Kumar, and Sunil Dutt—their faces were on posters all over town. But I had never seen them actually move, and talk, and interact with each other. They never felt like real people before this, but now I could see that they were. They were known to be incredible actors, but I didn’t think it was possible that I would actually become emotionally attached to their characters. These were complete strangers, and the story had nothing to do with me. But the actors were so good. The story was about a rich family with three sons. The father had a flourishing business and was extremely arrogant, but then there’s a huge earthquake and the house completely crumbles. The father loses everything and the kids are separated and raised in different families. I remember the earthquake scene in particular. It was really overdramatic—everyone was screaming and falling and things were shaking. But I felt worried about what would happen to the kids and if everything would be okay. I wasn’t scared, but I actually felt that I cared about what was going to happen to the characters. The movie was three hours long, but I didn’t get bored. There was an intermission, but I just wanted to get back to watching the movie. I really wanted to find out if the kids would ever be reunited.

The movie had a ton of music; I had actually already listened to the music from the movie before going. We had a radio in our house, and the main channel would play songs from different movies. I used to love listening to the radio and was really excited to see the singers actually perform these songs. I loved Asha Bhoshle, and knew that her songs would be in the movie. I was really confused though when the singers weren’t in the movie. I didn’t understand that the actors were lip-syncing so I was shocked that they were able to sing just as well as the singers! My favorite song from the movie was Ae Mere Zohra Jabeen. You know it, it goes like this:

[singing]

Ai meri zoharaa zabi

Tujhe maalum nahin

Tu abhi tak hai haseen

Aur main javaan

[Note: my grandfather is an extremely talented singer, but rarely sings anymore due to heart issues.]

People in the theatre would sometimes sing along to the songs during the movie; they would actually get very involved in general. A lot of the times people would start dancing even, or whistle during happy scenes.

After the movie, I remember telling my dad that I thought the theme was very inspiring, that life teaches us to be humble. I was young at the time, so the moral didn’t really affect me at all, but looking back at it now, I am really grateful that my dad cared enough to teach us these values at such a young age.