Reel back the years

A sketch of the fau00c3u0083u00c2u00a7ade of Plaza in Dadar shows the intricate artwork that adorned its walls. After a fire that broke out there in 2011, the place is now unrecognisable

What is that one industry in Mumbai that shapes the way the city is perceived? Bollywood, you'd have to say. Hindi films have such a hold over the population that lakhs of people are willing to suspend belief on a daily basis, happy to be transported into a cinematic realm where they can leave their everyday worries behind for three hours. It all started with Dadasaheb Phalke's silent feature, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913. And then Alam Ara, the country's first talkie, made in 1931, changed the game.

Only this striking façade of the defunct Bhanganwadi Theatre in Kalbadevi remains, as testament to its heyday

Now, a cocktail menu at Lower Parel eatery Bombay Canteen pays homage to the cinema halls of yore, which predate the multiplexes in glitzy malls that are the order of the day. It's accompanied with a booklet written by city historian Simin Patel, titled Talkies of Bombay, that is filled with nuggets of information that have been buried in the sands of time. Did you know, for instance, that sex workers from the red-light district in Grant Road where Ripon Theatre once stood were given a special rate of '1 for movie tickets? Or that Bhangwadi Theatre in Kalbadevi once had a host of bhang shops surrounding it?

Palace Talkies, located near Byculla Railway Station was built at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh. Built in 1932, it heralded a new era when movies were no longer silent

These are pieces of trivia from a simpler time, when Mumbai, or Bombay then, was still on the road to becoming the chaotic megacity it is today. A lot of the theatres were built with an Art Deco structure, making them seem almost palatial. Some of these retain their glory, such as Eros Cinema at Churchgate. Others have felt the effect of wear-and-tear, like Plaza in Dadar, the façade for which had to be changed completely after a fire broke out at the theatre in 2011. But they are still fragments from a sepia-tinted past that offer a taste of nostalgia, while you sip on a selection of themed cocktails.

Miss Frontier Mail

Time 12 pm to 1 am
At The Bombay Canteen, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel.

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