In a film-crazy state, this town does not have a single theatre

COIMBATORE: Perhaps it may be the only municipality without a cinema theatre in film crazy Tamil Nadu. For the residents of Valparai, watching movies in the ambience of a theater means a three-hour drive to Pollachi.
Given that they cannot watch newly released movies on television, residents have no opportunity to watch new releases in their neighbourhood.
This was not the case till the 1980s. Shaji Malliekal, a local businessman still remembers the day on which he saw Thanga Pathakam with Shivaji Ganesan in the lead role, in a Valparai theatre. That was way back in 1974.
Plantation workers constituted a huge crowd that thronged the theatre to see the film. Such luxuries no longer exist. All five cinema theatres in town downed their shutters by the end of 1980s.
Now, it is a theatre free municipality where film crazy people regularly organize trips to Coimbatore and Pollachi to watch movies. “Valparai is one of the prime locations for Tamil movies. But we are denied the luxury of having a theatre,” says Shaji.
In the absence of theatres, people find comfort in watching film shoots in the valleys and meadows of Valparai.
“In the good old days, the locals preferred action movies. The theatres were always fully occupied and people idolized their favourite actors, shouting and whistling when they appeared on screen,’’ recalls A T Murthy, a resident of the hills since the fifties.
“People who lived in the interiors used to walk for about eight hours through difficult terrains to reach the theatres to see the performance of MGR and Shivaji Ganesan,’’ he recalls.
Most of these theatres were not concrete like the ones in cities. They were made of thatched roofs and walls.
Long white cloth was used for a screen and there were a few chairs for the audience. Though there was one theatre with a semi-concrete structure and asbestos roofing, it was later transformed into a warehouse.
Shakti Talkies, Kalpana Talkies and Mody’s Theatre were the popular movie houses in town. There was a theatre at Sholayar, about 22 kilometers away from Valparai. It used to screen popular Shivaji Ganeshan and MGR movies. People used to walk 22 kilometers to watch movies in this theatre. P Sudheer, another businessman here, still remembers the Shivaji film ‘Vazhikai’ he saw in Kalpana theatre, sitting on his mother’s lap. He was ten years old at that time.
“The first show was at 6.30pm and the second show was at 10.30pm. In those days, there was no fear of elephants and leopards attacking us as we made our way to the theatre,” he said. As more people migrated to the plains in search of jobs, the theatres closed down, giving way to television, he added.