That day's Gandhi nagar is like iron filings to magnet,
which is Bollywood. If Bollywood catches cold, Gollywood sneezes. The ups and
downs of Bollywood have a direct impact on the fate of Gollywood. Though
Gandhi nagar handles films of all languages, the main business is from the Hindi
films.
The fate of many distributors hinges on the success of
Hindi films. Many have lost heavily and some have made crores, but of late, due
to a very low percentage of success of films, (which is hardly around 8%)
people running the distribution business are rather unhappy. But, right now our
concern is to go back to the fifties and find out as to how this great
Gandhi nagar then was.
This place was named as 'Gandhi nagar' as majority of
the people who lived here belonged to the birth State of that Mahathma which is
Gujarat. It seems we Indians have taken our good old Gandhiji for granted.
Perhaps there may be a few thousand Gandhinagars, Gandhi Squares and Gandhi
Roads in our country. But right now we are discussing the Gandhinagar of
Bangalore.
When Gujrathis migrated to this place in the forties
and fifties, few among them might have been the followers of that great man,
few others might have just liked him, some would have tried to follow his
ideals and live like him. A few may even not know who that great man was, but
still this area was named as Gandhinagar.
But in the early fifties ninety percent of the people
here were Gujrathis. But over a period, the roaring business they had, perhaps
made most of them to forget Gandhiji. Later, over a period, lot of infiltration
by other people made this place cosmopolitan in nature like any other part of
this city.
But that special air of difference was apparent right
from the beginning, which made people call it as 'Gujrathi Colony'. Later it
was called as 'Filmnagar', as even during those days there were over hundred
film distribution offices out of which almost ninety percent of them were owned
by the Gujrathis. In the early sixties, it was called as 'Mini Bombay' due to
some tall buildings coming up and due to the life style of Gujarathis and Sindhis.
A few Sindhi friends entered this area, may be as they
felt more 'at home' with Gujrathis than any other community in Bangalore. At
that time Bangalore had not heard of 'Apartment' culture at all. But buildings
of about four, five and six floors started coming up and we could see washed
clothes hung on in the balconies for drying up and occasional missiles like
toffee covers etc., thrown by the residents at different floors falling on
passers by.
But one thing I liked about these Gujarathis is their
friendly nature and adaptability. Most of the women wore snow white spotless
sarees, which added dignity to them.
The majority of men too wore white clothes and
particularly the elderly men wore dhoti kurtha and signified their origin with
a white Gandhi cap. Of course, on the contrary, teenagers were on the forefront
of the changing fashions. I also appreciated their cultural and religious
leanings. I particularly like their Jain temple on the fourth main road. Later
another small Jain temple was converted and renovated into a very big temple at
the first main road. It abounds in peace and tranquility.
The entire area blooms with lights, colour and crackers
during the Dusserah festivals. During the entire ten days of that period, you
could see all the women clad in colourful dresses corning out for shopping and
meeting the members of other families. In the evenings, groups of men and women
join at an appointed place for playing Dandiya, dancing and singing songs which
sometimes went on beyond midnight. Indeed, you could feel a 'mini Mumbai' in
full glow. Apart from this, there came up a Sri Rama Temple near second cross.
Then came up a Maratha Mandir, which indicated that even Maharastrians were
attracted to this area. But one thing I did not like in the Gujarathis is their
pan-chewing habit, from teenagers to old people, all cherished chewing pans and
their first pan was after breakfast and the last (perhaps the tenth pan) was
after dinner.
It was a very peaceful Colony for a very long time but
had to fall prey for modernism due to its central location and nearness to the prime business area 'Majestic'. Even in early sixties, the evenings were very
calm. Many dare not walk on the first main road after dark, which was isolated
due to the fact that a big wall of the Central Jail ran along the road on one
side.
But it was the best road for a peaceful walk in the
mornings as there were plenty of trees along the road which had very few houses
and absolutely no business activity except for one of the oldest nursing homes
called 'Bangalore Nursing Home' situated at the end of the road leading to
Seshadri road and Maharani's college area. Even the Seshadri Road, which
commences from Anand Rao Circle and ends at K.R.Circle, was one of the best
roads of Bangalore with very big old trees on either side covering the entire
stretch of the road till the entrance of Cubbon Park. It was pleasure to walk
on this road at any time of the day for, Sun rays hardly pierced through the
branches of trees.
Added to this was the outer wall of Bangalore Race
Course which helped in maintaining the proverbial 'lung space' and fortunately
it is prevalent even now. As the Maharani's college had more greenery than
concrete structures, it was a great visual treat of nature's beauty. Added to
this of course, was the scene of the cute girls of the college walking on this
road clad in different coloured dresses which was a contrast to the green surroundings and was welcome to the eyes however distracting it was. On the
other side were a few hostels for boys of different castes such as the Hebbar
Sri.Vaishnav Sabha, Jayadeva, Babburkamme and the Vysya's. Next a sprawling
bungalow of the Khoday family and a few houses of some Sindhi businessmen. The
rest was the area of the Central Jail, which too had lot of greenery. The
busiest road was the fifth main road and all the other roads and the six
crosses were comparatively calm. Imagine one night around 10 pm, while walking
on this road I could clearly hear a song of Kishore Kumar (Dukhiman Mere of
film 'Funtoosh') in the programme of Sugam Sangeeth' of Radio Ceylon, which was
played at the fourth floor of a house.
At the sixth cross, there was an open site on which
cricket matches were played and sometimes even Mr. YB. Patel the former all
rounder and captain of Karnataka team too participated in some matches. Even
the great Brijesh Patel (who played for India and who is the present Secretary
of the K.S.C.A. and the B.C.C.I) was part of the team, there and he was the
youngest kid trying to learn the nuances of the game. At the beginning of the
fifth main road was a High School and in front of that, across the road, was a
triangle shaped ground at which schoolboys played games. There was absolutely
no problem for those boys to cross the road from the school. Now that ground
has become a congested parking lot and the cricket ground disappeared long ago.
Compared to those days, the traffic movement now is
very heavy for almost twenty hours in a day. Even after making this road a 'One
Way' road, crossing it is a risky proposition unless you are helped by a
traffic cop. Compare the movement of 'one vehicle a minute' during those days
to 'sixty vehicles a minute' these days and you don't feel like entering this
area. Though there were no theatres screening films in the area, the 'Gubbi Veerana Hall' was very popular in the city. Lot of Kannada plays were staged
and it was always full with people who came from all parts of the city.
One of the best lawyers of Karnataka, Mr. Venkataranga Iyengar stayed on this road. He was affectionately called 'writ Iyengar' as he
specialized in writ petitions and won almost all his cases. He was very helpful
to the poorer class and the student community. His neighbour was none other
than the big businessman and film distributor Mr. Narayan Rao Mandre of Mandre
Pictures. At a little distance was the house of the famous 'Chellarams', the
family who started the R'C. College of Commerce at the Palace Road. Near that
house was the house of one Mr. Govinda Reddy who had the dubious distinction of
being convicted as one of the three who murdered six persons of an entire
family. That was the family of another great advocate called as 'Belur
Srinivasa Iyengar'. His bungalow known as Rangavilas was in about a two-acre
plot at the fifth main road. Due to some alleged land disputes, Mr. Iyengar and
other five members of his family were killed in the year 1956. That was the
biggest and most sensational murder of those days in the city! Mr. Govinda
Reddy with the help of one Mr. Krishna who was supplying milk to the family
(during those days there was no Bangalore Dairy and milk was being supplied
from the people living in the villages around Bangalore city.) along with his
brother Muniswamy hatched a plan to eliminate the family. Only twin daughters
of Mr. Iyengar who were sleeping on the first floor escaped from murderers.
Even two giant alsatian dogs were killed by offering the poisoned milk by
Krishna. They were friendly with him as he was a regular visitor to that house.
Who could have foreseen the game of fate and destiny?
Ironically, Govinda Reddy was hanged along with Krishna and Muniswamy in the
nearby Central Jail, which was hardly a km away from Mr. Reddy's house! Later
Mr. Iyengar's bungalow was converted into a big hotel and was called
'Claridyes' which was the when 'Binaca Geethamala' was on between 08 pm to 09
pm, the place was full with people mainly due to Mr. Amin Sayani and the latest
songs with ratings given for the top 16 songs of the week.
Over a period, 'Claridyes' incurred losses mainly due
to the 'one- by-two coffee' culture of many of the students who primarily
visited the place to listen to the radio than for anything else. In that place
a gigantic multi storied structure was built which has housed the
administrative offices Bank and another twenty odd commercial establishments
have occupied the rest of the two-acre plot. That is the sad story of a place
full of greenery, which was hit by a human tragedy and later was converted into
a concrete jungle, which has added to the pollution tragedy.
The changes occurred in this area rather slowly but
steadily and the first indication was that of the 'Taj Mahal Hotel' (not the
'Five Star' one) coming up in a multi storied building at the fifth main road
again! The city area for the first time heard and learnt about the live bands
and cabaret dances, which was already existent in the Cantonment area.
Then came a modern super commercial building in theform of 'Gupta Market', which housed not only the big Gupta Restaurant but
another twenty odd commercial establishment too. A vacant place where many
citizens relaxed during evenings watching stream of people at K.G.Road was converted
into a concrete jungle. Next to that came up another hotel called 'Hindustan'
and now there is not even an inch of space on that great road.
Whenever we visit that area, we get some nostalgic
memories of lot of vacant places and the children gigantic Raj Kumar, a tough
Dilip Kumar, or a handsome Dev Anand, and many more. With the advent of
computer graphics and improvement in technology, all those old artists lost
their jobs.
Even that famous 'Napoli Hotel' where people relaxed
with snacks, coffee and the 'Juke Box' changed to Whisky and Cabaret dances,
driving people like us away. Next to it emerged the notorious Burma Bazaar on
the lines of Chor Bazaar of Mumbai, and Moore Market of Chennai. Here you will
get everything! Yes everything good, bad and the ugly,just you name it and you
will get it. A Good news is that of a big park in the middle of Gandhinagar
which is left untouched till now as a lung space even if it is polluted oxygen.
During those days, two more hostels like the Kurubara Sangha at the first main
road with a beautiful stone structure and a three storied concrete structure
housing the Andhra Devanga Sangam was very popular. This indicated the concern
of people who built over half a dozen hostels in this area for the students of
different communities for the students to reach different colleges near this
area with least inconvenience and minimum expense.
One more hostel of the Central College was little away on the Palace road was
supposed to be hostel for the rich and the affluent.
The best attraction however was the Central College
ground. It was extremely popular because of the staging of international
cricket matches and playing of Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy matches. At that
time as there was no ground for the State cricket association and this was the
prime ground for all the matches of national importance. A visit here will
bring back the memories of glorious days of the bowling of Gilchrist, antics of
Neil Harvey, bold play of Krishnaswamy against the Westindies, dogged display
of the late Ken Barrington and many more.
Unlike now, it was a pleasure to watch the cricket
matches live by just paying a few rupees. But many people always managed to
watch without paying by managing to sit on the roof of the Central college
hostel or the Vittal Vihar restaurant. More than a thousand people watched the
matches free of cost by managing to get on the rooftop of many buildings
surroundings this ground.
But with all these, the real beauty of Gandhinagar layin the attraction of the film industry. The distributors were the lucky ones in
this aspect to see our favourite film stars in flesh and blood. I still
remember the thrill of watching Waheeda Rehman and Rehman when they visited
Hema Film exchange on the eve of the release of 'Sahib Bibi aur Gulam'.
Raj Kapoor was a disillusioned man here with the total
failure of his film 'Jagte Raho' that wound up at Sagar theatre in flat six
days! Later, it won the award as the 'best picture' at the Russian Karolvo
Vary! What a pity about the taste of our film fans? Perhaps the luckiest film
distribution company was the 'Ever shine film Distributors' who really thrived
with huge hits like Madumathi, Anari, Navrang, and Sadhna to mention a few.
Now, the place looks like a busy Fort or Bandra Area of
Mumbai. It has become totally impersonal and no one has time to recognize even
known people. Criminal activities have increased; Video piracy, pornographic
films and smuggled goods are openly sold here. Just visit Burma Bazaar and you
can see for yourself. I would not like to dwell about the present places and
buildings as you have all visited this place at some time or the other. But
when you visit this place, please remember the old Gandhinagar' beauty, calm,
peace and serenity. Finally, when you look at the Syndicate Bank building,
please pray for the departed souls of the Iyengar family. And if you move
little away towards the KapaJi theatre, please pray for the souls of a dozens
of workers who died while constructing the building of 'Gangaram'.
I really don't know what Gandhiji is thinking about
this place sitting up there in the heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment