A cinema is not just a business venture. It is very much part of the cultural landscape of a city, a town or a village. It is a dream house that brings some of the greatest artistic work of our times and transports us to a different, 70mm world for a couple of hours.
When any cinema closes down, it is sad. When a cinema like Apsara Theatre is reportedly closing down after a glorious run of five decades, it is almost tragic.
The city is preparing to bid adieu to a symbol of its love for cinema and one of Kerala’s finest theatres. “Apsara has been in fact the pride of Kozhikode,” director Hariharan tells The Hindu. “Many of the films I directed were released at Apsara and before I started my career in cinema and moved to Chennai, I used to watch films there regularly.”
Quite an experience
He rates Apsara as one of the best cinemas in the State. It indeed is. With its superb screen, excellent sound system and sensible seat-arrangement, watching a good film at Apsara has been quite an experience. And it could house more than 1,000 viewers.
“It is a pity that the number of large, single-screen cinemas continues to dwindle in Kerala,” says Mr. Hariharan, whose films like Sujatha, Tholkan Enikku Manassilla and Pazhassi Raja were released at Apsara. “It is only in large cinemas that you could fully enjoy spectacular movies that have great visuals and sounds. In Kozhikode, Apsara has been the best one for such an experience. Only if you give good, must-watch films, will the audience come to cinemas. These days, such films are rare.”
A.R. Vinod, a managing partner of Crown Theatre, another landmark cinema of Kozhikode, too is disappointed. “I still remember watching movies like Karipuranda Jeevithangal at Apsara,” he says. “From my own experience, I can tell you that it is not easy running cinemas. It always was tough and COVID-19 made things much more difficult.”
It looks like Apsara is joining the unenviable long list of Kozhikode’s closed cinemas that include Sangam, Davison, Blue Diamond and Pushpa.
