Movie Going in KGF & The KGF Library

Movie going in KGF, as far as I was concerned, had two distinct phases.

The first phase was in the 50s and early 60s till I was around 12 or 13 years.
In this phase, I used to go to Tamil movies in Robertsonpet with my parents and Rummy and Sandhya while she was an infant.

I had mentioned earlier that the company used to provide a van on Tuesdays and Saturdays to go to Town(Robertsonpet)--- either for shopping or to the theatre.There were three theatres --- Gay, Krishna and Olympia.The pictures were mostly Tamil though there was the occasional Hindi movie-- very rare. No Kannada movies till much later--- mind you, we were in Mysore State, but no Kannada movies.

As soon as a new movie arrived, there would be posters stuck all over. Then , there would be a jutka gaadi moving all over the mining area with one person inside beating a drum and another person strewing pamphlets all over.Very effective advertising--- the coverage was 100%.

Mrs. Vinayagam would immediately ring up mummy and they would make plans together.Dad would book the van ( usually Saturdays-- going on Tuesdays was very rare). The van driver would make his rounds from around 5.15 PM and all of us would reach Town.This was from Nundydroog Mine.Vans would also come from Champion Reefs and Mysore Mine and the movie theatre was where dad and mom would catch up with their friends.We would go only for the evening show

Regulars from Nundydroog Mine were the Hiriyanniyas, the Raja Raos, the GV Raghavans and the Vinayagams. There were also matinee shows on Saturday and Sunday, but it would have been considered infra dig for an Officer or his family to be seen in a Matinee show or a Night Show.

I remember seeing all the MGR, Gemini Ganesan and Sivaji Ganesan classics and the Tamil songs would be played at any function over loudspeakers.MGR's "Nadodi Mannan" was a huge hit.Before the film's release, MGR had publicly declared that if the film was a flop, he would become a "nadodi"--- vagrant-- and if it became a hit, he would become a "Mannan"--- Emperor. The next day, mom would get on to the phone with Mrs.Raja Rao or Mrs.Vinayagam and they would discuss the film threadbare.

Dad had a soft corner for Padmini and would never miss any Padmini film.

The next phase for me was when I became a teenager.I had my own circle of friends then---Patanjali, Priyan,Raguram and Kumar-- and we would regularly go to Ooregum Hall to see English movies.The limit was one movie a month but we had our own way of getting around it.

On Saturdays, around 4PM, all of us would first go to Patan's house.Patan would then tell his dad that the rest of us were going to a movie and could he also join?We would then repeat this exercise at the other houses and then set off.
Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Norman Wisdom, Bob Hope's "The Road to--" series, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, John Wayne, Dirk Bogarde, Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston--- we saw them all. Westerns and war movies were our favourites and we didn't miss any of them.

The best thing that my dad probably ever did for me was to introduce me to reading.

I was probably around 10 or 11 when he took me to the KGF Library and introduced me to the Librarian.The Library was very close to Ooregum Hall.The fee was Rs.3 per month. The library was open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5.45PM to 7.15PM and we were allowed to take out a maximum of 3 books at a time.The library was started somewhere around the 1890s and they had this flap in the inside cover detailing the names of all people who had read the particular book.It was a bit disconcerting sometimes to find out that I was reading a book which had been read earlier in the early 1900s.

I started with Enid Blyton ( The Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers and Dog), went on to " What Katy Did", " What Katy Did Next", " Fifth Form at St.Clares" and then graduated to Erle Stanley Gardner ( Perry Mason), Agatha Christie and then also smuggled in Ian Fleming ( remember my dad's no to "Dr.No").James Hadley Chase was a favourite back then and so was Arthur Hailey, Lawrence Sanders. Another book to be smuggled and read was Harold Robbins.

I used to read 9 books a week which makes it around 450 books a year.Even during exams, I would read books.Once, when I was in 8th Std, I was reading a book during exam time when my mom crept up behind me and asked what I was reading. The particular chapter that I was reading was called "Breathing Space" where the hero has been kidnapped and has been put in the trunk of the car and is trying to free himself.

I showed the chapter heading to mom and said I was reading about the lungs and showed her the chapter heading.

The book reading habit has still not left though I am not as prolific a reader as I once was.Nevertheless, I still read any scrap of paper if I can't get hold of anything else.

By for now.In my next blog, I'll talk about my cousins from my mom's side and the holidays in Chitradurga.