Daily News

Indian cinema facts

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A BACKCHATTE­R commented that I had had “the gall” to equate “Indian religions to a bioscope” in the Sunday Tribune Herald almost 9 years ago.

I am flattered that somebody out there is actually collecting my letters!

I have the original, which appeared in a major publicatio­n initiated as a Social Science Department project by the then University of Natal (“Undressing Durban” – Madiba Publishers, 2007), a portion of which was requested by the Herald to be published on the page called “The Issue”.

I also have a copy of the article that appeared in the Herald for anybody to peruse (address and contact details with the editor).

The word “bioscope” does not appear anywhere in my original article, nor is it used in the edited version in the Herald, except as part of an annotation, inserted by the contempora­ry editor – and not linked to religion, but introducin­g the article as “when the bioscope in the 50s was the ‘in thing’”.

The article focuses on the grandeur of the 50s and the sad closure of Indian-owned cinemas in the Grey Street complex, and accentuate­s to a large degree the commonalit­y of the Indians of that period. (I have said this many times before: I am Indian, and just as one cannot disown a biological mother, so too I proudly cannot disinherit my Indian origin!)

The article –“Drawing the curtain” – describes how Indian cinema of those days borrowed themes from the Ramayan etc, and “The Indian psyche is mysterious­ly inseparabl­e from mythologic­al magic … translates from live performanc­es, instantly into a portable medium called cinema!”

Perhaps the backchatte­r should do some research into the origins of Indian Cinema and the once-great neighbourl­iness among Indians before the Group Areas Act and religious bigots from all sides tore us asunder, and try to seek ways to bind us as Indian movies once did.

“If religion is the greatest internatio­nal divider, Indian cinema is the most unifying force!” EBRAHIM ESSA Clare Estate

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