The "Alfred Talkies" Cinema
When you attend a performance at the "Alfred Talkies" for the first time, you don't know what to be more surprised about: The incredibly bad film copy, from which all the colours have been washed out so that the whole film is pink. The naked feet that the guy behind you puts next to your ears. That in the row in front of you a woman hangs her wet clothes over the seats to dry them during the screening. That many people take a nap here. Or make loud phone calls on their mobile phones and letting everyone participate. Hardly anyone seems to come to "Alfred Talkies" to watch movies. Action hits from the 1990s, in which there is a lot of shooting and even more fighting. But when the film tears, or the scene with the wet sari is cut out, the audience drums indignantly on the steel seats, which were specially built in so that they can't be torn out and thrown at the screen.
The "Alfred Talkies", which was built at the end of the 19th century as a boulevard theatre in the lively Mumbai Central at the interface between the red-light district and the nightlife district, has already weathered many storms: The advent of sound film in the 1930s. The withdrawal of the British. And the triumph of DVD players, which broke the monopoly of the cinema. The next storm that's coming up is gentrification. This has also hit Mumbai Central and is driving the ordinary people who work here, live here and go to the cinema here, into the suburbs. But the old "Alfred Talkies", the old pleasure boat, continues to bravely hold course.
"Really bad things haven't happened here," says the cinema owner. "Or they've been stopped from happening. Because good souls are residing in this building". To keep it that way, the projectionist walks through the cinema every morning and evening with incense and blesses the staff. A sign of the religious tolerance cultivated at "Alfred Talkies", where Shiva, the Kabaa and Say Baba share a shrine. A tolerance that has become rare in the rest of the city. But what is decisive for the viewers of the "Alfred Talkies" is the unbeatable price: 18 Rupees, parquet. 20 rupees, balcony. For that you won't even get a bag of popcorn in Mumbai's air-conditioned multiplexes.
