1984:
It was during the summer vacation of 1984, when I first heard about Videos. The VCR/VCP/VHS terminology was still a few years away for me. That summer the enterprising community of Kharsiya had suddenly found a new way to make quick money while witnessing a big dose of entertainment too. Within a matter of few weeks more than 5 or so Video parlors (in one's courtyard, or godown, or even a portion of the shop converted to a makeshift viewing room with few chairs, and green curtains and a gatekeeper). Till then Kharsiya used to posses only one "non working" TV set in the house of the richest person of the town called Fakir seth, who was the tobacco baron. We just used to watch the antenna standing right up his mansion and wondered what all they might be seeing in Television with the nearest TV station being around 200 kms away in Raipur. But with this video stuff the fifteen thousand or so kharsiya-ites which so far boasted of two theaters running year old movies to jam packed houses, suddenly were stirred by this whole idea of watching the latest movies from Bombay right there in the town itself instead of going to Raipur. I remember hearing from friends about these parlors playing DeshPremi and Tohfa (just released) while few of us would be standing outside to get a sneak peek. At that time I am sure nobody including the owners of those talkies ever wondered that this Video thingy is for here to stay and will impact their industry in dramatic way for years to come. The entertainment revolution had just begun on that part of the country!
1985-1993:
By the time I left Kharsiya there were already news of raids from excise deptt. to these video parlors who were ripping off the state govt coffers by avoiding the hefty entertainment tax. So maybe that was the reason, in Raipur I didn’t see that mushrooms of parlors. But this was also the city which boasted of 10 theaters during those days each catering to different needs of the city population be it latest hindi releases at Raj or Anand, or evergreen oldies at Jairam or Babulal or Regional / Hollywood at Amardeep or Shyam. But that doesn’t mean craze was any less for video. In fact those days the video Player and a Color TV set was THE STATUS SYMBOL…or a must have gazette for the niche. But for the majority who were not in that elite club there was Sundar Kiraya Bhandar and hundreds of those who started making fortune by renting out the players and the cassettes.
There would not be a single public function be it Ganesh Puja, Durga Puja, Holi nights, marriage party, b'day parties or any public or social gatherings which would continue deep into the night…not to have a video show. These shows (back to back movies) were MUST and was an ASSUMED event. And then on certain special occasions one would rent it out for just the family (including selected neighborhood friends) viewing. Rate used to be around 100Rs for 12 hrs rents which would include 4 movies of your choice and the player and the color TV set, or 50 Rs for three to four cassettes plus player for 12hrs. That price would also include the services of Pappu…who will arrive along with the sets, sitting like a KING in rickshaw well aware of the fact of the ogling jantas to find out his final destination. Other than being the delivery boy, Pappu also used to be an expert in setting up the instruments and a great techno geek who knows how to fight those ghost images of the video and tracking and tuning. You try to avoid him and do it yourself and chances are high you will be looking at some nice black and white patterns.
Going by its popularity and trend we too got an opportunity and were able to convince Baba-Maa once for one night of video show soon after my 1st year exams. I still remember just to impress our parents and in the hope that it becomes a regular event at our home…we 3 brothers decided to bring 2 English, 1 Bangla and 1 Hindi movie instead of all 4 hindi blockbusters. The English movies were chosen such that it was 100% guaranteed to impress Baba by selecting Guns of Navarone and Mackennas Gold..after all it is him only who told us the stories of these classics while getting uninterrupted "sursuries" from three of us in past years. Bangla one I don’t recollect but the hindi movie was Ram Lakhan. The whole idea of watching the movies back to back, with tea and snacks being served in between, couple of friends deciding to stay over for a night out, the going to bed at 4AM with alarm set to 7 so that to finish the rest of the movie before Pappu comes in…it was unbelievable. Watching Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in our portable BnW TV at 6 in the morning while brushing was too much of an excitement and the idea of play/pause/rewind/replay...it was bound to appeal to anyone. Years later we would learn that was probably the first phase of what we now call Video-On-Demand!
It will be injustice if I finish Raipur chapter of this journey without mentioning Payal and Classic. These two were the most famous video parlors of the city…and yes they were pretty much legit. They used to give proper tickets to audience which were slightly higher in price than movie tickets. After all the price would include entertainment taxes to govt and kinds to its officials, but still they used to attract a good amount of “regular” audience. Because of so many movie theaters already running hindi cinemas their USP was not Bollywood but Hollywood hits. Once with a visiting cousin of mine we went to Payal to watch Conan the Barbarian. The strange and unique part of these two parlors were they also used to insert lots of "trailer materials" suddenly while the advertised movie was being played…probably the audience liked it…but unfortunately law officials used to like it too in a way that it became cause for occasional raids to these places. Owners being the famous figures of the city.....after a temporary shutdown they used to be back in business within few weeks.
But then there was someone in Bombay who probably got upset looking at the these parlors' addiction to Hollywood and their subsequent pain with the raids. He was none other than Gulshan Kumar (T-Series fame..who I think was a true legend and big factor behind Bollywood’s and its music industries’ worldwide popularity and success ) and he tried to change something. He made a video movie, avialble only in VHS….exclusively for these parlor industry and home viewing only. This was called Lal Duppata Malmal Kaa…and there is no need to tell it how big blockbuster it became. Click on the link to revitalize your memory with "kyaa karte they sajna or Soone soone ankhiyon se". What a great business strategy that was…. Though his next "Phir Lahraya Lal Dupatta" could not repeat the lahrao part of its predecessor but still it was worth an attempt from the king of mass entertainer...probably he was thinking 20 years ahead of his time. It is indian movie/music industry's bad luck that he left us (not intentionally though) much earlier.
1993-1997:
I moved to big cities like Bangalore and New Delhi, working at c-dot and coming across some great new friends. I was lucky to get allotted to the flat where c-dot had kept a VCP for its trainees. Eventually every weekend there used to be a film fest starting with hindi and regional and ending up with usual western flicks. When we moved to our apartment we lost the luxury of owning a VCP for a while but the cable industry had just started picking up with lots of new players moving in to the Indian sky. Doordarshan's days were literally over with plethora of 24x7 channels showing variety of programs. The cable operator of Rajinder Nagar used to be our neighbor there and video/movie-on-demand was still very much applicable as he could play our request on his dedicated movie channel. That was when I watched brand new Diabolique, God Father series, Mask, Speed etc. Later on we too became proud owners of VCP (thanks to DD), though as I said before, cable industry had slowly started making it feel less important. This was the time frame I also watched some of the greatest Indian classics ..the movies about which I had only heard of or read about..but thanks to initiative from Khandu and our ORN gang and ofcourse our new VHS player we decided to have a revival of bollywood memories. For them it was revival..for me it was introduction. I remember we started with Trishul and for the next few months ,on every available chance we rented out movies which covered many hindi classics of various genres. An unforgettable experience indeed.
1997-2000:
Moved to Singapore. The landlord with whom I stayed as a paying guest was another big movie fan. Mr Sylvam had only two “interest in his life Tiger Beer and Tamil/Hindi cinemas…while coming back from work on Friday my job was to get 12 packs of beer while he used to make sure we have non stop supply of chicken, fish and movie cassettes. But this soon ended when I moved to my own apartment in 98. Fortunately it was a furnished acco. so the VCP company was there too. For next two years I bought two Sony VCRs from Mustafa ..first for parents…and then for in-laws. Those days you could hardly see anyone (indian) leaving Changi airport without a VCR carton. That was a sheer obsession and a great buy ofcourse. Two days before leaving Singapore we went to Mustafa one last time . The standards being different in US (NTSC) there was no reason to buy a VHS player. So we bought a state of the art VCD player. It supported VCD 2.0 and SVCD…were very happy to invest in this big upcoming format.
2000-2009:
Soon after moving to US…I realized people here have not even heard of VCD..but they were talking something about DVD. It is a still big mystery for me how US transitioned from VHS to DVD, where as in Asia (Singapore/China/India) they all spent a significant time with VCD in between.
Anyways…one thing which was clear within a week after moving here…that buying a VHS player was MUST. That would become our sole connection to India aka Bollywood. So for this first time we bought a VHS player "for our own use". It was Sharp VCR with 4 head (viewing while fast-forward/rewind) . One can feel its importance as it was bought on the same day as TV. Both were incomplete without each other. And our love story with VCR continued uninterrupted for next 4 years or so when finally DVD player became quite affordable and DVDs getting popularity. When Blockbuster finally switched from VHS to all digital we too decided to get our 1st DVD player. But our sharp player was still very much in demand. All the indian movies were available from the local story only in VHS format. To be exact...it used to be like 4 cassettes for $4 for a week. This particular shop as its name implied "Bollywood video and Groceries" main business was renting cassettes and secondary was grocery. People used to call him first and book the cassette for a just released movie...while his behind the shop small "copy" room used to work non stop. Once I asked him..What is the max time one can record on the same VHS without affecting quality....I got a free rental but not my answer. First there used to be late fees…slowly it was waived off. I think that was the first symptom of its upcoming demise. Slowly the hindi movies became available in DVDs with $1 per day but still with strict late fees. More and more stores started popping up offering these DVDs. And as of today those DVDs are available for sale the very day the move is released just for $1 or $2.
But our VCR was STILL running without any single complaints and was still very much in regular use. And this was because of its new found usage in recording/playing kids videos. So instead of playing the bollywood (which became DVD player's sole ownership)…this was playing Pooh Bear, Boobah, Barneys, Elmos and then to transitioning to Thomas Train and finally Tom and Jerry for R while he grew up from few months to almost 5 years!
Time changes everything and "R" now prefers to watch Tom N Jerry in Youtube directly. I too came across torrent and don’t feel the need of going to rent or buy those “pirated” hindi dvds. None of the shops offer VHS any more. Just like its amrican cousin Blockbuster, Bollywood Video and Groceries also became all Digital disposing off their huge cassette collection by selling it off dirt cheap. My sharp VCR player was still being used by me as a poor man’s DVR, where we would record some PBS programs or Games and watch that later at convenience.
Few weeks back while trying to play one recorded PBS show, I noticed some display issues with it. Maybe dust…maybe some minor scratches in the head. After some quick debugging realized it had stopped recording too. Sending it to service was out of question. Strange enough I didn't feel the usual concern or the pain with this loss maybe realizing how less important it has become in our life. And then finally last week to make some space for the government’s free digital to analog converter box in our already congested entertainment center..we decided to RETIRE ("dispose" sounds too cruel) the sharp VHS player. I personally doubt we will ever come across or use this wonderful machine again. In past I have been wrong…this time I don't think I will be wrong.
But this is true that I didn't feel this way for our disposed VCD player, neither I am going to feel this way for our DVD player when inevitably it is going to be replaced with the Blue-Ray! The journey with the VHS was a special one indeed. And as I can see I have glorious 25 years of memories associated with it...and that part is not going to RETIRE ever!
