True story: The genie is out of the bottle

Suspension of Indian films has turned life of drinks vendor Tariq Mahmood for the worse

LAHORE: Long before Pakistani cinemas became veritable showrooms for La-Z-Boy chairs and gourmet chocolate pies, Tariq Mahmood wandered the dark halls of Metropole Cinema with a crate full of soft drinks, tapping his keys against the bottles to draw attention. He would happily sell goodies and enjoy a glance or two at whichever film was being screened on that day.

Now 55 years of age, the bottle-wala has shifted to Capital Cinema at Lahore’s Lakshmi Chowk, trying to make ends meet. Capital is one of the few single-screen cinemas that have managed to survive the onset of the multiplex culture, but a lot has changed for both, the bottle-wala and his cinema in the past few weeks.

Mahmood and his peers are employed on a show-by-show basis, wherein they are given their due remuneration of around Rs 200 per show, regardless of how many drinks they manage to sell. At least, such was the case until the screening of Indian films was suspended. “About ten or fifteen people are coming to watch old Punjabi films that are being shown and even fewer want to purchase a bottle. My boss — the owner of the tuc shop — is reluctantly giving me half of what I used to get and now I have to make do with Rs70 or Rs80 per show,” said a rather dejected Mahmood, holding a crate full of unsold bottles.

Like any labourer associated with the industry, Mahmood’s life is directly proportional to the ups and downs of the cinema business. “I was just 15 years old when I first came to Lahore and started working at Metropole. Can you believe, it has been 40 years since then?”

As a father of two school-going children, he is now being compelled to consider other career options. “I think that ever since all the fancy new multiplexes were established, the trend of watching films in theatres has become popular in Pakistan again. So, things were not so bad until the authorities decided to ban Bollywood films. It has become a matter of life and death for me. How can I afford to educate my children if I don’t even bring Rs200 home?”

His sentiments are echoed by many of his colleagues at the cinema, all of whom have been struggling of late. “We miss the times of Sultan Rahi, when we didn’t rely on anyone to run our business; when our halls used to be packed and our merchandise would often sell out. The cigarette-walas and other vendors also used to be happier. Sometimes, we would even clap and hoot during the good scenes. After all, we have the right to enjoy quality films too,” Mahmood reminisces.

Mahmood wishes to see Indian movies back in local cinemas and single screens survive in the longer run. “During Sultan Rahi’s time, film actors and other artists themselves frequented cinemas when their films were being screened but it has been years since anyone famous visited us,” says Mahmood. “I have myself watched many films with Sultan Rahi. The younger crop of artists needs to understand that if they don’t come to the cinemas why would anyone else?”

As far as suspension of Indian films is concerned, the bottle-wala is confident things will revert back to normal or perhaps this is what he needs to believe. “Let’s be honest. Everyone knows our cinemas — the big and the small ones — are all primarily surviving due to Indian films. That’s why, we just have to wait until they are cleared for screening once again and we can earn back what we have lost. I just hope the wait is not too long”.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.

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