The theatre is located on the left side of the main road as we go from 'Overbridge' towards central railway station. If we continue a bit further we reach New theatre which also used to screen English movies. New Theatre is the largest in the state with a seating capacity of 1200.
All these 3 theatres along with Sree Padmanabha and the erstwhile Sree-Karthikeya at Pettah belonged to veteran director-producer Merryland P. Subramaniam. I remember vaguely going to Sreekumar to watch Bruce-Lee's 'Enter the dragon' with family, probably one of the first English movies I have seen.Sreekumar is the bigger of the two cinemas. There is always a problem with parking at this complex as the space is limited. Students usually come to watch the movies in bikes or use the auto-rickshaw's or buses. The favourite timings for us are the 13:15 show and 15:30 show. As English movies are shorter in duration ( about 90-100 minutes, compared to Indian movies which are at least 2-3hours long) it is very convenient to 'adjust' this slot into our 'college schedule'. Various factors affect these adjustments: the main being which movie is shown, then comes the timings of our classes at college/university, how exciting or boring are the classes, the teacher who takes these classes, how strict they are, pocket money, 'who all' are coming to watch it etc etc.
I especially likes the snacks at the interval. The food is great here; you have a range to select from bickies, 'cool drinks', tea, coffee, samosa, peanuts, crisps, 'faluda'/ falooda, ice-creams, popcorns etc. Faludas used to be my favourite. 'Faludas' are in different colours usually made with rose syrup and vermicelli, tutti-frutti, sugar, ice cream along with either milk or water.
Sometimes when its interval in Sree-Vishakh we can have a peep into Sreekumar and watch bits and parts of the movie being shown there. I know that some of our friends take a ticket to watch the 13:15 English movie at Sreevishakh and after about 90 minutes(towards the end of the movie), somehow manage to slip into Sreekumar theatre and watch the second movie too! Two for the price of one..
I also remember a Kathakali statue on the wall at the staircase corridor and always liked to touch its prominent nose when ever I pass by...At the New-theatre there used to be a magnificent statue of an Elephant (Not sure whether its still there)
Other cinemas in Trivandrum also evoke fond and nostalgic memories. In fact Trivandrum city holds the maximum number of theatres in Kerala. It is said that there are 16 A-Class theatres within a radius of 3 km which makes the city an ideal place to hold Film Festivals.
The other theatre complexes are 'Dhanya-Ramya' (used to be called Srikanth and Kasthuri), 'Kairali-Sree' ( Kerala state government owned, the other being Kalabhavan at Vazhuthacaud), and SL- theatre complex (Athulya, Athira, Anjali and Aswathy). I remember very clearly, going with my family to watch Navodaya Appachan's Padayottam (inspired by 'The Mount of Monte Cristo' by Alexander Dumas), the first ingenious 70mm movie in India and also Richard Attenborough's Academy award winning movie 'Gandhi'.
There are a few theatres that changed names and were renovated under new management like MP theatre that became Sreebala and Shakthi theatre that became Kripa. The other major cinemas are Ajantha, Central and Parthas (relatively new one). There are a couple of old ones which I remember, but has never gone there, namely Chitra theatre and Shiva theatre that used to screen mainly Tamil movies....The list is not complete without mentioning 2 theatres in our area ie SIMI theatre in Kumarapuram and Kalpana at Pattom. Both were my favourite due to the proximity to our home and also they both had some sort of nostalgic aura associated with it. Its sad that both are now closed......
8 comments:
thanks for the compilation!
and after all these decades, still i can feel that tingle inside when "Simi" opened next door. the beautiful inside, the smell of wood, the captivating statue of Atlas(?) carrying the earth over his head, the red carpet-ed slide-like path way leading one upstairs, the "his" and "hers", the music; "metropolis" from kraftwork played while the screen curtian rises...etc etc stays on. "Lorry", "Qurbani" and "Cobra" were the first three movies in that order if i remember right. truly nostalgic. alas, now it is "AJ Hall", stripped of its past glory, a skeletal image from what it bore earlier...
and please don't forget to mention Kazhakkoottam Mahadeva, famed among the youth of yore, infamous (?) for "the bits and pieces" stuff it housed, though never got to experience it first hand:-)
I think it may be Lorry, Thrishna and Qurbani.....Also there is Sreekaryam joshi(probably started in the early 90's).
Thank you very much for the malayalam movie information!!! :) :) :) Its great to know lot from your blog, keep posting more articles with good pictures. Definetly your blog is a sharing with friends type. Meanwhile I will also get to lots oflatest Kerala news in malayalam from this new blog. Have a Good Day!
Anyone remembers Krishna Talkies on Loyola School road, Sreekariyam? That was a typical village-style theatre with a thatched roof. Unfortunately it was completely gutted in a fire which there are many conspiracy theories about.
Nice article about the theatres in Trivandrum.
Thank you Reuben. Heard about this Talkies- I have never gone there. It would be good to write about all those talkies in the suburbs which have now closed. Really Nostalgic
correction actually, the Sreekariyam thatched shed theatre was Kishore Talkies, just at the start of Loyola Road. We used to go past it everyday when we went to school. Something happened and it caught fire and burnt down. The property was lying unattended to until recently when Favourite Homes started construction of a luxury apartment block at the site.
another theatre came up in Sreekariyam Junction called Joshy, and also closed down subsequently.
Thank you for bringing back all that old memories related to theatre in trivandrum 🙏
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