Remembering Kochi - Part Two

Robert Bristow, the father of Willingdon Island, had many dreams.

When M.G. Road was planned in early twenties as a seventy feet wide road, many, including Pattom Thanu Pillai, who would later serve as the chief minister of the state, were skeptic about the need of such a wide road in Kochi. It was the Londoner’s insistence which finally influenced the decision. When the road was opened to public in 1925, it was a spectacle. Soon shops mushroomed on either side of the road transforming it into a linear shopping mall, around 4 kilometers long.

Madhava Pharmacy was the head of M.G. Road. Poruthiyil Narayanan Vaidyar, an able ayurvedic physician known for his diagnostic skills, started his practice in 1939 from his home which grew into Madhava Pharmacy and later PNVM hospital. It was the most trusted ayurvedic treatment centre in Ernakulam till Kottakkal Ayurveda Sala opened its branch in the southern part of M.G. Road. Further south, somewhere near Cochin Shipyard, the road ended without an ending.

M.G. Road had to wait till the sixties to get its first cinema, Padma. The movie house became so famous that the road was mentioned on the city buses as “via Padma”. This was the second venture of the Shenoy’s Group, after Laxman, and was an instant hit.

Orient Saloon was a barber shop, adjacent to Padma cinema. The owner of the shop was an immigrant from Ramapuram, a small hamlet in Idukki district. The small shop he started in early sixties grew bigger, providing a decent income to the amiable owner and helped him to buy a plot of land in Kaloor and build a house. While life was flourishing, misfortune struck him; his wife fell ill. The loving husband stayed at the hospital bed of his frail wife for over six months, handing over the charge of his shop to his assistant, returning only to find his business in tatters; the assistant had opened a new shop a few steps away. It was a heavy blow to the poor barber who soon took to drinking disrupting the happy environment of his home where his five daughters and the only son used to live a blissful life. Many decades later, the son, Suresh, whose pet name was Ponnunni, had a major stroke, rendering him an invalid, but still retains his old memories when we used to go for movies almost every day. He was the closest friend I had in my childhood days.

In 1955, a young bank clerk resigned from his job to start a small book shop, by taking agencies of a few English magazines and dailies. As luck would have it, the currency exchange rate against the dollar went up suddenly bringing a windfall to the young man. He started expanding his business which now comprises of books, magazines, gift articles, toys, computers/spares and printing. S.V. Pai died during early nineties but Paico group had already carved a niche for themselves as the most reliable source for English language books. Paico Books, the flagship showroom of the group, stood a few shops away from Padma cinema.

Babu Ismail Sait, the son of a north Indian trader, was a fair, handsome man, fond of movies and glamour. With the immense wealth at his command, at the age of 22, he set out to live his dreams. Chemmeen, the first Malayalam movie to get the President’s Gold Medal was his initial attempt. The film was a star-studded extravaganza, bringing in several personalities from the north such as Salil Chowdary, Hrishikesh Mukerjee, Marcus Bartley and Manna De and bestowed on its producer the moniker, Chemmeen Babu. When Babu Sait decided to get into film exhibition, he wanted to bring out a movie house which was as inimitable as the movie he made. Thus Kavitha Movie House was born which, in the seventies, was the preferred cinema of Ernakulam moviegoer. However, as time went by, it suffered decline, following the path of its owner who lost his wealth, health and peace to die a forsaken death on a quiet November afternoon in 2005.

A few steps from Kavitha, was a home appliances shop, owned by the son in law of a prominent trader from Thrissur. The carefree lad had extravagant tastes and it was only a matter of time before the business went into debt running into several lakhs, a huge sum at those times. The patriarch from Thrissur intervened and called up all the lenders. He, within a few hours, negotiated with them to settle the dues for a quarter of the total debt and paid up the agreed amounts, setting his son in law free. The traders of Kunnamkulam were always known for their business acumen and astute negotiating skills.

Kavitha Movie House, at the time of its opening, was the numero uno cinema in Kerala, supplanting Sridhar Cinema. This galvanized Shenoy’s Group into action and the result was the first Vistarama screen in Asia, Shenoy’s Cinema. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Robert Wagner played out a love triangle on the opening day and the movie “Winning” was a new experience for the viewers. The circular shape of the building, step-less staircase, bright red carpets, huge curved screen and scented interiors bowled the audience over. Standing in the queue at Kavitha cinema for watching the Malayalam movie “Rest House”, I saw my father, an invitee for the inaugural ceremony, slowly walking towards Shenoy’s, wearing one of his trousers, the attire he always reserved for important functions.

Shenoy’s had a smaller screen, too, Little Shenoy’s. The cute little place was a favored meeting place for the young men as it showed mostly English movies. On the entrance to the cinema, on a humid Sunday morning, Raman, my friend, called me a hypocrite for not footing the bill for his ticket.

A stone’s throw from Shenoy’s was an expansive play ground. It belonged to Maharaja’s College but was a popular spot for all sports enthusiasts. It was here, Inder Singh, the football wizard of Leaders Club, Punjab, mesmerized the crowd with his ball skills during the annual Nehru Trophy football tournament. When Kerala won the Santhosh Trophy for the first time in 1973 defeating Railways 3-2 on this ground, the whole city erupted in joy; I remember watching the merriment from the stands and later, on the streets.

One of the young men who were there with us on that Sunday evening, was a mason by name Anto, a silent youth, with active interests in football and caroms. While the State was still celebrating the success, Anto boarded a bus to Arthungal, offered prayers at the famous church there and disappeared into the sea. His bloated body was found three days later.

As the road reached further south, a tailor sat behind his sewing machine in a small tailoring shop, weaving dreams of making it big in business. Within a few years, the tailor and his brothers nurtured their trade to put together the largest textile business in Kerala. The building which lodged “Jos Brothers” was an iconic building, five stories high, a true landmark. The shop soon lent its name to the junction it stood on.

As the darkness of the night set in, sales girls from various small and big textile shops on the road would gather themselves and run to the boat jetty to catch one of the last boats heading towards the neighbouring islands. These islands, apart from country liquor, provided manpower to the various shops on the road, to the city in general.

Life was pure and simple.