Cinema Central

One of the last surviving single screens in the city, Deepak Cinema is being revamped into a centre for films.

Revamped interiors of The Deepak.

One of Mumbai’s oldest single screen theatres, Deepak Cinema in Lower Parel, has undergone a major overhaul. The cinema that was started in 1926, has been taken over by Enlighten Society — a city-based arts-media organisation that aims to promote and preserve all forms of art — who, with the owners, are looking to turn the space into a hub for films. They have started Matterden Centre for Films and Creation, (Matterden CFC), a club at the theatre, which hopes to turn the venue into a space for collaborative film screenings, workshops and discussions on cinema.

“Every city needs a cinema centre,” says Pranav Ashar of Enlighten Society. “Places like Lincoln Film Center in New York have contributed immensely in creating thoughtful audiences. Closer home, Prithvi Theatre has worked as a place for theatre enthusiasts to meet. blueFROG has done a wonderful job when it comes to music. We felt a need for such a space for cinema,” he says.

Rechristened as The Deepak, the space will host a pre-launch event on July 11 to screen its first collection, “A Line of Classics for Mumbai”, which will include masterpieces, such as Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and Buster Keaton’s The General. The main launch will take place in September by filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane.
The hall, popular for screening mainstream Hindi, Marathi and Bhojpuri cinema, is one of the few single screens to have survived in the multiplex era. It is thus interesting to note that this space will now host international content, documentaries and world cinema — all this for an introductory ticket price of Rs 100. “We found that people want to meet people, not just look at screens,” says Ashar. After September, Matterden CFC has plans to show Indian indie films and documentaries and host workshops by animators and filmmakers along with screenings of world cinema.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

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