New Shirin Talkies

While most single screens are finding it difficult to survive the multiplex onslaught, there is one rundown theatre in the heart of Mumbai which still operates full swing on re-runs and B graders. Yes, it is New Shirin Talkies, situated at Saat Rasta junction and at a walking distance from Mahalaxmi Station. Saat Rasta connects various lanes where each one leads to prime locations of Mumbai like St. Ignatius, Arthur Road jail, Mumbai Central station towards Maratha Mandir Cinema and also to the dhobi ghat from where the theatre gets its loyal patrons.

Commencing from the pre-independence era, New Shirin was run by Ferozeshah Arya who named it after his wife. He also ran the Kumkum theatre at Worli Naka which was later named as Geeta Talkies. Though located in a central area, New Shirin was never the main theatre and most films would not have long runs here. The capacity of the cinema was around three hundred fifty seats with a stall and balcony. The first three rows had wooden benches instead of seats.

In its early days, the cinema used to screen mythological films as well as Dara Singh actioners. Most screenings would be old re runs while the occasional new movies would reach here much later after exhausing their main theatrical run.

The theatre, being one of the oldest cinemas in town, would operate on Enarc Lamp Projector which is said to belong to the 1940s. New Shirin remains the only cinema hall in Mumbai, whose projector is visible from the road. In fact, passengers in double decker BEST buses would get a full view of this antique projector as they passed by the Saat Rasta junction.

The theatre’s regular patrons belonged to nearby areas of Dhobi Ghat slum, Madan Pura, Agripada, Kanjarwada and Shanti Nagar which would mostly comprise of rowdy and unruly crowd. The ticket prices were very less as compared to the other elite cinema halls which these labour class folks could easily afford.

Ganga Jumna (1961), Professor (1962), Dosti (1964),Teesri Manzil (1966), Dus Lakh (1966), Phool Aur Patthar (1966), Balak (1969), Sabak (1973), 5 Rifles (1974), Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) and Ali Baba Aur Chaalis Chor (1980) were some of the popular films which ran to full houses for many weeks at New Shirin. Notably, Jai Santoshi Maa (1975) which did great business at many small cinemas like Edward (Kalbadevi), Palace (Byculla) and Vyankatesh Talkies (Vile Parle) remains the longest running film at New Shirin completing a silver jubilee (twenty five weeks run). Interestingly, some obscure films like Spy in Rome (1968), London Express (1968), 5 Dost (1974), Adi Manav (1977) and Aadamkhor (1986) were also released at New Shirin in their first week of release and attracted a favourable response.

New Shirin was also known to screen maximum number of mythological movies like Sampoorna Ramayana (1961), Harishchandra Taramati (1963), Veer Bhimsen (1964), Bhakt Prahlad (1967), Shri Krishna Leela (1971), Naag Panchami (1972), Har Har Mahadev (1974) and of course the aforementioned blockbuster Jai Santoshi Maa (1975). Hindu women from the adjoining areas would come in large numbers for these shows and the theatre would almost transform in to a temple as some would bring pooja thali and offerings with them for worship when the God would appear on screen. This was specially recorded during the hit run of Jai Santoshi Maa.

New Shirin survived the video era of the ‘80s and ‘90s and by the time the multiplex boom started in the 2000s, the theatre had transformed itself in to a Bhojpuri hub with either regional cinema or old actioners of Dharmendra and Mithun Chakraborty which were the preferred choice of its labour class crowd. Even as prime cinemas of Mumbai like Minerva, Naaz, Novelty, Ganga Jamuna and Apsara were shutting down due to no audience, New Shirin was drawing housefull board on weekends with its B grade films. There were two main reasons for this : One was its modest seating capacity of just about three hundred fifty seats which were comparatively easier to fill than the thousand capacity halls like Minerva and the second and more important reason was its economical ticket price which the labour class could afford.

In a first of sorts, the theatre also opted for a bi-weekly schedule of films where Friday to Monday would be reserved for the new Bhojpuri films while old Hindi re-runs would be screened from Tuesday to Thursday. Sajid Nadiadwala’s Waqt Hamara Hai (1993) has had multiple re-runs at this theatre and is still its biggest crowd puller.

In 2008, New Shirin got a new lease of life after a major renovation and started screening new Hindi releases. Sanjay Dutt- Urmila Matondkar starrer EMI was the first to release in its new avatar on 7th November 2008. Unfortunately, this move did not prove to be a wise decision for the cinema as the seats were not filling and clearly, the audience were preferring a Maratha Mandir or a Dreamland over New Shirin for new Hindi films. The theatre did taste intermittent success with Salman Khan movies like Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010) and Bodyguard (2011) which were huge crowd puller here. But clearly, this was not enough to sustain the cinema for long.

In a few rare instances, Hindi films like Tara (2013) and Phir Ussi Mod Par (2019) had relatively long runs at this cinema. Phir Ussi Mod Par, based on triple talaq issue, was last film by veteran director Lekh Tandon and it ran for fifty days in one show at this cinema along with few others in Mumbai.

In the past few years when most single screens have disappeared or converted themselves into multiplex, many builders have shown interest in developing the property but the owner of New Shirin is in no mood to bite the bullet as his theatre is actually doing well and even in such tough times of pandemic, is getting a makeover as a single screen to welcome back its audience.