Metro is to be converted into a multiplex according to newspaper report. It is difficult to imagine the shape it will take after the conversion. But Metro was a cinema hall par excellence. I believe it was the best at least among the old halls. Even Maratha Mandir which came later with its garish and loud décor, could not compare with the somber lobbies and the hall of Metro. Stalls, Balcony and Dress circle all seating areas were planned keeping the viewer in mind. The seats were very comfortable and not too small, and well maintained too. Cleanliness in the hall and the lobbies was assured. Even the toilets, the bugbear of public places in India, were kept clean and free of foul smell. The sound system was very good without any scope for complaint. If you were booking in advance the seating chart will be laid out before you and you could choose your seats even if you were buying stall tickets.
Metro theater screened only English movies for a long time. It started showing Hindi fillums about ten-fifteen years back. The first movie I saw in the then Bombay and present Mumbai was in the EROS Theater opposite Churchgate Station. I was quite impressed. It was like the cinema halls in the Connaught Place area of New Delhi in particular like Plaza or Odeon. The next movie I saw in Bombay was in Metro. Metro is a Cinema Hall in the grand old style of yesteryears. It has a good-looking stylish lobby and the entrance to the hall is peaceful. The ushers are all uniformed, torch in hand and polite they guide you to your seat. They lead you to your seats unobtrusively. Whatever movie I saw the print was never bad and there was never any reason for disappointment on this score. The prints of even the advertisements were impeccable and I never missed seeing these. Thinking of advertisements, I still remember one. Smoking is not allowed in cinema halls. Every cinema hall flashes a badly made slide which reads
NO SMOKING IN THE HALL. The slides projected in Metro were first class and not fungus eaten half seen and half imagined. So this advertisement about
NO SMOKING
was shown and immediately the next slide flashed read
NOT EVEN ABDULLAH
Abdullah was a brand of fine cigarette. I have not seen it advertised much even that time. What a subtle way of advertising for and selling cigarette! The whole big screen reads just the three words in colour.
I have seen some memorable pictures in this hall though I do not remember all. I remember having seen a movie in which the hilarious and beautiful Gina Lollobrigida was teamed up with Tyrone Power, Peyton Place. Gambling was banned and so an old man was trying to defend his playing the game of Poker. In another movie, I forget the name, you had the delightful Walter Matthau and perhaps Jack Nicholson raising laughter after laughter in a great comedy. Patton, Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, perhaps Bridge on the River Kwai to name a few as I am unable to recall more.
In the Hindi movie era, perhaps, I saw Andaz in Metro and after that my movie going tapered off. Metro is a land mark in Mumbai. It is gratifying to learn that it will not give way to a shopping mall or a residential concrete high rise but a new modern era multiplex. I am sure the owners will bring a better more enduring structure and facility for the benefit of the mumbaikers.