NEW DELHI: A makeshift cinema hall under a 140-year-old bridge in the Indian capital is allowing poor rickshaw pullers and migrant laborers to escape daily hardship and sweltering heat into a world of Bollywood song, dance and romance.
With the rusty iron floor of the bridge as its ceiling and some old rags acquired on the cheap from a nearby crematorium serving as curtains and floor mats, the cinema shows four films a day.
Organizers pooled their savings to rent an old TV set and video compact disc player, and charge 10 rupees admission — a hundredth of the price of entry at Delhi’s fanciest movie theaters.
Mohammad Noor Islam, a junk dealer and one of the regulars at the cinema under the double-decker bridge over the Yamuna river, said it helps to keep them away from vices like drugs and gambling.
“Some of us, who do not indulge in these vices, come here and watch films. We are addicted to films,” said Islam, who came to Delhi from the eastern state of West Bengal nearly four decades ago as a 10-year-old boy.
The dark and breezy interior of the cinema hall provides relief for daily laborers from their jobs on the city’s sweltering streets where temperatures have soared as high as 47 Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) this month.
“When we come to watch films, they help us forget our problems. I was tense earlier but when I sat down to watch the film I felt my tension easing,” said Manoj Kumar, a rickshaw puller from Bihar.
With the rusty iron floor of the bridge as its ceiling and some old rags acquired on the cheap from a nearby crematorium serving as curtains and floor mats, the cinema shows four films a day.
Organizers pooled their savings to rent an old TV set and video compact disc player, and charge 10 rupees admission — a hundredth of the price of entry at Delhi’s fanciest movie theaters.
Mohammad Noor Islam, a junk dealer and one of the regulars at the cinema under the double-decker bridge over the Yamuna river, said it helps to keep them away from vices like drugs and gambling.
“Some of us, who do not indulge in these vices, come here and watch films. We are addicted to films,” said Islam, who came to Delhi from the eastern state of West Bengal nearly four decades ago as a 10-year-old boy.
The dark and breezy interior of the cinema hall provides relief for daily laborers from their jobs on the city’s sweltering streets where temperatures have soared as high as 47 Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) this month.
“When we come to watch films, they help us forget our problems. I was tense earlier but when I sat down to watch the film I felt my tension easing,” said Manoj Kumar, a rickshaw puller from Bihar.
