It was a beautiful theatre...it'll be missed'

MUMBAI: Gone are the huge wallpaintings,the comfortable seats and air-conditioned interior; gone are the "1920s powder room-style" bathrooms. The landmark cinema building at Dhobi Talao currently stands gutted, in preparation for a new avatar as a multiplex.
For generations that grew up with Metro, though, the glory what actress Asha Parekh remembers as "a royal theatre"lingers on.Parekh, along with others, including fashion writer and former Miss IndiaMeher Castellino, used to perform weekly talent contests for children held at the cinema on Saturday mornings.
Castellino recalls the contests,which also attended in the 1950s. "The contests were part of theMetro Cub Club for children aged between one and 16," she says. "There were prizes—I won several myself. I remember the Irani sisters, Daisy and Honey. They were very small, and they used to be pushed out on stage where they would stand and look bewildered while themusic played, but they were so sweet-looking that everyone applauded."
The cinema was one of the most plush in the city at the time, but audiences varied from the well-off to the working class. Castellino, who grew up next to the cinema in Jehangir Mansion, says that the afternoon shows were somewhat looked down on. "They were called ''doodhwala ka show ''," she says.
"The 9.30 pm show was the big social event. People really dressed for it and you’d see women in saris and pearls, men
in suits." On the other hand, the unreserved, cheap 10-anna seats, for which tickets were issued from a machine, were the scene of much enthusiastic cat-calling, whistling and cheering.