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Misc Projectors
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107 year old projector
January 2004
When dusk falls in the city of Calcutta, Mohammed Salim starts bringing Technicolor dreams to the city's poor children
Using a 107-year-old Japanese projector and, homemade loudspeakers, Salimstarts the show with his unique, mobile pavement cinema.
"Here comes the cinema man!" scream excited, and bedraggled children from the rundown districts of north Calcutta where Salim's show is a big hit.
They crowd around his cart and huddle under the black cloth, which keeps out the light, waiting for the magic to begin.
Then the noisy projector is cranked into life, the loudspeakers crackle with screeching music and down in the innards of the cart a scratched, grainy film comes to life on a 2½-inch-wide screen.
There are no flops on my movie cart. Every film is a hit
"It's a new film!" shrieks 10-year-old Alam from under the black cloth.
In an age of cheap cable television in India, Salim's pavement cinema still pulls in the crowds - mostly children but a few adults too - who shell out one rupee (about 1p) for a 10-minute film, often joined together by the man himself.
For many children, Salim's show is sometimes the only escape from a grim, poverty-stricken life in the crime-infested ghettos of Calcutta.
"People still watch my cinema. I guess it has to do with watching a proper film, like they show it in the cinema halls. It's also brought to their doorstep at a very cheap price," he told BBC News Online.
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