This is the current situation of the Manohara Theater located in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. During my childhood, I watched many English Hollywood movies in the theatre. Many of my dad's favorite Hollywood actors' movies were screened here. Some of them I still remember are: Anthony Quinn's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', Christopher Lee's 'Taste the Blood of Dracula', Kirk Douglas' 'There Was a Crooked Man', John Wayne's 'Hatari', John Phillip Law's 'Danger Diabolik', Spencer Bonaventure Tracy's 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World', "Michael Caine's 'The Italian Job', Jean-Paul Belmondo's 'The Brain', and many more movies, mostly English, included some Tamil movies such as the late charismatic MGR's 'Ithayk Kani', 'Ithaya Veenai', and 'Ulagam Sutrum Valipan'.
After watching 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', Anthony Quinn became my most favorite Hollywood actor in terms of acting. It was the first movie where I learned about actress Gina Lollobrigida. I still vividly remember her dance featured in the movie. What marvelous acting! There are no words to describe Anthony Quinn's performance in the movie. He became 100% the hunchbacked cathedral bell-ringer Quasimodo on the screen.
When I look at the current state of this theater, which was a part of my childhood and teenage life, melancholic thoughts envelop my heart. There were two other theaters showing English films during those days: Regal and Rio. All these theaters suffered (Regal was damaged) during Sri Lanka's civil war (1983 - 2009).
Brahmachari was the first Hindi film that I watched at Manohara featuring Shammi Kapoor, Rajshree, and Pran. Later, this movie was remade in Tamil as 'Enga Mama', starring the late Sivaji Ganeshan, affectionately known by the masses as 'Nadigar Thilagam' due to his acting prowess.
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