The Naaz Theatre, 1430 Gerrard Street East, 1981, from the Toronto Public Library.
It’s a weekend evening on Gerrard Street East in the mid-1970s and, as usual, there’s a line-up around the block to get into the Naaz Theatre. The first cinema in North America to show Indian films exclusively, according to its owner, the theatre was a brightly lit beacon, drawing South Asians from across Toronto and as far away as Niagara and Montreal. Many were recent arrivals to the country.
The films on show could be action-oriented like Sholay (1975) where Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, two of Bollywood’s biggest stars, fight off a gang of bandits tormenting villagers, then—keeping to the familiar formula—court chaste women through song and dance. Or the films could be melodramas like Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), in which iconic beauty Rekha finds herself at the centre of a volatile love triangle. For just a $3.50 ticket, socializing over the latest Bollywood blockbuster could assuage homesickness or provide a tangible connection with the contemporary scene in India.
For many movie-goers, an excursion to the Naaz Theatre was a whole-day affair. Before or after the show, they visited the many South Asian establishments that had sprouted in the neighbourhood in the wake of the opening of the cinema: browsing the racks of saris on display in shops; picking up garam masala spice and other specialty groceries; or dining at one of the restaurants serving regional Indian cuisines.
“For people from India, there was nothing else at the time,” one local outlined the importance of such visits to the burgeoning Gerrard India Bazaar in the 1970s to Christopher Hutsul in the Star (January 18, 2004).
WHAT: While the Metro Toronto Convention Centre has been taken over by the behemoth that is the Interior Design Show, the Gladstone Hotel offers a more manageable, and offbeat, exhibition this weekend. Come Up To My Room is marking its ninth year, featuring a few pieces of furniture (log-chairs, graphic wardrobes) and interior design (spiky geometric ceiling fixtures), and nearly a dozen room-size installations.
Left to right: M. John Kennedy, Jess Salgueiro, Danie Friesen, and L.A. Lopes make each other's afterlives hell in No Exit.
No Exit
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue)
Running until February 4, Tuesday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
$19.95 students, $24.95 general (PWYC January 29, 2 p.m. matinee)
“Three people find themselves in a parlour room—in Hell. They have conflicting personalities, and discover the tortures of Hell, for them, is being stuck with these other people.” That’s actor M. John Kennedy’s succinct synopsis of No Exit, the Jean-Paul Sartre classic being staged by Arts & Lies Productions as their second production.
We spoke with Kennedy and founding Arts & Lies company members Jess Salgueiro & L.A. Lopes about why they chose the famous script, and the role their school connections played in putting the production together. Read More…
ALL CLEAR: The delay at Spadina Station has cleared. Regular routing has resumed on the 510 Spadina streetcar line to Spadina Station. #TTC | 7:23 PM Jan 27
510 Spadina Streetcars diverting both ways via College, Bathurst to Bathurst Stn for overhead wire issues. Shuttle buses are en route. #TTC | 5:26 PM Jan 27
ALL CLEAR: The delay northbound at Rosedale Station has now cleared and full service has resumed on the Yonge University Spadina line. #TTC | 4:27 PM Jan 27
