Bollywood through the Bioscope

A bioscope

The World Book Fair brought out what has become a relic from the past, the bioscope to be viewed by a generation that has not known the phenomenon of the bioscope man coming to their town. The news of the bioscope man's arrival would spread like wild fire. Children would huddle around the colourful machine, impatiently nudging each other to get a peek inside the bioscope. The bioscope man would crank rolls of images which would be magnified through a lens fitted on the viewing windows. There would be music to accompany the images which would charm and attract people to the colouful box of images. 

At the book fair, outside the cinema pavilion was stationed a bioscope and the bioscope man that manages to capture the fancy of a generation that has been brought up on an (overfed) diet of the moving image. Children and adults alike thronged to the bioscope and were filled with glee at seeing this antiquated object.