It has been more than
2 years staying at Bangalore (Presently Bengaluru) and every time I pass by
Ulsoor Road, the bus stop named at the crucial four road intersection “Begum
Mahal” made me inquisitive to know the Story behind this unique name. I had to
dig out a lot to find a brief story of Akhter
Begum
In the colonial Bengaluru of
the 1940s, the sight of a red Buick zipping down MG Road was common. Alighting
from the car was a stern woman, roughly in her 50s, bedecked in the finest
glittery garments and jewellery. Short, rotund and with heavy makeup, she was
endowed with a thundering voice and a personality brazenly modern for her time.
One of the most famous faces of the area that is today part of the City's central business district (CBD), Akhter Begum would be armed with beefy security guards on either side or a spittoon-carrying maid walking meekly behind. Liberty Begum, she was called, mixed awe with fear. The prefix in her name came from the century-old cinema hall in Bengaluru that she owned.
The Liberty's earliest
avatar was the Crystal Picture Palace in the early 1900s. “It was briefly owned
by a European woman after the first World War and she called it The Globe. The
begum's husband purchased it in the 1940s,“ said Mr Natarajan, one of neighbourhood
resident in his late 80s. “It was renamed Liberty to honour India's
independence and reflect the mood of freedom. “
The
strictly-English theatre that accommodated around 700 people was demarcated
into four different classes. It enjoyed the patronage of middle and upper
classes. Many Hollywood classics were screened there.
The begum, who also owned the controversial
Begum Mahal in Halasuru (Ulsoor), (Where the hotel Hilton stands up now)
presided over the Liberty administration and personally monitored all the
shows. Liberty stood near the Spencer Building, which is now called Almas
Centre on MG Road
“The begum's husband
was a pathan who owned lots of land around the city. There was a significant
age difference between the two. I remember him always shouting at her but she
couldn't care less, “ Mr Natarajan said,
remembering how, apart from the Buick, she also owned a Cabriolet Mercedes and
a White Impala.
Bengaluru's oldest
theatres could not keep up with newer technologies and commercialization. While
Liberty shut in the late 1970s, some of its contemporaries are on the verge of
closure.
Though Liberty was just one among colonial theatres like Empire, Imperial, BRV, Opera and Plaza, what differentiated it was the begum's presence. “She was an enigma in her floor-length white gown. “I’ve heard she would drive around the city in her big car like a queen.” It is curious, he added, that no one really knows what happened of the begum after Liberty shut down. She just remains part of the city's collective memory.
There was this
huge building at the corner of Ulsoor (Now the site for hotel Hilton), Begum
Mahal is believed to have been destroyed under mysterious circumstances overnight
nearly 35 years ago, and Akhtar Begum’s son Raheem’s suspicious death adds to
the cloud of mystery around the property. Of course, as an endlessly litigated and
complexly sub-contracted space, Begum Mahal would have been nothing less than a
bureaucratic impossibility to take over legally. The story of how it was seized
is the stuff of real estate legend, involving the usual characters deploying
the usual tactics and leaving no trace, except perhaps, Right to Information
Act will unearth someday.
