Friday, April 25, 2008

movie watching

Here's a new habit my roomy and I have developed...watch the weekly movie premiere at Satyam...called “blind date.” Most of you have already heard about it. It affords you to watch a movie premiere before its release the next day but the catch is you are not told which movie is screened..Of course you can make informed guesses in accordance to the releases next day...after which its a partial blind game of probability...you can eliminate on the basis of rating...so my roomy who is our “booker”, okay that is not complicated, she does the online booking and arranging, has developed some fairly complex systems to predict this weekly event. If it is “A” rated then you know it is an English movie, if it is “U/A” then it can be either Tamil, Hindi or English...but then who will want to watch an “U/A” rated English movie, she says...that is not entirely true as I am not averse to animation, fantasies and magical realism...but on an average both of us prefer a serious English movie with a little bit of kissing maybe...so “A” rating is our first preference...
After having been to this auspicious screening three-four times....we realised our luck alternates...first was American gangster, good......then it was Epic movie, yuck!! the worst so far....then came 'there will be blood”, good...and the recent screening last night was “water horse”, so-so, could have been much better...or I have grown old...since my roomy clearly doesn't share my preference for children's movies...I have to do the rating myself...we did give a five minute analysis as to the possible occurrence of our luck...was it our company? Was it just an alternating factor?this is hard to say...since except for the two of us who remain constant, our company has varied from friends to colleague friends to colleagues to just us....so then its probably only the alternating factor...having said that the potential of the next week premiere being good is very high...in all probability an Oscar winning movie....thus every Thursday due to the frequent recurrence of this event now it has become fairly simple to predict conclusively one main component of our dinner- popcorn- buttered, buttered and mixed with these flavours, plain....but popcorn all the same.
Seeing a movie in Chennai takes me to the next diagnosis- the movie watching experience in Chennai ... I cannot conclusively decide whether its my social status improvement or just low cost of tickets at movies halls...but it definitely is better than Delhi!! Yes its still expensive for the masses and promote a sort of elitism without struggle. Having said that, it also has 10/- special offer tickets that our honourable chief minister has offered to the masses...yes a low percentage in comparison to the volume, still a better deal in that sense. Now to differentiate it from the Delhi experience, it is important to enunciate a bit about the latter....


They are huge mega plazas where there are multiple frisking modes....some halls don't let you take your handbags in....it becomes a pain for someone who suddenly decides to watch a movie or someone who is late...most of these mega malls have elaborate décor but no space for the bags of the poor ignorants who come with sometimes expensive bag or bags with expensive contents....you can't carry food in....you try to sneak it in like every responsible citizen in our country...but the guards at the entrance don't just have detectors but mastiff olfactory sensors....so while you try to decipher that strange feeling in your tummy when the uniformed lady casually browsed your private parts, she has already sniffed out the bag of chip and cigarettes. Pitiable state. You are forced to throw them while they evaluate you, with absolute disgust...


Hunger is an instinct that takes over most people while watching a movie in a theatre...as it is an integral part of the modern movie watching scene...it sort of becomes associative...movie begins your mouth waters for a small munch...(remember Pavlov).....you reach a counter that has well elaborated picturesque menus that makes your mouth look more like a slimy pond and stunts your rational thinking....soon you have bought yourself that poisonous liquid they call fountain whatever or something...cause you were told that a combo of that and your fave popcorn came cheaper....you are convinced except that the price is higher by a margin and the drink is more ice, essentially water, than anything else....victim of the new-age corporatism and fanciful brain-fucking experience, you come back to your seat to realise that the air-conditioning has turned your seat and the drink to ice....well it is a marketable deal for a rich guy or girl eager to be close to their companion...otherwise it sucks...All this costs you nothing less that 250...inclusive of taxes and popcorn of course...and the shame of being felt all over (places you never dared touch yourself!!!)...you console yourself thinking its worse at Taj Mahal...where feeling wonder-eyed tourist has become an artful profession.


Chennai is not radically different but prices are lower, nobody frisks you in most places and those who do are partially blind....you can sneak in food or fags by strategically placing it...some even let you in without tickets...of course you need to smile real sweetly....popcorn is way cheaper and there is real butter in it!!! loads of it!!!....its not just a picture outside the popcorn counter...bags of all sorts are allowed or just browsed before letting in...one can take pains to stand in a long morning queue and afford these services for a price of 10/-...movies are a part of everyday living in this part of the country and so the culture varies too...

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