MOVIE MANIA

 Wasssuuupppp folks?

I am back after a break! I hope all my dear friends are staying safe.

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I love reading, listening to, and telling stories.

Along with my love for books I love the silver screen too - the movies.

I belong to the clan which prefers to be seated in the theatre before the red curtains are raised, ahem yes, those days(Ah, I do sound like a fossil) the movie screen used to be covered with a red velvet frilled curtain, and it was a pleasure to watch the vast curtain slowly rise. Ah ha, no such simple pleasures these days!
Nowadays, I have to be seated before the first trailer is shown. If I miss the titles or a few seconds of the movie I would be irritated and berate myself or yeah...the other half next to me for the extra seconds he wasted by not hurrying!

The earliest memory I have of watching a movie -in my mind's eye, I can see myself as a small kid watching Kamalhassan and Sridevi on the big screen. I checked with mom, and she said it was "Thai illamal naan illai" and that I bawled throughout. Dad had to walk, in the corridor carrying me, trying to console me and failing at it, pulled my mom during the interval, and returned home. Well, like the literal translation of the movie's name..."I cannot live without my mother!"
Presently I get upset if there's a bawling kid next to me in the theatre. Why can't the parents leave the kid at home or sacrifice the movie for the better welfare of other moviegoers?

One movie that I watched when I was a mere child of 4 years of age, glued to the TV screen with everyone begging me to switch it off - an  "Art film" by Dir. Adoor Gopalakrishnan titled "Kodiyettam". I vaguely remember,(it's getting better, my memory skills!) and my mom concurs...the protagonist would drive a lorry, drink, eat and vomit - the whole movie was this in a continuous loop. I do not know what captured my fancy that I watched the entire film. My tryst with serious art-house film viewing had begun !!

Being diehard Movie buffs, my best half and I religiously wait for the new releases on Friday. Some mega movies with hype we invariably do first-day viewing! We watch - Hindi English Malayalam and Tamil ....although I would love to take him to watch Bengali films( I did succeed once)  hah, I can manage with subtitles any language be it.

A few movies we watched together over the years are still fresh on my mind, though not the main storyline, the situations leading to it, and the decisions we made watching them.
We owe a debt to director Maniratnam for his movie Alaipayuthey that planted the idea of a temple wedding!

Eighteen years have gone by but the memory of that day, I think it was Apr 30, 2000, we watched it - the look on our face, as we found out a way to get things going. The planning started before we left the theatre!

Nope, I am not giving you the details.

Abhishek Bachhan and Kareena Kapoor's debut movie Refugee- a film to be forgotten. I think the actors would have erased the memory of ever doing it. We had gone for a night show, and couldn't bear to sit through the movie. At intermission, we asked the usher to open the gate to the parking lot. He warned us that he'd not let us in if we came back. We hurried to the car, but our car was not in a position to budge, surrounded by other vehicles. We begged the guy at the gate to allow us to get back to the seats, he relented and dejected we went back in as refugees.

Gone in 60 seconds....the Nicolas Cage flick is another strong memory. We lost our seats that were pre-booked because we reached 60 seconds late to the theatre. With friends at our side, we fought tooth and nail at the ticket counter and were appeased with tickets to the next successive show. We were given the VIP seats; the neighbours were movie stars. But we behaved as if we were the stars(wink)...The usher brought us free popcorn, soda, and what not and we beamed as the public was trying to recognize us.

A few wrong choices of movies that we watched on Oct 2 Gandhi Jayanthi holiday has made us take a vow not to watch films on Gandhiji's birthday. Did he hate movies? Was it one of the taboos in his list? I don't want to mention the movie names as I don't want to be judged on watching such crass movies!

Movies and books have played a decisive role in our lives; we have cried and laughed and lived through the words and expressions portrayed by our favourite stars and authors.

It was at Gandhinagar city pulse theatre where the Film festival was on; I convinced the spouse to accompany me to watch "Paromitar Ek Din " Aparna Sen's Bengali film. We were excited to watch it with the Sen and the brilliant actress Rituparna Sengupta. A very touching story of 2 women, the mother in law and daughter in law...the myriad emotions and the storyline I could relate to in parts, left me in complete sobs...As the end credits rolled, there was a Q&A session, and I got up and expressed what I went through watching the film, Rituparna called me over and hugged me and cried along with me,  while my spouse looked on earnestly wishing that she would hug him too...Nah, no such luck.

All these years, I haven't been able to persuade my best half to watch a horror movie yet. Upon my insistence, he disclosed the reason. As an innocent boy of 8 years, he had accompanied his neighbours to "Ayiram jenmangal" his first horror movie which cast a shadow of fear over the young mind....the lady in white with anklets, singing in a melancholic voice and in which the towel hovers to the bathroom etc. has gripped him with fear and traumatised him, that he still refuses to watch a horror movie!!

I have never liked to watch a movie twice, but nowadays, as I grow older, and wiser if I can say so(wink) I seem to enjoy watching pre-loved movies!
With the lockdown and no film shoot that's going on- I am stuck with watching the same films.

Among many things, I am waiting for the Corona rules to be called off and the theatres to open up.

Fingers crossed!