Movies

Aah..that's one of the two words around which my whole world revolves {the other being travel}. Movies is in my blood & veins & arteries & nerves & breath & every beat of my heart. I am a complete sucker for the experience of watching a 70mm screen come alive with colors & sound & characters & dance & sound & what have you. It's magical!

I have grown up like that i guess. Both my parents were big time movie fanatics. In those good old days of Bombay (sorry Mr. Thackeray cant EVER get myself to call my birth city by any other name) they used to get these VCRs on hire. It was a big ritual really. You had to book a particular movie, the VCR, the time & day & the VCR guy would come over & fix it up to your telly. All this while, we - that is the entire family plus our neighbours who came in assorted sizes would throng the small living room. We would wait with bated breaths for Rajesh Khanna or Rajendra Kumar or Jumping Jack or Sridevi or Jayaprada to tell us their 'dard bhari' kahaanis.

I remember dancing passionately to the tunes of "Dafliwale Dafli Bajaa" and "Chodo Chodo meri baahein meri rahein aa haa aa". Dafliwale was Jayaprada's number & Chodo chodo was Reena Roy's. I even staged a huge tamasha saying i 'had' to get the black dress that Reena Roy wore in that song. This was when i was in my 2nd or 3rd std. Three decades ago. Almost.

I never got that dress. I have the images etched vividly in my mind's eye. My smile as I raised my hand to represent an imaginary 'dafli', the indulgent smirks of my 'fan club' - the neighbourhood aunties, my tears shed for that coveted dress. It's like I am watching a movie right now. Decades later, today, I remember every emotion I felt back then.

I am still the same. The only difference is - I can now go right ahead & buy what I see being worn on screen. But i don't! :)

My other specialty is I cry in EVERY movie. Buckets!!

Except of course Prince (where's the story boss?)and Love Sex Aur Dhoka and Just Maath Maathalli. For the last one, I wanted to kill myself for watching it, i wanted to kill the theatre owner for playing it, Sudeep for his stupid direction & even stupider acting, the producer for putting his money into this most 'dead' projects of a film ever. oops....i digressed!

Now Sathya and I have successfully transferred our 'movie crazy genes" to Tanvi. She watched her first film when she was just one month old. Spiderman. Her second movie was the very next day - Krishh.

She has her brand of movies she enjoys. One with the least dialogue & the most dazzling songs & eye-ball popping, dare-devil action. She slept through My Name is Khan, though she is an SRK fan. The three of us are loyal fans of the 3 Khans - Sathya adores Sallu bhai and me - Aamir.

The only thing i dont like about theatres is the smell of buttered popcorn or even plain popcorn. Yuck! My poison is a delectable chocobar. Among the theatres i love frequenting, PVR (Forum) definitely tops the list. Cauvery and Vaibhav come a close second. These 2 are actually like a second home.

Looking forward to Inox in Mantri Mall now.