Indian Cinema Visits
A visit to the cinema in India is something everyone should experience once in their life. You would think that watching a movie would be one of the more simple and mundane activities that can be done here, right ? Well, not quite.
Our visit yesterday started with seperate entrances for men and women, through security scanners and then a bag search for me. The bag search was looking for outside food items, not for safety, but nonetheless it was the first stage in what was to be a very Indian adventure.
As we ventured up another escalator and found our way to the main hall the overpowering smell of masala and frying oil was so strong our eyes were watering. Of course, this only made us 'not' want to purchase anything, rather than run for the masala flavoured popcorn !!
We found our cinema door and joined the rather large queue. I must say that going to the movies here is extremely popular and nearly all movies in the evenings and weekends will be sold out hours and hours before the start time. So it's best to book online. Our cinema was a little late in opening due to a longer cleaning time then expected, so there was quite a rush when the doors opened. We were just making our way to the door, actually Jack had just made it through when a manager rushed in to shut the doors in our face !!! ( we managed to grab Jack back with the rest of us before he slammed it shut) We looked at him quizzically and he said 'National Anthem Sir'. Argh, we remembered that the National Anthem is played before movies at the cinema in India. Until recently it was mandatory to play the anthem before every movie, however, this has now been changed and it is up to each of the cinemas to decide if they will play it or not. From what I can tell, most cinemas still play it.
So once that was finished we filed in and found our allocated seats. The trailers and ads were playing and Max and I already had our fingers in our ears, as the volume is beyond anything I have very experienced. Wow, wow, wow it is loud !! We were watching 'Venom' the latest Marvel movie and, of course, that has loads of effects it was a little too much for Max - he grabbed my hand and arm and nearly broke my thumb when it all started to get scary. 4D movies have a lot to answer for.......
The Indian experience continued with people answering their phones during the movie and then cheering and whistling when the main character arrived on screen. I suppose that is one good reason to have subtitles on every movie, you can continue to follow the movie even if you cannot hear it. I am not sure how we will cope when we return to Australia and have no subtitles after 5 years of reading and watching !! We also found it funny that during this movie, the word 'shit' was NOT dubbed but 'arse' was dubbed...... go figure ?
I still think the best part of an Indian movie outing is the intermission. It comes so suddenly - halfway through the movie as you are engrossed in the story, the movie is suddenly stops, the lights come on and there is a 10-15 minute break. The first time it happens to you, you are terrified that there is a technical problem and you will never see the end of the film. But on doing some reading, apparently it made complete sense for a Bollywood film which has two distinct 'parts'. However, this doesn't quite work for western cinema which tend to have 3 parts - introduction of characters and story, the creation of the issue/drama, and then the resolution So in India, intermissions are not just to top up on popcorn and visit the loo, it was originally used as a mini-climax in Bollywood films.
In summary, we love going to the movies and going in India is an extra fun adventure ! As well as being seriously cheap - 728 rupees ($14 AUD) what's not to like ??!!
Our visit yesterday started with seperate entrances for men and women, through security scanners and then a bag search for me. The bag search was looking for outside food items, not for safety, but nonetheless it was the first stage in what was to be a very Indian adventure.
As we ventured up another escalator and found our way to the main hall the overpowering smell of masala and frying oil was so strong our eyes were watering. Of course, this only made us 'not' want to purchase anything, rather than run for the masala flavoured popcorn !!
We found our cinema door and joined the rather large queue. I must say that going to the movies here is extremely popular and nearly all movies in the evenings and weekends will be sold out hours and hours before the start time. So it's best to book online. Our cinema was a little late in opening due to a longer cleaning time then expected, so there was quite a rush when the doors opened. We were just making our way to the door, actually Jack had just made it through when a manager rushed in to shut the doors in our face !!! ( we managed to grab Jack back with the rest of us before he slammed it shut) We looked at him quizzically and he said 'National Anthem Sir'. Argh, we remembered that the National Anthem is played before movies at the cinema in India. Until recently it was mandatory to play the anthem before every movie, however, this has now been changed and it is up to each of the cinemas to decide if they will play it or not. From what I can tell, most cinemas still play it.
So once that was finished we filed in and found our allocated seats. The trailers and ads were playing and Max and I already had our fingers in our ears, as the volume is beyond anything I have very experienced. Wow, wow, wow it is loud !! We were watching 'Venom' the latest Marvel movie and, of course, that has loads of effects it was a little too much for Max - he grabbed my hand and arm and nearly broke my thumb when it all started to get scary. 4D movies have a lot to answer for.......
The Indian experience continued with people answering their phones during the movie and then cheering and whistling when the main character arrived on screen. I suppose that is one good reason to have subtitles on every movie, you can continue to follow the movie even if you cannot hear it. I am not sure how we will cope when we return to Australia and have no subtitles after 5 years of reading and watching !! We also found it funny that during this movie, the word 'shit' was NOT dubbed but 'arse' was dubbed...... go figure ?
I still think the best part of an Indian movie outing is the intermission. It comes so suddenly - halfway through the movie as you are engrossed in the story, the movie is suddenly stops, the lights come on and there is a 10-15 minute break. The first time it happens to you, you are terrified that there is a technical problem and you will never see the end of the film. But on doing some reading, apparently it made complete sense for a Bollywood film which has two distinct 'parts'. However, this doesn't quite work for western cinema which tend to have 3 parts - introduction of characters and story, the creation of the issue/drama, and then the resolution So in India, intermissions are not just to top up on popcorn and visit the loo, it was originally used as a mini-climax in Bollywood films.
In summary, we love going to the movies and going in India is an extra fun adventure ! As well as being seriously cheap - 728 rupees ($14 AUD) what's not to like ??!!
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