Cinema
The word brings me pleasant memories and embarassing situations we faced to watch a 2 to 3 hr of masala mostly for action between man to man earlier and man to woman later. Movie going is really an experience one cannot live without. The best of the experiences are had when we watch movies in a tent kottai ( touring talkies as fondly called by natives ) sitting in raw sand or even lying in it. With only a single projector available, intervals are aplenty and canteen sales were in full swing with rose water, sarbath, murukku, thattu vada.
As all gates are open like a cabaret dancers costume and the show begins only after the sun set at 7' o clock in the evening. The crowd starts pulling from 6.30 with old songs blared from speaker fitted at the top of the theatre announcing the beginning of a movie, movie goers are perfectly in tune with the song and started walking fast or pushing their bicycles hard.
Children pushing their parents back as hard as possible when they walk towards the theatre as their idea of watching movie with the parents is a matter of pride and topic of discussions the next day. The romeos why should we call them as roadside romeos most of them really are in love with some girls and looking forward for an opportune moment for exchanging a glance with the girl they thought they love and find a place next to the wall separating the two. The real lovers enjoy this rendezvous more than the actual movie running in front of them.
There was a mad rush infront of the ticket counter for newly released movies ( movies released six months back in bigger towns ) of super stars as there invariably two queues one on the ground one above heads are a normal scene. Those gymnasts delicately balancing their foot between walls and walk like a spider without stepping on the heads and shoulders of the hapless ticket mongers coming in a normal queue. Foul words and profanities are littered liberally soon forgotten once the ticket in their hands ( cigarette wrappers as tickets in most of the theatres exchanged at the entry and recycled at the counter again and again.)
No matter what they do and from where they come people march straight to the open toilet to finish of the emergencies just for the sake of it. Lit a beedi or a cigarette they just look at the crowd outside with a smirk as they have already entered and the crowd outside started become nervous of not getting a ticket or a proper sitting place. The back bench ( first class or premium class now a days ) are normally given for family crowd and 'RICH AND AFFLUENT" people who can afford 75 paise for a ticket. But the only problem is the tallest people made to sit at the corner because if they rise from their seat their head falls in line with the projector hole and we can see nothing but a black spot in the so called "white screen".
The clock is ticking and sun was set and the theatre was engulfed by darkness and the final song, an indicator of the movie start was played and the crowd become berserk. Clappings, whistles, cat calls, sh shing sounds, clouded the entire movie hall. As against normal science the sound of the projector travels faster than the light and the first of the slide welcoming the patrons was shown. Followed by a news reel shot a well 3 years ahead about the visit of a prime minister or president to a nation the eager movie beavers are not aware of existing. The murmurs during this news reel is a thing to cherish. When jawaharlal nehru or Indira Gandhi started addressing the reel comes to an end abruptly signalling the real movie beginning. The whistles, applauses, sounds reach their maximum and children started jumping up and down with ladies adjusting their seats, gents lights a new cigarette, operator rolls the first of the roll into the projector, stove was fired fitted with khadaai with oil used for the previous 3 days for hot and sweet bajji or vada, the final bell rang, the censor certificate showed up with a blur.
The real tamasha begins after that.....
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