Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Scene and herd

Last evening, I went for a movie with Viv and Pizzadude. It was a 1-for-1 deal, where we got to watch two movies for the price of one. Both movies featured foul language, violence, general disruption of peace, and both were kind of depressing. The first was Nandita Das' directorial debut Firaaq, and the other was a short documentary concurrently staged by a few fellow movie-goers inside the same movie theatre.

It started with us being suddenly jolted out of a slow Naseeruddin Shah scene. This guy was yelling at this other guy who was on his mobile phone, asking him to hang up. Mobile phone guy started yelling back. The rest of us could not believe what was happening. In a movie theatre that has only 20 people (sorry, Nandita!), this kind of thing can really take a life of its own. And it did.

A lady tried to reason things out with him, and he yelled out, "Shut up! Shut up!" at her. Within minutes it had become a mini-riot of sorts, involving half the population of the theatre, with people jumping out of their seats and lunging at one another, drowning out all sounds from the movie we had originally paid for. Thankfully the chairs were nailed to the theatre floor, so only abuses were hurled. The theatre officials had to intervene (actually after a while, I couldn't tell who or how many of them were theatre officials. Yes, it was that bad.) A few from the remaining population started yelling at the little mob, asking them to shut up and not spoil the movie for the rest. They got yelled back at, and seriously there was no point in us contributing further to the noise level.

After a few more minutes of showing us the extended DVD version of what should have been their home video instead of a public broadcast, the rioters decided to have mercy on the rest of us. "Theek hai theek hai. Movie ke baad settle karenge." They said and returned to their seats. Relieved, all of us turned our attention back to the screen.

Barely had their asses descended on the seats when the credits rolled.

There was a burst of general laughter in the theatre, and even we joined in. I guess it was funny. In a weird, sick way.

But it was really sad too. Several people walked out of the theatre asking one another, "Arre end mein kya hua??"

Sheesh.

Seriously guys, cut it out or take it out.



15 comments:

Urv said...

GOLD

I did not even have to fight for it :D

Unknown said...

silver....

Unknown said...

ppl neeed to learn mobile manners....: ))

Thousif Raza said...

'Bronze'

my mom would have been so happy to see this medal

Thousif Raza said...

but on a more serious note, yeah i tooo hate people using mobile,

some guys intentionally do it and think its cool, but i guess you all know who is the bigger fool!! ;)

pity, u couldnt enjoy the movie though....


nice one again


take care and keep writing........

Sanchit said...

miss all the medals.. and bhai am on support that may wala weekend.. sorry

Unknown said...

I feel sorry for you.

Suddenly, talking on mobile and chatting in general has become acceptable in movie theatres :(

BP said...

This is so funny!! Arre end mein kya hua??

hahahahaha

Charan Deep Singh said...

hey did this happen in singapore... i mean in India we are used to such stuff.... we have become very good selective listeners... even during such situations, ppl like us can see the movie and understand it too.. hehe

phatichar said...

doosre picture ka sequel banega kya?

Navya said...

Can't help but agree that "Desi" mobile speaking skills in public (trains) are highly annoying ... Sigh!

How was Firaaq btw?

P.S: On a totally unrelated note, have you seen Tahaan? One adorable piece.

Zyenab said...

LOL!!! =D
Nice blog

R said...

hehhehe
my god!!!

Stupidosaur said...

//Seriously guys, cut it out or take it out.


Of course like good kiddos, they heard your advice even before you gave it.

They cut out the movie, and took it all out on each other right then, right there!

parikrama said...

OMG ! and those were the supposedly "sensitive" folks turned up to watch a "sensitive" movie ! LOL.