MoiNoi

If you are a Aamir Khan fan, you’d remember his famous entry in the movie RANGEELA shown as a black marketer. (Watch below)

Now, when was the last time you bought a movie ticket from a black marketer?

Do you remember going to a movie hall and dreading to go to the stinky restroom? What about the fear of a huge rodent, which may jump out of no-where and snatch away the popcorn while you are watching a very interesting scene and in the process, may nibble away your finger with it? What about the feeling in the back of your mind that the electricity may just go off?

Seems like we have come a long way? We have, indeed.

NOW FIGURE THIS:

You are a big Christopher Nolan fan and you received this e-mailer from your favourite cinema chain, asking you to book your seats for his forthcoming release. How do they know your favourite, you may ask? Well, they smartly observe your previous bookings and figures that it’s time to let you know about Nolan’s next that’s releasing soon. You know that you must get tickets to the first-day-first-show of its release. You pick up your phone, pre-book your tickets, even if the movie is a few weeks away, and order your favorite snack through the App, and you are ready to dive into an extra-ordinary movie viewing experience that was a dream just a couple of years back.

If some friends decide to join you on the day of the movie and they want to take a chance with the tickets, reach the theatre premises, hand over your vehicle to the valet for parking, and buy the tickets along with the F&B on the touch-screen kiosk OR the Box Office and pay through the contactless terminals. Whoa! Where did the young kids behind the counters disappear?

Head to security and get your e-code scanned from your phone for a Paperless entry. Inside the lobby, if you have reached early, play a game with your friends in the VR / AR lounge or in the gaming zone.

You can in the meantime, let your children play in the Kid’s Zone. Under the supervision of trained staff, mind you! While you watch the movie, your little ones can enjoy their animated movie in the theatre specifically designed for children with a lot of paraphernalia around: special menus, in-audi sliders and colorful bean bags, designed specifically for your kids. Hey there are goodie bags too !

Once inside the auditorium, enjoy your movie in Digital Dolby Atmos sound on an IMAX screen OR through a Laser or 4k Projector. There’s news of 6K projectors being launched internationally a just few weeks back. While you are enjoying your movie sitting in ergonomically designed Italian leather recliners where you can even adjust your neck-rest; you can charge your electronic devices to the charging point on your seat. If you have ordered your food through the App, your food will be delivered by elegant and highly courteous designer styled butlers, else you can just press a button to call one to serve you. To make your experience even better, the specially designed menu is curated by celebrated Chefs of the country and offer you nothing less than a fine-dining experience to take your movie viewing experience something you’d never have expected.

Well, these are just the services that you get to experience when you come for a movie. It is a different world altogether in the back-end. Hundreds and thousands of people with the latest technology work continuously to make your experience better.

Just like this is the day and age of ‘Experiential Economy’, watching a movie in your neighborhood cinema has turned itself into a whole new experience today. It’s adding up to the economy too !

Seismic Zone 5 covers the areas with the highest risk zone that suffers earthquakes of intensity MSK IX or greater. The North East of India falls in this zone. While growing up in Assam, feeling the tremors every now and then was very common. What I love about these shakes are the stories surrounding them.

Earthquakes are so frequent that most times, I enjoyed them for the fact that we get some time off from our mundane day-to-day activities (read studies). I think the most common and equally funny incident that has happened to every single household during an earthquake would be getting stuck in the middle of the job in the loo.

They say the worst was in 1950 on Independence Day with an 8.7 magnitude. My grandparents saw water oozing out of the living room floor in a neighbor’s house like a fountain. The bed of the Brahmaputra rose up to alarming levels, which has led to the infamous floods in Assam every year. Post that earthquake, my grandpa somewhat turned into this super human who believed, till he breathe his last, that he can withstand all earthquakes. ‘I’ve survived the 50s. These tiny tremors can’t do anything to me’.

In one of them, my friend’s dad who sleeps with bare minimum clothing had to run out only to realize, that he was wearing his wife’s petti-coat instead of his pajamas. In another one of these bigger ones, in the summer of 1990, a nanny ran out of the house with a pillow, instead of the infant baby !

But what makes me laugh even to this day is my best friend Irene’s story at school. We were writing our pre-board exams. Ours was a missionary school. Slanting tin roof, wooden ceiling, with big windows without grills. Our invigilator was standing in the corridor overlooking the class through one of these windows. Sitting next to the window was Irene, who’s needless to say, petrified of earthquakes. Suddenly we felt a jolt. The invigilator said, ‘Don’t get up. It’ll go’. We went back writing.

Boom came the next. And before anyone could react, Irene leapt – got up on her desk - sprung up to the windowsill – pushed the poor teacher so hard, he fell thud on his back – jumped from the window to the school corridor - and started running towards the field in front of the building. All in the matter of a few seconds. She was a very good sprinter and got a lot of medals in the annual track & field games. She stopped after she did her 300 meters, only to look back and realise that there is not a soul behind her.  

A comedy of errors. That’s what she is. Yes. A freak of nature in flesh and blood. We’ve been best friends since we were both 10 years old. She has always been like this. Bubbly, hyperactive, speaks her mind without batting an eyelid and laughs her heart out with the loudest laugh I’ve ever heard.  

The thought of penning down her ‘stories of errors’ crossed my mind quite a few times over the years. But I decided to do this now is because she did it again !

‘FLIGHT’FUL DISASTERS

A study says 3 in every 5 people have missed a flight at least once in their lifetime. Most of us fall in this category. But for my freaky friend, there’s one freak accident in EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT ! Yes. You’ve heard this right. Every single journey of hers is laden with stories.  Here’s one of the freakiest recent ones:

One can imagine what a working mother of an 8 year old can go through 24 hours before she boards that flight for a vacation. Finishing off daily chores + work deadlines & handovers + packing for herself + packing for 8 year old etc. etc.

But here’s Irene, who’s missed her flight ‘cause she didn’t recognize her own name being announced! At least a few dozen times !

Ok. Given that she’s had an extremely exhausting day. Given that she is genuinely tired and sat on the wrong departure gate. But how can one fathom that she is not used to being called by the name that’s on the ticket, which she purchased herself ??!!

She is on paper before marriage – AUDITY IRENE GOLDSMITH (given by parents and she’s OK with this one)

After marriage, on paper, her name is AUDITY BORAH (husband’s surname. All her papers are in this name. But she’s JUST NOT FAMILIAR with this name).

All close friends and family calls her by her pet name – BIKI (She’s most comfy with this)

Everyone else in office and new friends calls her by her middle name – IRENE (She’s also quite comfy with this)

So, my friend recognizes her name only as either BIKI, or IRENE or AUDITY GOLDSMITH (together mind you!).

‘I’m sorry, I don’t recognize myself by AUDITY BORAH’ was her answer when the airline pressed the panic button for this mother-daughter duo who checked-in alright, but couldn’t be found anywhere. ‘We even checked the rest-rooms!!’ they said. Airport security swung into action suspecting a security hazard. Her luggage had to be de-planed and checked for explosives etc.

And there she was, cursing and buying tickets for the next flight at exorbitant rates.

Every year, there has been more than a 10 percent jump in movie releases in other Indian languages, besides Hindi. In 2015 alone, there has been more than a 30 percent increase in Malayalam, 25 percent in Bengali and 20 percent increase in Gujarati movies. Is this the sign of good times for cinema in India? Of course it is!

Growing up in Assam, much before cable television and the internet ventured, we had very little access to what can be termed as ‘entertainment’. Sunday afternoons were dedicated to movies in other Indian languages on Doordarshan. For some reason, our parents never stopped us from watching those movies. Looking back, I'm glad that they didn't. This was our only window to watch cinema that literally helped us see and understand the ways of life in other Indian states and other Indian people.

Movies in Tamil and Telugu ruled the slot even then. They were way ahead of times in story, technology, music and acting. Even today, these two languages are featured amongst the top languages in which movies are being made in India, after Hindi. In the last one year alone, movies like Baahubali: The Beginning catapulted to be the third largest movie grosser of all times, after the Hindi movies PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015). Baahubali grossed a whopping Rs. 600 Crore through its Tamil and Telugu versions only. Other blockbusters of 2015 in these two languages includes Telugu film Srimanthudu (Rs. 200 Crore) and S. Shankar’s Tamil film ‘I’ (Rs. 240 Crore).

However, over the years, with the advent of multiplexes and more movie screens, film makers started experimenting with stories in their own mother tongue. In 2015 alone, Marathi movies like Timepass 2, Katyar Kaljat Ghusali grossed Rs. 40 Crore each. My favourite in this language recently has been Court which released in September 2014 and Natsamrat released on 1st January 2016 garnering a hefty Rs. 40 Crore. Malayalam film Premam crossed Rs. 60 Crore mark, whereas Kannada film Uppi 2 grossed Rs. 40 Crore. Movies like Bela Sheshe in Bengali did phenomenally well last year as well.

Baahubali definitely broke records of all times last year. However, there has been some very pleasant surprises too. Movies like Chaar Sahibzaade, Punjabi, animated, stunned everyone with its content as it managed to gross a massive Rs. 70 Crore.

The matter of utmost significance is that, not only these movies are grossing huge numbers at the Box Office, they are also paving way for new film makers to experiment with their stories. One can only imagine the honesty that comes out of movies that are made by film makers in their mother tongue, rather than in one’s second or third language, which may have more audience.

Being born in a country that makes the largest number of movies, living in a city that contributes the largest share to this number and working for a company that exhibits these movies across India – I was wondering why I’ve decided to write a piece on movies for the first time today. Maybe, this last year of two thousand and fifteen has seen more than one movie that touched my heart like never before.

The boldness, stellar performance and direction of Margarita, with a Straw (April), the fascinating story, screenplay and splendid narration of Court (April), poignant story telling and pragmatic depiction of how every life is intertwined in Masaan (July), the brilliant blend of the intelligence of women and magic realism of Kothanodi: The river of fables (November); and lastly, Tamasha (November) a movie I was waiting to end the year with.

Three out of these five films have been made by first time directors, which in itself is very promising. These films not only manage to bring forward the India of today, but paint them with bone-chilling, heart-wrenching narration, acting and direction. They left me euphoric and full of pride.

Disability was not even a disability in Margarita, with a Straw. Leila’s (Kalki Koechlin) coming out unflinchingly and her experiments with life overpowers every physical shortcoming she had. Her zest towards life gets addictive as the movie progresses and makes one forget her every other limitation. Must thank the censor board in the same breath for not using their skills with their chopping knives here.

I have forever been fascinated by Varanasi and its ghats. There is always more than what you see in this city. Masaan beautifully weaves the mindless societal shackles with the underlying political juggernaut in mainland India. I particularly remember the scene where Devi (Richa Chadda), out of anger or jealousy refuses to issue train tickets to this young couple presumably well off and from a bigger city. Her action beautifully portrays the privileges which big-city girls enjoy in living their lives on their own terms. There are many such moments through the film which gave me the goosies.

Court was like a painting for me. Dark, upsetting, matter-of-fact account of the ugly underbelly of judiciary in our country. The songs on one hand and the cacophony of Mumbai on the other, took the movie to a never-‘heard’-before pedestal. One has to see to believe how silence played such an important role in this story’s development. At some point I felt I was not watching a movie, but was carried through this journey of the inhuman savagery through the eyes of the film maker. Spellbound !

Storytelling and listening to stories for us growing up in Assam was mostly from Burhi Air Xadhu (bƱr-hee – aair – xͻ-dhu) (Grandma’s tales) by the renowned writer and author Lakshminath Bezbarua. But never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined to see this version of his tales in the most bizarre artistic way. Mysticism, fairy-tale and reality – all woven into one mind blowing script. This is called imagination and bringing in the old to merge with today’s truth.

The layers and layers of complexities we wrap ourselves in through our lives have never been as candidly depicted in commercial Indian cinema, as in Tamasha. The feeling of never being able to reach into the deep of our wants vs our needs, the pent-up emotions, the monotonous bonds we are bounded by; where art became the storyteller. I was pleasantly surprised that such a story has been so aptly patronised by a highly commercial producer and cast. Trust the Director to make the most of it.

None of these movies, as expected, qualified to be in the race to enter the various ‘crore clubs’ Indian cinema has created of late. The number of such movies has definitely increased recently and we have rarely come across so many gems in one year. Even at the risk of sounding biased, I have to add that multiplexes are a lot to be credited for this phenomenon, or for this so-called ‘multiplex’ genre of movies.

If the audience comes to watch these movies from the first Monday to Thursday, and not only on the first weekend mind you, we should realise that we’ve passed the most crucial hurdle. If for nothing else, the audience will encourage many first-time Directors and Film Makers to experiment with their storytelling; follow the footsteps of their idols and mentors and most importantly, to tell stories and make movies that they ‘want’ to make. Not the ones they are ‘told’ to make.