Going to watch a movie

I went to watch a Bollywood film at the local Girnar theatre. Girnar is a single screen theatre. They do not make them anymore. Maybe the multiplexes make more money. I do not go to multiplexes. Tickets are too costly. A popcorn costs double or treble than what it costs in a single-screen theatre. Waste of money, I feel.

Anyway I am babbling now. back to Girnar. The movie was 'Golmaal 3'. A stupid juvenile flick as I found out later. But the janta a loved it. Indians always love escapist fare. they have a lot to run away from.

The guy at the ticket counter was rude. He had one look at the slightly soiled 100 rupee note and pushed it back at me. " Change it," he muttered gruffly. Indians I think will never develop  professionalism. I mean things like being polite to customers. They always assume it is a sellers' market. The consumers always get a bad deal. An old habit from the bad old days of socialism under Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Coming  to Golmaal 3. An inane silly comedy, as I said. What hurt me most was the pathetic state that an actor of Mithun Chakravarti's calibre was reduced to in the film. One has to adjust with the times after swallowing one's 'pride'. Capitalism is a hard task master. But it made a sensitive guy like me wince.

The other day I went to Galaxy theatre (another single screen theatre) to watch the Hollywood flick, Skyline (Dubbed in Hindi). There was a massive crowd at the booking window. It seemed likely that all the tickets would be sold out soon. As I waited patiently in the queue (ready to go back home disappointed), I saw another lousy Indian trait. Jumping the queue. Some very nonchalant characters sidled up to the booking window, looked around innocently and then bought tickets. This happens everywhere. Whether it be a railway booking counter or at electricity bill payments centre. Jump the queue. Break the rules and get what you want.

It seems Indians seem to have no respect for fair play, for rules, for common courtesy. The mantra is "break the rules and get what you want." The sad part is such people are looked up as role models to be emulated. The honest are considered as simple or fools.

Coming back to Skyline. Seeing that the show went house full, it is high time Bollywood woke up and brushed up its special effects. Or it will merely remain a country that churns out song-and-dance films that only Indians watch.