Let's Go to the Movies

The auto rickshaws swarming around my neighborhood are starting to look like cockroaches to me. I have been angry, irritated, and basically in a sore mood because things on the home front are a bit dicey for stupid reasons, hence reinforcing exactly why I hate to deal with the menial tasks of daily living. It’s a disconcerting experience to be in a foul mood when it’s so damn sunny outside.

Anyway, I want to put myself in a better frame of mind so let me tell you about a theatre experience here. Last weekend we went to see the late show of Raang de Basanti, the latest Bollywood mega-hit. The movie has its problems, but it’s a feast. Before the movie everyone sat in the theatre- chatting, dropping food, having extensive cell phone conversations. Ushers shined too-bright lights in your eyes helping people to their seats who unwittingly stomp on each other, then decided they wanted to sit next to some other friend and asked some stranger to please move to that seat because s/he wants to sit here. Witnessing the chaos, you hope for the best- that people will not continue to be distracting. Then the strains of "Jana Gana Mana" floated around the room, as it became stronger, everyone stood for the national anthem (which isn’t played at every movie theater nationwide, but is in Mumbai), there was patriotic silence. You could feel the electricity in the room. Then the movie started and the audience clung to each other and their seats as we moved with the emotional tides of the movie. There’s an element of call-and-response in the movie. When a hero said “your mother’s eye” (I still don’t get the depth of the insult) in Hindi to a villain, the audience whooped, wolf-whistled, clapped, and settled down to a chorus of “shh, shh, shh”. When the musical scores came on people sang aloud with the track or played air guitar to a rock instrumental (symbol of today’s youth). During the weepy moments most of the theater leaned forward, attentive and eyes glistening with unshed tears. I am telling you men and women alike. If someone dared to cough during such a moment, the “shh, shh, shh” began again. This crowd was on the same wavelength. For those few hours everyone cared about the same thing deeply, passionately. There’s definitely power in harnessing that kind of energy. I thought about this a lot during the movie because the movie was about countering apathy.