But I Smile Anyway…

We have just spent a lovely evening, my parents and I and my two children, at the cinema, to watch a Bollywood film. I am a firm believer in exposing my children to experiences from their home culture as well as the country they live in.

The movie in question, Dilwale, is a new film, starring two very huge actors from the industry, Shahrukh Khan, and Kajol, a pairing that has seen many successful films made over the years.

December 2015

I always love a good Bollywood film, and after a series of comments with a fellow blogger, Syl, I thought I would share some experiences.

Now going to the cinema here in the Western world is one thing, an evening of popcorn, soft drink, and a good film.  The cinematic experience I had in India… on a WHOLE new level!

It has been a good 18 years since I have been to the cinema back home, and I know that, since then, multiplexes, like we have here, have sprung open all over the large cities.  Multiscreen cinemas with bars, restaurants, and bowling alleys, all that sort of thing.  But I can’t help but think the civilised nature of these modern places dulls the atmosphere that there would be in the old style cinema halls.

If you know anything  about Bollywood, you will be aware that to watch one of these films, you need to be prepared for around 3 hours of singing, dancing, drama, comedy, colour, and a whole lotta costume changes!  Luckily for me, I love all of that, and when I got a chance to watch a film in the cinemas back home, I was so excited!

Actors are totally hero-worshipped, and it is not uncommon for people to watch the film many times. This means that when you go to see a film, undoubtedly, there will be some who are saying all the dialogues, alongside their hero or heroine of choice, and when the music is on, the crowd can go wild!

We saw films in Delhi and in Chandigarh, in two quite different cinemas.  In Chandigarh, it was an old Aerodrome that had been converted into this HUGE cinema, and we watched a film that was a very popular at time choice, Border, which was about the Indo Pakistan border, and about the lives of the military personnel there.

Being in the Punjab, and watching it, there was an extra buzz, and the atmosphere was electric! We were sat in the best, air conditioned seats, above many others, but down in the stalls, you could see the fun happening! When a popular song was on, people were singing, and some even dancing in the aisles! When there were emotional moments, or fight scenes, there were voices calling out, telling the characters who to give what for. In general it was quite a civilised experience.  Where there had been queues, people had queued, and there wasn’t a crazy rush to get in.

The Delhi experience… totally different!

By that I don’t mean it was worse, but we saw things from a different view that time! We arrived at the cinema, 4 women, and there was a huge crowd, waiting to buy tickets. The jostling, pushing and shoving, gave many perverted males a chance to grab handfuls of butt, or try and touch women, and after a few moments of this, my aunt who was with us, went to the security guard, slipped him some money, and got us into the foyer before things officially opened! (It was an easy thing to do there!)

We were unable to secure the best seats, and ended up in the stalls, but not right at the front.  This time we went to watch another popular film from that time, Virasat. I loved the music from this film, and to be in the midst of an audience who ate, slept, breathed Bollywood, it was brilliant! If I wanted to sing along, out loud, I wasn’t going to be stared at by anyone, because they were all doing the same thing!

I didn’t get to see this, but I know they can erect huge outdoor cinema screens too, near villages, where there isn’t a cinema, to allow folk from more rural areas to see films!

Cinemagoers watch a Bollywood film inside a tent cinema in Pusegaon in this undated handout realised on February 4, 2010. Cut to a far-flung district in western Maharashtra state, where thousands of farmhands attending a religious festival crowd under giant marquees to watch another movie, on another, similar makeshift screen, a few weeks later. REUTERS/Amit Madheshiya/Handout

Back to today, the film was great, I loved it!  But, there was no singing happening, just avid viewing.  The seats were much cleaner, the snacks more appetising, but the atmosphere nothing like the cinemas in India!