My first go to a Movie Theatre in Delhi

It was on the night of August 07, 2006 that for the first time on my three-years stay in New Delhi, the wild wild capital city of India, I went to a movie theatre at PVR Priya in Vasant Vihar. I had been planning to go to a movie for a long time but then I usually end up kicking myself on the butt saying it’s a waste of time, money and energy.

I still remembered the first movie I ever watched in a Cinema Hall with my family during my childhood days. I forgot how old I was then. But then the movie lingers on. The movie we watch was a Hindi filimi, and about friendship. The name of the movie was DOSTI.

I am curious—how many of us have also watched the award-winning film. I guess it was a good one. I remembered the tears flowing like a river in my eyes. LMAO. If I am not wrong, the price of a movie ticket was less than Rs. 5 during those times. I do not know how much it might have increased by now. It was in the 80s.

I also remembered, during my years in Shillong, Meghalaya (India), I ‘never’ went for a movie. I may have gone to a theatre thrice for the most, in all my 14 years living there. I wasn’t much of a movie or theatre freak. Even those times when I went, it could not actually be counted as going to a movie since I did not actually pay for the tickets. We (with a friend) used to sneak in during the intermission. Heh.

That was naughty but fun. When we were in, we were luckily surprised to find some of our friends inside and so we took the seats next to them with some of us sitting double. LOL. Mine were not a crazy teen days. But recalling those moments, I think I was somewhat crazy doing that. But I guess many of you had a crazier life than mine to laugh about today.

The crazier, the louder the laughter with little regrets on the good times had. With some bad times as well, I should add.

Back to square one.

The movie was to start at 7:25 PM. Me and a colleague — Durang — could only come out from the office when the clock almost strike 7:00 PM. By the way, the day before was her (my colleague) birthday. And mine was on the 8th of the earlier month. So the Movie!

After the usual bargaining with the auto-walla, we to in to the auto-rickshaw for a “long ride”. And the traffic was so irritating (that’s the usual when one is in a hurry to reach a place).

We reached Priya and were queued at the PVR Priya ticket counter at around 7:30 PM! By then, we were only hoping against hope to get a ticket for the movie we so much intended to watch. But finally and fortunately, we were able to smile. The movie had not started yet. It seems it was waiting for us after-all.

And then comes the funny part.

After passing through the security and then the theatre door with the tickets in our hands. We started looking for the place to seat us in the dark. We could not find and did not know where to sit!

Imagine, two grown-ups looking sheepishly around, changing seats in the front and then to the back. That’s the price one pays for ignorance! But then luckily, a guide with torchlight came and took us to our row. Still, we still sat on the wrong seats! God! Do you know any others who are dumber fools that these two? LOL! After a minute of taking our seats, the movie began.

Oh, the movie was OMKARA—a film interpretation from Shakespeare’s Othello. Vishal Bharadwaj directed the movie. Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu and Naseeruddin Shah played the lead roles. The movie was good, with a sad unexpected ending and great acting skills and dialogue from “Langra” Saif Ali Khan. But the Hindi language used was very difficult to understand for a person with a limited Hindi knowledge. And they used to many slang.

After the movie ended, we went to the auto-rickshaw stand again and the same old bargaining thing with the wallas re-started… I have no idea why I am addicted to arguing with the auto-wallas. LMAO.