Is This The Rocky Horror Picture Show?!?

I've been to three movies now, and although the movies themselves have been sub-par, each outing has definitely been an event. Going to the movies in India can be completely annoying or completely hilarious depending on your mood. So far, for me, it's been the latter.

The event begins as one would expect by buying your tickets for the show. Once accomplished you are directed to wait outside in the street amongst a herd of people comprised almost entirely of men. Five minutes before the movie is about to start a hand is waved and the stampede begins. You get carried into the theater by the rush of people as if there were only on seat and all else had to sit on the floor. Seconds later, after throwing as many elbows as catching, you're in the theater and realize that every ticket has a seat number on it. The only thing that came to mind was "What the f#%@!"

Taking our seats I had no problem seeing over all the people in front of me as south Indian men are surprisingly short. Waiting for the movie to start I begin to wonder why the screen looked so odd. Ahhhh! Of course. Tis no screen, but a cement wall painted white... kinda. With the movie starting I'm noticing that it's a little louder that at home, no wait, a lot louder. When things start exploding I realize that the loudest scenes here are twice as loud as they are at home. Soon all four of us have ripped our ticket stubs in half and jammed them in our ears. With the ticket stubs not curbing the sonic onslaught I soon jam a finger in each ear to give them respite.

As if the movie wasn't loud enough, during one scene the hero is close to being caught in an explosion and the audience is cheering him on. When it looked like he wouldn't make it (sigh), he would at the last minute stave off death to the raucous cheers of the audience. Predictably, when the villain appeared on screen people would boo. If there was a song playing during a scene, people would whistle to the beat of the song. So weird. The only thing missing was toast, rice and cross-dressing.

With cell phones ringing, people talking and ears bleeding, my friends looked annoyed and ready to go, and this was only fifteen minutes into the movie. Good thing the movie is two hours long. Even though I would be swearing like a sailor and storming out of the theater if this happened at home, somehow I found it amusing and most entertaining here.

"Are you sh#%ing me?!?"
Adrian Dujc