Hum Dono Rangeen
After many years I watched a movie in the theatre. They are called multiplexes today. The multiplex is not so much about the multi-screens as it is about multi-cuisine food court within.
When I was young in middle school, eating out was not considered good. Although even then, in the more westernized Indian family systems, it had started gaining some acceptance. Today if you eat at home the whole week, it is a shame
.
Higher disposal incomes today are redefining mores not just in India but the emerging world at large. Just as in my grandfather’s time, eating out was a sin, causing perdition, today an outing is incomplete unless you masticate on something preferably non India, unless of course you are traveling abroad. Ironically, much as we like to eat non Indian food in India, a zealous hunt for an Indian restaurant is the top on the to-do list as soon as we land abroad.
Coming back to Hum Dono! We went, we parked and we bought the tickets and of course arranged our tray of eatables even in anticipation of the movie.
Hum Dono is a movie of my parents’ generation. It is about Captain Anand ( Devanand ) and the scintillating doppelganger Major Verma, their spouses and mothers. Thus, clearly a different genre of movie making; emphasizing on subtleties of relationships, emotions, sentiments and virtue, calling for imagination from the modern generations to relate to the scenes and storyline, and too slow for even my generation which seeks instant gratification and the younger one which finds such sentimentality at best risible.
So on one side where there was so much sentimentality on the celluloid, there was lot of family dynamics to be experienced in the rows behind and in front. Indians, gregarious as they are, they are also immensely family centric. They love connecting with other members of family. So they go to view movies in groups. They like idea of movie more than the movie. So seat exchanging and adjustments are continuously happening. Sometimes even at the hazard of your hair being pulled by some panic grip of your head rest for restoring balance in the dark. They also want their moneys worth and hence wish all of the family to understand should something be subtle and not so obvious, so continuous prompting is a standard practice.
Hum Dono treats amongst others the ‘61 military engagement with China, so there are staccato bursts of gunfire between the platoon of the wiry Devanand and Chinese troops on the screen in front tuned on modern Dolby sound. But behind me was the chomp chomp chomp of Nachos. I curse Mexicans for this gift. The gunfire stopped but chomp chomp lasted through out as today the munching is not confined to the intervals.
If business is ignored, then the movie cannot be afforded and hence cell phones kept ringing and many busy people continued to transact business also much as they continued to translate the subtle portions for their spouses. On top, if this was not enough, there was a family with two children. Their chuckle was undying.
Jai ho.
After many years I watched a movie in the theatre. They are called multiplexes today. The multiplex is not so much about the multi-screens as it is about multi-cuisine food court within.
When I was young in middle school, eating out was not considered good. Although even then, in the more westernized Indian family systems, it had started gaining some acceptance. Today if you eat at home the whole week, it is a shame
.
Higher disposal incomes today are redefining mores not just in India but the emerging world at large. Just as in my grandfather’s time, eating out was a sin, causing perdition, today an outing is incomplete unless you masticate on something preferably non India, unless of course you are traveling abroad. Ironically, much as we like to eat non Indian food in India, a zealous hunt for an Indian restaurant is the top on the to-do list as soon as we land abroad.
Coming back to Hum Dono! We went, we parked and we bought the tickets and of course arranged our tray of eatables even in anticipation of the movie.
Hum Dono is a movie of my parents’ generation. It is about Captain Anand ( Devanand ) and the scintillating doppelganger Major Verma, their spouses and mothers. Thus, clearly a different genre of movie making; emphasizing on subtleties of relationships, emotions, sentiments and virtue, calling for imagination from the modern generations to relate to the scenes and storyline, and too slow for even my generation which seeks instant gratification and the younger one which finds such sentimentality at best risible.
So on one side where there was so much sentimentality on the celluloid, there was lot of family dynamics to be experienced in the rows behind and in front. Indians, gregarious as they are, they are also immensely family centric. They love connecting with other members of family. So they go to view movies in groups. They like idea of movie more than the movie. So seat exchanging and adjustments are continuously happening. Sometimes even at the hazard of your hair being pulled by some panic grip of your head rest for restoring balance in the dark. They also want their moneys worth and hence wish all of the family to understand should something be subtle and not so obvious, so continuous prompting is a standard practice.
Hum Dono treats amongst others the ‘61 military engagement with China, so there are staccato bursts of gunfire between the platoon of the wiry Devanand and Chinese troops on the screen in front tuned on modern Dolby sound. But behind me was the chomp chomp chomp of Nachos. I curse Mexicans for this gift. The gunfire stopped but chomp chomp lasted through out as today the munching is not confined to the intervals.
If business is ignored, then the movie cannot be afforded and hence cell phones kept ringing and many busy people continued to transact business also much as they continued to translate the subtle portions for their spouses. On top, if this was not enough, there was a family with two children. Their chuckle was undying.
Jai ho.
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