My Life With Cinemas

My friends keep on asking me almost every day ‘what’s in those Cinemas? What makes you watch it every day?” Yeah, I watch cinemas almost every day and I feel very proud to say it. Why? What gave me this craze on Cinemas?

Alert: This is going to be one lengthy article as I will travel from my childhood to present day. So, please continue only if you have some good healthy time and Love for Cinema.

My love for Cinemas dates back to my childhood where we don’t have as much TVs in homes. There would be a max of 1 or 2 for a single panchayat. And the owner of it is considered ‘The Savior’ by all of us kids. This part of my Cinema life taught me the poverty in my home, ego clashes between my family and neighborhoods. I could still remember the scene. I always loved the “Oliyum Oliyum” on Podhigai TV during every Friday prime time. I would finish all my homework and in my thinking will push myself into clock and start chasing the needles to 7.30pm. The owner of the TV (who in some way is my relative) didn’t like us much (never go to know the reason) and he had a daughter. It was 7.30pm and I entered their house. The owner stood up and switched off the TV and said ‘Not today. My daughter has to finish homework. Let’s see tomorrow’. I was very much disappointed. I saw the disappointment in his daughter’s face too. I went off to my home and told to my father. He didn’t say anything about it. He told my mom to serve food.

After food, I and my father went to pass urine at the back of our building which is much nearer to the ‘TV neighbor’ as there were no toilets then. While I was passing urine, I could hear the “Mukkala Mukkabla” from inside. I turned towards my father and he understood me. He spoke now, ‘Don’t go to his home ever to watch TV’ I stood by his word just for his sake in my childhood. When I grow up, I got to know why and didn’t watch TV in that house out of my own thinking. I still stand by it.

I think I got emotional and deviated. Ok, coming to the point. After that incident, I started watching TV in another neighborhood which is a little far compared with previous. But, kids never mind the distance right? This owner will never show face. He will give me the remote even if he is leaving home and would ask me to watch TV as well as the home. As a kid, I loved watching Oliyum Oliyum, Tamil Cinema on Podhigai every Sunday 4pm, Sakthiman, Aryaman and Jee Boom baa. Sakthiman and Aryaman were my superheroes as there are Batman, Superman and Spiderman nowadays. I imagined myself as Sakthiman and I too was in love with Geetha. There is a twist in Sakthiman show. Since it’s a Hindi show, you get Tamil dubbing once in a while. And we all kids will be praying furiously right from the time when the previous week show was over (where there was no dubbing) till they play the first scene of this week show like “Please God. Please put Tamil dubbing today”. And we will be waiting to hear the first word spoken by the character in the first scene as how Hitler’s commanders would wait for Hitler’s words. And most of the time, it will be in Hindi. And there started my non-belief in God.

And, I developed into a high school guy so does the technology. And also the culture. There came the serials. To be frank, I loved it in the first place. Then, I got bored of the same crying, same villains and their same roaring laugh, same revenge stories and most importantly same faces. Then, the concentration turned into Cinema. I could still remember my first Cinema in theatre. It’s “Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen” by Navarasa Nayagan Karthik and Roja. But, it didn’t last long. Then my studies became important and I was shunned off from TVs or Cinemas. But still, I would manage an occasional Cinema in SUN TV by pleading and crying to my father.

When I moved to 11th, came the CD and DVD player. And came the pirated versions. As I was not allowed to go to theaters, I had to stick to low quality pirated Cinemas. That’s when I developed one rare quality (which I think). It’s the art of telling the story of the Cinema without actually seeing it. Those days we don’t have BehindWoods and Baradwaj Rangan or these over excited online reviewers. Had to go to every single tea shop in my village to read review of all daily newspapers (tea shops have their unique dailies and their respective unique customers based on it. My uncle used to go for a particular tea shop just to read ‘Theekathir’ daily even though the tea there was unbearable). So, I would read all these dailies and get a good overall view about the Cinema. With this, I would go to school and brag that I have seen the Cinema and start narrating the story to my fellow classmates. Some newspapers were generous enough to write about some particular scene in the Cinema and that scenes make my narration more legitimate. And the best part is some dailies are bold enough to write about climax so that I could nail my narration. If I couldn't get the climax, I would say ‘Watch it in theater to feel it’ and escape easily.

And then came my college life where I got introduced to some best Cinemas of my India and my world. During my second year, I got my bro’s desktop and took it to college. I was the only guy with a desktop in my department then. After dinner, all my friends will come to my place where every day we will see a Cinema. We didn't have any likes for genres then. We just wanted to see Cinemas and we saw like anything. Good times those were. On Friday nights, we will see for the whole night and will continue for the whole day till my desktop became dead (mine is a low configuration computer and it can’t take more heat). Then, we will wait for 1 hour for it to cool down and continue again. My desktop and my college introduced me to Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Verma, Balu Mahendra, Balachander, Bharathiraja, Christopher Nolan and Steven Speilberg. It was in college I got to see much more Cinemas in theatre. But not as many to talk about.

And the college was over and came the dream era for me, my working life in Chennai. I got a job in a corporate company here but never liked the job. Whenever I got bored or frustrated with this job, I would resort to my only companion, Cinema. First I started seeing them on weekday nights but soon I started going to Cinema by cutting office hours since some Cinema was screened only on afternoon timings. I started loving Cinema more than ever for the past 2 years. I started watching almost every newly released Cinema in theatres. And particularly, the low budget Cinemas which strikes a chord in your heart but not in the box office. I was able to see the master pieces ‘Onnaiyum Aattukuttiyum’ and ‘Pisasu’ of my master in theatre. And, I could proudly say I was one of the blessed guys in Tamilnadu who got to the see the visual treat of Santhosh Sivan, ‘Inam’ (If anyone has print of this Cinema or download link, please let me know here in the comments). I saw this Cinema first day night show with total of 11 Cinema Lovers in the theatre. And also, I was able to enjoy the bold attempt of Halitha Shameem’s ‘Poovarasam Pee Pee’ twice in consecutive night shows.

I could still remember all those lovable moments. Only 10-15 people would be there. All would get seated in ‘A’ row. I would select the center seat from the top and from the sideways. Then, I would sit with legs over the before seat, free myself and start enjoying the treat. And there were times when I would travel all the way to Mayajaal and return back disappointed due to cancellation of the show. It’s because the authorities of Mayajaal have this weird rule of screening the Cinema only if they get at least 10 viewers. So, I would go in buy the ticket, ask the counter guy how much tickets were sold and then start praying to make it to 10. And there was this one time recently where I went to ‘Chennai Ungalai Anbudan Varaverkirathu’. There were only 5 people and they cancelled the show. So, I came back down to the counter to get my money back. That’s when I noticed a family asking for tickets to any Tamil Cinema available. I went to them and convinced that it’s a good Cinema and asked them to buy tickets for it. Somehow they too accepted and went to buy tickets. But this counter guy said ‘Even then there are only 8 tickets. So, the show is still cancelled. Sorry’. That was one of the most disappointed moments for me in my life. Then, somehow I managed to see it the next day in a rural kind of theatre in Tambaram (Vidya Theatre. Same case here. Only 12 people. But, can’t say everyone as Lover though)

Here in Chennai, I had unlimited access to Wi-Fi in my room and would download as much Cinemas as possible during 29th, 30th and 31st (if possible) as it’s the closing time of month and then will watch one Cinema per day for the next whole month. It was then I got introduced to Akira Kuroshiwa. What a man he is. His movements of characters and natural elements in the Cinema moved inside me for the whole day after watching. I thought myself to be blessed to view his Cinemas.

And here in Chennai, I got that lovely first day first show feel. It was ‘Yennai Arindhal’ (please don’t judge me as a Ajith lover here. Please) in Kasi theatre. What a feel it was. The Cutouts. The Milk pouring over the cutouts. Hustling in the crowd to get inside the theatre. Then, the dancing of fans for the intro song. It’s an unforgettable experience. I got to see Arun Vijay in person who came for the screening and would proudly say that I was also responsible for his tears by shouting his name-in-the-movie ‘Victor’. And that’s when I understood why people love Entertainment movies and started respecting them. Some people just want to enjoy.

After all these theater visits, came to know the exact meaning of the quote “That feel when the lights go out and the movie starts”. That feeling is heaven. I always wanted to reach before the Cinema started and enjoy that heavenly feeling.

So, this is my life with Cinema till now and I think it would never end because I think even after death, I would definitely roam in Cinema Theaters waiting for that heavenly moment. Thanks for reading this enormous article of how I felt with Cinemas and do post comment if you felt the same.

NOTE: I started writing this article to say about ‘Why I Love Cinema’ but ended up on ‘My Life with Cinema’. Will tell you guys the answer for the original on the next article.