The Dasavatharam Experience

This post is not about the movie but the experience. You can get the review here.

I have never been to the first day screening of a very big movie such as Dasavatharam with the exceptions of Thalapathy, Indian and a few others that I do not have memories of. I got hold of the tickets for the matinee show. I had actually got 3 tickets delivered for the price of 2!. I noticed that soon and ran after the guy who delivered it. I returned the extra ticket and got ready for the show. I was expecting a mad crowd at the theater – whistles, paper arrows and may be even crackers. But I got totally let down by what I saw.

The hall became fully as expected. The titles rolled up and Kamal Haasan’s name flashed on the screen. When I clapped, I could hear one person clapping (which was me, if you don’t get it). So dead was the crowd. These people seemed to not know what fan craze was. As the movie progressed, the cellphone of the guy next to me rang (loudly). He attended the call and started speaking. After a few minutes, a call again. Even this time he started speaking. The worse was to follow. The mobile of the the guy in front of me rang too. This guy picked it up and started speaking. He could not hear properly and put the call in loudspeaker! And no one objected. After a few minutes, he cut the call. I do not understand what people want. Just because they have a chance of getting tickets for the first day does not mean they have to get them. People who really want to see the early shows miss out because of these people. These guys do not switch off their phones because they are afraid that their businesses will not be attended to, but watch the film on the first day amidst a huge crowd. Most of the guys in the hall had just come to kill time in the hall. Many came late. A few left in between and most of the people were bent on ordering all the menu items possible into the hall. During the interval, the whole hall went out and got packets and packets of food and started gorging into the second half. They were watching the film as if it were a ritual so that they can go out and say “Ya, I saw Dasa first day, <opinion formed from the bits and pieces they watched>”. My guess is that the experience in Chennai theaters would have been great unlike the theaters here (or at least this one).

I came out of the theater at 4:30 and went to the booking center of the theater. I got a ticket for the morning show of The Happening on Monday and returned home.