The magic of culture

My wife and I, along with our friends here, managed to catch Krissh at a rundown theatre at Allen Street in Arlington. It was rundown because, in relatively upper middle class area of Virginia, here was a cinema hall that had really bad seats, the sound system was pathetic, the air-conditioning had no temp controls, the toilets were inaccessible (women had to stand in a queue ADJACENT to the men's loo), the seats had no Coke mug holders, even the popcorn 'tub' was really bad plastic paper. Fame and PVR multiplexes have made us spoilt brats.

And yes, the desis were just that -- desis.

The pop corn was strewn around, and they left Coke mugs at their seats when they left the theatre. Phones kept ringing, and they were laughing at all the wrong things. I don't mean to be a upper class white here, but surely Indian Americans should have been better behaved? I remember when I was a kid and satellite TV was science fiction we read in the Re 1 Russian books available at the local bookstore run by an out-of-work Gujarati, my parents usually took me Topiwala theatre in Goregaon, a suburb of Mumbai, now best known along with Malad for malls and multiplexes. That theatre - and the audience - was better than this, and that was in late '70s and early-to-mid '80s until the VCR came and destroyed our nation's collective family values.

Perhaps the Loehmann's Theatre in Arlington was what we all deserved. Yet, there we were -- uncomplaining, almost fatal in our beliefs and, most importantly, loving every moment of the movie experience. Apart from our weekly chats with parents back home, for most desis the movies are our only connect with India (Sony and Zee shows are too unrealistic to even talk of them). It is what binds them to, pardon the melodramatic expression here, their motherland.

Anyway, once we were out, the discussion predictably veered to the movie. Everybody recollected their favourite moment. I, too, recollected mine. It was not in the movie; it was about a just-out-of-her-teens Indian girl who was, talking on her cellphone seemingly to her boyfriend immediately after it. Here is what she said, in a genuine American accent so my guess was she has spent most of her life here and that she is more American than Indian.

"It was a great movie, reminded me of Spider-Man. Can we hang out tonight?
.... (pause for boyfriend's sentence)
"You know, my sister loved it. She was sobbing during some scenes. And she clapped at the end of it. I mean it was really a great movie."

Her reaction kind of summed up the evening -- the magic of the movies was alive, no matter what seats we sit on, or whether there is a long queue to relieve yourself.