Movie in India

Adventuring a movie in India
Caleb

It’s our first day in Thiruvanandrapurim (Trivandrum) and we just had a nice parantha and chicken fry which was delicious. We’re walking down the main road and talking, and Mark, Artemis and I decide to go see the new Indian movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. Mom doest want to come because she is too tired. So I grab a cup of roasted peanuts and we hop into a rickshaw to head towards the nearest movie theatre.

When we get to the theatre, there are a few people standing around. So we go inside and ask for some tickets. The guy says ground or balcony. We want ground so he sends us outside because that’s where you get the ground tickets. We walk around a bit looking for the booth but we cant find it so we ask some other guy and he sends us to a different place inside. But that guy doesn’t sell ground seats either so Mark and Artemis go inside and I go looking for the tickets. Finally I find the booth. It’s a little place inside the parking lot about 20m away from the theatre. I head back to the theatre and its very weird inside. Its really big and there are about 15 rows inside before there is a block. Right in the middle of the path there is a seat. And it doesn’t fold or move. Its bolted on the ground. So basically you cant get to the other 2/3rds of the theatre withought hopping over the seat.

I missed a little bit of the beginning but not much so I still understood it. The flash backs are in Hindi but its not incomprehensible. About two thirds of the way through the movie the power goes out. Mark, Artemis and I start laughing our heads off.Because that’s typical India. After a while the movie goes back on but we cant really understand the English because the accents are so heavy. A few minutes later we realise after the power failure the languge changed to Hindi. So I go out to look for a guy to ask him to change it back to English. When I walk outside the door there are about 5 or 6 rats sitting right in the middle of the entrance chewing on something. When I start walking it scares them off but when I look in the hallways its filled with rats running around. Barely any of the lights are on so its really dark. I find a guy that works there and try to explain the little language misshap to him but he doesn’t speak very much English. He said he will try to do something about it. So I go back into the theatre. After about 10 minutes nothing has happened. So I go back outside and a different guy is walking by. I tell him the “situation” and he says he wants to see our tickets. He obviously thinks I want a refund. So I go back inside and Mark gives me his ticket and I get my ticket and I ask Artemis for hers but she said she didn’t have it. I tell her I need it and she says she threw it behind her, so I ask her to get it but she gets all mad at me and tells me to be quite because she’s watching the movie. So I go and look for it. At this point I was pretty sure she had eaten it but I finally find it and head back outside. The guy isn’t there. I go looking around for him but neither of the guys I met are anywhere to be seen.

So I head outside and there a bunch of guys chillin by their motorbikes so I ask them where the movie guy is and one of the guys says what do you want. Well I tell him the whole story and at the end he says sorry that’s your fault we cant give you a refund. Now any body reading this has to understand that in India you cant get mad at someone. Its just not their style. So I cant yell at him and I don’t want to because he’s scary looking so I just go back inside and watch the rest of the movie in Hindi. We kind of understand it but we don’t get the details. Luckily there was only about 15 minutes left. Its really and amazing movie and we all loved it.

When we get back to the hotel and me and artemis are in bed, Mark knocks on our door and comes in and says “ guys guess what… I was just on the phone with bubs and gramps and I told them about Slumdog Millionaire and that we saw it in a slumdog theatre and they said that it was nominated for 10 academy awards!”

About 3 weeks later I wake up and turn on the TV with everyone sleeping and mom comes over and I tell her the Academy Awards are on! Mark is in bed complaining about the noise so me and mom turn it on very low. When everyone gets up that’s when the biggest awrds come on. Slumdog Millionaire wins best cinematography, best original score, best sound mixing, best song, best director, best picture .

After it won you could hear our screams and yells from three block down the street.

Caleb