A Convert and Two Nice Films

I had heard some nasty stories about the availability of tickets in Bangalore multiplexes (there are just too many movie crazy people in this city, and it seems in the whole of South India) that I hadn't even tried to watch a movie in one of the many multiplexes here for a long time after I came here. Then there was one crazy week, when I saw two movies on consecutive days with two of my IIMC friends and had great fun. There's this multiplex that is at a walking distance from my home and it screens movies from 10am. Most of my Saturday mornings are going to be spent there. I saw Aamir there last week, and this week was reserved for The Happening (Dasavtharam tickets were sold out).

The Happening is definitely much better than the last few outings for Mr Shyamalan. There are some genuinely scary moments. The scene with men jumping off the top of the building is one of the scarier ones. The scene with the old lady banging her head on her cottage's windows is another. His movies in most cases require a giant leap in faith, and this one does too. And for all the adulation critics may heap on to Mark Wahlberg, I just can't find any greatness in his acting. A good watch in any case.

I am watching Gosford Park right now. Since I first saw it nominated at the Oscars, I have been looking for this movie - tried at the VCD parlors at Kathwaria Sarai and Ber Sarai in Delhi, tried to find torrents, nothing worked. I finally managed to download it recently, but it's a Spanish dubbed version. It's odd watching these Lords and Ladyships speaking in the rather uncouth language that Spanish is. But it's even better than I had expected it to be. It must have the highest density of cinema greats ever in a movie. I am two-thirds through the film and absolutely loving it.

Made my maiden trip to Chennai this week. It was rather hot, but a pretty nice city otherwise. As I was telling a friend of mine from Bangalore, who's had to move to Dubai for work, just now, I have been to three cities in the South - Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore - and have really liked all three. There is a certain degree of niceness about these places, a certain degree of respect that they accord to people within them, which is not to be found in most cities north of the Vindhyas. If there was such a thing possible, I would readily convert into a Maddu (which was my generic term for anyone belonging to the four southern states, until I started using the terms Gult, Kannadiga, Tam and Mallu)