Masala Masala

The chairs were arranged in a linear fashion with so much of orderliness. People had started occupying them here and there in a scattered manner. "S"and I filled two of the seats and I kept gazing at what was in front of us with my eyes wide opened .It took a while to sink into me that we had finally made it here . "S" and I had a feeling of having taken the pains of crossing seven seas and seven mountains similar to those narrated in fairy tales to reach this place in time. It was nearly after two years that we were able to make it to this .Yipeeeeeeeeee.. finally we were in a cinema theatre to watch a movie.I can hear you say " so much of a build-up for such a simple thing?". Well, my answer is ..come and meet me after you have a baby and I bet you would call this a herculean task.

Our patience was tried for the first half an hour with the screening of crazy advertisements and trailers which seemed to continue for eternity. Finally we were able to hear the title song of the movie for which we had purchased the tickets. We were transformed to a world that existed 30 years back. Hold on!!!!..we were not watching a movie of yesteryear but one of the most recent ones, the Hindi movie "Om Shanti Om". There was my favourite hero ShahRukh khan on the screen in his best form and for the first time I regretted for having lead a futile life not even knowing how to whistle. Then came the introduction of the heroine. I was utterly gobsmacked and wondered if such flawless beauties existed even in these modern times. Of course I was constantly sussing out the reactions of "S" to the introduction of the heroine. He was putting up a bland face concealing his true response perhaps to put me at ease(or so I thought).The bucket of popcorn that we had purchased outside , slowly and steadily had found its way into our tummies already.

The first half of the movie was shot in an ambiance of the late 70s. The atmosphere in the movie was brought out with so much of perfection and with a tinge of corny comedy which is so very characteristic of Farah Khan , the director . We could easily relate the memorable events of the 70s. ShahRukh was the protagonist and his acting reassured that his stardom was a well deserved one. Nevertheless one should not question the credibility of the story. The story revolved around death ,re-incarnation and retaliation.It has the recipe for a successful movie with correct proportions of romance, action, horror, thrill ,action etc etc. But this movie lacks in depth and intensity. We are somehow not able to empathise with the characters regardless of how well the actors emote.

This movie is an entertainer and I earnestly request you to shun your reasoning capability and rationalism if you intend to watch this movie.After a solid three hours the movie ended with the appearance of the technicians and the backstage heroes on the screen . This is something that I attribute to the directorial touch of Farah who is consistently making an attempt to bring these unnoticed artists to limelight.

As soon as we came out of the theatre , I beamed with pride and commented to "S".."See ,my selection has never gone wrong..truly a great movie!!!!". "S" only smiled and replied "If you are happy , I am ". What am I to infer from this statement?.