Sunday, July 26, 2009

The week in review

The week went pretty well. I had a near death experience. Yes, you guessed it. I nearly got dragged to a screening of "Kambakht Ishq".

The technique was stealth, as usual. The missus, who was Sun Tzu in an earlier life, manouevered us to the multiplex on the pretext of eating at the food court in Inorbit Mall (claim to fame - more people hanging around than at Churchgate Station on Monday morning). We 'accidentally' happened to find ourselves outside the box office where the missus suddenly got a brilliant idea

"Hey! How about watching 'Kambakht Ishq'?

My older son, Vyaas, who is such a yes man when it comes to the powers that be that he could walk into the Congress Party without question, immediately said 'yes'. He is also an Akshay Kumar fan. In fact, when we went to Goa earlier this year, he insisted on going to Anjuna beach (a crappier beach than which I have yet to see, and I have seen all the beaches in Bombay) because Akshay Kumar has a bungalow there.

But the younger son and I are made of sterner stuff. And luckily, there was a Harry Potter playing on another screen at almost the same time.

"Oh, look. Harry Potter!" I exclaimed, theatrically, whereupon younger son, promptly taking his cue said

"Wow! Annie, please can we watch Harry Potter?"

And thus, saved from a fate one would not wish upon one's enemies, Gautham and I toddled off to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince.

Gautham was in his element.

"Half blood? What's the other half? Petrol?"

Petrol? Why Petrol? But his thought processes are difficult to fathom. And when I tried explaining that Half Blood usually means mixed parentage and blah blah, he had already vanished to the popcorn stall. Kids. You can give them a complete force-fed meal with the usual 'my stomach is bursting' protestations and twenty seconds later they will ask for popcorn.

The movie started the usual Harry Potter way, which is 'way over my head'. Gautham, who seemed to have heard the story from someone, kept telling me what was happening.

Somewhere halfway through the movie, I found him snoring gently, asleep on my shoulder. I watched on for a while and before I knew what was happening, I had crashed out myself.

I am thus unable to report if the movie had sustaining dramatic interest. When the lights came on at last, a kindly usher woke us up and we shuffled out of the movie theater satisfied which, as you all know, is the mark of good cinema.

The missus and Vyaas, on the other hand, were not so lucky. You could see from the wild, hunted look in their eyes that they had recently had their blood curdled.

"Nice movie?" I asked.

Silence. Perhaps they didn't hear that.

"Nice movie?" I repeated

"Can we go home please?" asked the missus, in a strained voice, indicating that the subject was closed for discussion.

And even now, several days after the viewing, we do no talk about it.

If Voldemort is the wizard whose name must not be spoken, Kambakht ishq is the movie about which None Shall Speak.

Have a great Sunday.

14 comments:

kausthubh said...

brilliant :)

Gradwolf said...

hahaha awesome! New template? Hmmm on missus orders?!

Siddharth said...

nice new template with the Digg widget and all! Hilarious post as usual. I had slept in one of the earlier Hari Puttar movies...dunno which but it had dragon, wizardry, snakes, voldemort. Hmmm...which one doesn't have all these? :)

BTW, did you check this one from Gaurav Sabnis?
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2009/07/pune-cops-win-sakaal-times-fail.html

Anonymous said...

Another lolsome post, Naren!

le embrouille blogueur said...

What better than to catch a wink in the company of a room full of people .... a little snoring could add the magic touch to the resonance of the Dolby ...brilliant !!

rads said...

Naren, can't blame the kid, I would give anything up, but I need my tub of popcorn before I venture into a movie hall. Heck I even got one for the basement setup we have!

KI is that bad? I should nudge the husband towards it me thinks..

Lavanya said...

LOL @ the other half and walking into the congress. Actually, LOL at everything!

And yes, we shall not speak about the movie that shalt not be spoken about.

Bhel Puri & Seekh Kabab said...

enjoyed :-)

The Dog Philosopher said...

Well that is why I use Sify and rediff review depending on my preference to watch the movie >>> Sify if I want to watch it and Rediff if I have to convince the good half that the movie is not worth it..

Idling in Top Gear said...

Even the prospect of ogling at Denise Richards in a bikini wasn't enticing enough? :)

Devi said...

Nice, humorous post. I can relate to snoring in a HP movie.. I did that on one of the earlier Potter movie.. don't remember which one, obviously:). KI is that bad yeah?

Pitu said...

Hehehe. I loved Harry Potty! I hated Crapbakht Ishq. Is the missus on the road to recovery?

Mariya said...

My God, I'm falling off my chair. Why didn't I discover this blog before!!!

harimohan said...

enjoyed the post