Funny Incident

This dates back to 1994. I was in the first year of college and my elder brother was running his own factory. He used to work very hard and long hours and had started to miss out on the simple pleasures of life, like watching a movie. Now remember this was 1994, so the cable TV boom was yet to be unleashed on the Indian skies in its full glory. A good movie was considered good time pass.

He returned one night from work and excitedly announced that our local theatre was running the latest hit, Krantiveer. He asked our mother to prepare a quick meal so that he and I could go and catch the last show (9-12). That taken care of, we rushed on his scooter to the theatre.

A word about this theatre, it was one of the worst you could imagine. We had shifted to this new house some 2 years ago. While our old house was close to lots of good movie options, our new house could not boast of a similar story. Again remember, this was 1994, so the multiplex boom was unheard of. A good theatre meant clean and a not-good one meant unclean.

Anyhow, we rushed and rushed we did. Around half-a-kilometer before the cinema hall, there was (and still is) a crossing, where this cinema hall would post the latest movie's poster. I asked him to slow down a bit, so that I could see what was playing (remember it was dark, and oh, did I mention it was the winters, so fog too!). He, in his excitement, actually accelarated and drove faster, and I could not see what was playing.

We reached the hall, hastily parked our vehicle and purchased two balcony tickets from the window without even bothering to ask what was playing. We reached the hall, well in time and waited for the show to start.

The first major shock was because the hall was a bit run-down. Many of my brother's factory workers were present in the balcony along with us. We settled down after a round of "Namaste Bhaisaheb", "Namaste Sir" etc.

Some ads meanwhile played themselves out on the screen. Then some promos of some stupid movies came. Then Mithun Chakravarthy (that talent of Mrigaya, hugely wasted) came and started to dance on the screen. As we say "Vishal parde par". That continued for some time. Then Sadashiv Amrapurkar came and started mouthing some dialogues. Mithun abused him in some of the choicest expletives. I still remember Sadashiv's character's name was "Manjit Seth". Then some more dances and songs with Madhu. We were sick of this long promo.

We asked our neighbour, "Picture Kab Shuru Hogi?". (When will the movie start?) He looked back at us as if we had just landed from the moon and replied "Yehi to hai!" (This is it!)

Turns out it was a Friday. The movie had changed from Krantiveer to Janta Ki Adalat. There was a song that went like "Hum Bhi Pagal, Tum Bhi Pagal". My brother remarked "How apt!"

We decided to stick around to squeeze our money's worth and stick we did. Till the interval. But by that time, it was too much for us to digest. We beat a retreat; two idiots after wasting our money over a stupid movie.

I was reminded of all this today, when I stumbled upon this :

Janta Ki Adalat



Enjoy!