Let's Go to the Movies

Yesterday I met up with Amitha after my photo class. Due to a lack of things to do and see in Colombo, we decided to go to the movies. Amitha determined that there was a film starting at 4 p.m. at the Savoy. So I biked and she bused and I beat her to the theater, which was good because I had to spend a few minutes figuring out where to put my bike. Anyway, there was one long line for the theater and I went into the lobby, where I saw times listed for only one movie, so we assumed we needed to stand in this line.

We bought our tickets and headed up to the balcony, having purchased the middle priced seats. So unknown to us, seats are assigned, and thus from now on we'll be buying the highest priced tickets ($.25 price difference) because those are the middle seats. We were on the side and if you have ever gone to the movies with me, you know I like the middle. I used to go so far as to actually count the exact middle of the theater, but I've mellowed a bit since then.

So the previews begin. The first preview is of this absolutely awful Bollywood action film. Amitha thought it was a farce, but the preview was super long with no speaking or commentary, thus it was discovered to be quite serious. There was an obnoxious amount of slow motion action moves. The music was irritating and loud. The girl was obviously trying to be the stereotypical sex symbol of the action film, but Indian laws prohibit certain amounts of skin to be seen. Thus, in the swimming pool scene she is in a swimsuit circa 1940. The hero of the movie is always in a black t-shirt and black jeans and regularly carrying a large gun or jumping through the air in slow motion. He can move so fast he was able to jump across a room and push the girl out of the way of a bullet -- after the bullet was shot! I won't be going to see this movie; I think I saw the entire film in the preview anyway. It was the longest preview I think I've ever seen.

Then they showed a preview for the movie we thought we were seeing. Luckily Amitha asked the couple sitting next to us what was playing and it was indeed not the film we wanted. So we immediately got up and went downstairs to see what happened. Turns out there is a Bollywood film being played in the big theater and the small British film, Provoked, which we wanted to see, was in the smaller theater with no line (thus, we totally missed that ticket booth). Interestingly, the movie was more expensive and only had one price -- even though it was being played in a very small theater with a much smaller screen. We missed a few minutes of the movie, but I don't think we missed any of the story.

By the way, I highly recommend this film, even if no one else does. It is about an Indian woman in London who marries a guy who abuses her for ten years and then she killed him. Actually, it is about her court case -- her case changed the British legal definition of provocation in murder cases. Very moving, well acted, etc.

I don't highly recommend The Savory for movie going comfort -- the aircon was so low that Amitha and I came out of the theater freezing. My toes were blue!

Then we went to Agra for Indian food with Ynys, Lisa and two of Lisa's Swiss friends. Good food, nice atmosphere, a little pricey. I was ahead of budget, but now I'm a little over. Oh well, I'll be gone all week and that will make up for my indulgence yesterday.

In photo news, I've started a Flickr group for my photo class, so soon you can look at the work of my classmates for the class, as well as my stuff, of course.