Delegates running around like headless chicken, from one cinema theatre to another, from the back of one queue to another, have been one of the defining sights of this year’s International Film Festival of Kerala. There really is no time to pause and think, and chances are that if you randomly ask tired delegates walking out of the theatre after the fifth show at night, they might not be able to recall the name of the first film that they watched on the day.
The surge in number of delegates has meant that someone wanting to watch a film need to queue up more than an hour before the scheduled start.
“One can witness the theatres screening most of the in-demand films filled to the brim with delegates even one hour before the screening. This is really not the way things should happen and I guess the crashing of the ticket booking system has led to this state. Now, the general feeling is that you are lucky if you get to watch any film. So you can see people sitting on the floor even for retrospectives, which only few used to attend till recent years,” says P. Vishnu, a delegate.
Long queuesAt some cinemas, the volunteers have made it a point to not open the doors until 20 to 30 minutes before the show is set to begin. But, the pressure from the crowd to open up gets to them and they give in much earlier than intended. A common sight both at the Kairali and New theatre complexes is of long queues forming well in advance and it breaking down and those who lined up crashing through the doors.
If the surge in delegate numbers goes at this rate without an increase in the number of seats, things could turn ugly in the coming years.
