I was just about to chew my blanket out of anxiety, not wanting to see it but still wanting to see it! That is what happens when someone forces a horror movie on me! My cousins were all having fun watching me perspire, and some were even rubbing salt into the wound by mentioning the ghoul was ‘funny’ and saying there was no reason to be scared! Another spasm of the ghoul’s body and I jumped up, screaming and running out of the room and waking up everybody at home.
This is just one of the times we cousins had met over a ‘movie night’! When we get together for one such night, it’s usually a bragging session, where each one is trying to convince the group to watch a movie they like. And no matter whose suggestion we agree to finally, the end result is always the same: the person whose choice it was ends up getting drowned in the cacophony of the rest of us screaming and shouting about having put us through such a torturous three hours!
This reminds me of that one time when my cousin proudly strutted in with his laptop saying he had ‘just for us’ downloaded his favourite movie and we would be watching that one that night. It was the ‘best comedy movie’ he had ever seen and we were told we would die laughing! Well, we sure did die, but not of laughing, but by sheer exasperation on what was unfolding on the screen! Leave alone laugh, it failed to elicit even a hint of a smile on any of our faces. And no matter how much that cousin tried to convince us that the next scene will be funny, we finally managed to make him shut up.
He remained the butt of jokes through the entire night. And though his movie didn’t make us laugh, we still died laughing pulling his leg at the choice of his movie.
Meanwhile, he continued whining about how we don’t have any ‘class’ when it comes to movies! I must at this point confess I too have been at the receiving end so many times!
Personal experience
When I’m out of my hometown, movie-watching becomes a very personal experience, in my room, on my laptop! Even in my room, with my roommate, either her or my watching a movie sometimes resulted in very awkward experiences.
We never watched a movie together, so it always happened that whenever she was watching one and I was suddenly subjected to an asura -type laughter, I would turn my face up from my book and look at her with a ‘what-the-hell-happened’ countenance.
And the same response I would get when I unleashed my demonic laughter on her! I don’t think either of us liked the idea of watching a sob-story when the other was in the room… who wants to let everyone know they cry while watching movies?
Now here on this campus, movie-watching has taken a different turn altogether, with the ‘Movie Club’ showing a movie every Friday at 9 in the auditorium. I love watching movies at the campus auditorium because I enjoy the environment the campus brings… those hoots, cat-calls… the whistles when the hero or heroine finally achieves what he/she set out for, or the solemn claps at the end as a mark of respect to the maker if it’s a serious movie!
The experience of watching movie in an auditorium full of youthful millennial campus students is a different experience altogether. Not that I’m very old myself!
There’s definitely some charm that these cosy, cuddly winters hold, what with the Christmassy glitter and all! They make you want to catch up with your cousins or friends, or just yourself, and curl up inside a warm blanket and watch a movie you always wanted to! And bless Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime, now it has become easier than ever! And it’s always so after the sun is down, and night has spread its beautiful star-studded blanket, that the urge is felt, to spend the night watching a movie, together, with our loved ones!
For, the charm of being cuddled up inside a blanket on a winter’s night with shapes shifting on the screen in front of you, providing you warmth, bringing a smile on your face, and a glitter in your eyes, is priceless indeed!
unnati_a@ymail.com
