Hopes Masala

Pradeem has called the internet company and has given them directions to our house. Someone will come by today to check the connection.

Not only Marie and I are we happy and thankful that Pradeem has given us new hope but our excitment is also increased with the fact that today we have chosen to go to the movies.

"Paheli" is a Bollywood film that has just come out here. Although we have no idea what the title means, it seems very promising. Indeed, Shah Ruk Khan and Amitabh Bhavan are acting in it! And the trailor is very intriguing: we see them both acting and dancing as if they were puppets....

The afternoon dazily stumbles in after a quiet morning. Marie and I change seats every hour, fiddling around, waiting for internet, trying to bide our time as best as possible. Pradeem and I are often on the look-out, I sighing and having to return to an activity which does not interest me.

By 4:30 we understand that no one will be coming. I make a weak suggestion that we call headquarters again but, offices are closed. Another sigh punctuates my composure.

We are expecting our rickshaw for 5:30 as the movie starts at 6:15. At 5:20 rain starts drizzling down from the sky, tauntingly licking the streets and the walls around us. I give up and tell Marie it looks like its going to be a Scrabble night.

A horn honks close by; our rickshaw has arrived. Hope comes back to life as we are forced to go out.

By the time we arrive at the movie theater, the rain has stopped and the air is once again sweet with a refreshed nature. We stand in front of a big building, very 1950s. A few youngsters are hanging out on the front steps wearing jeans and tee-shirts. Some, especially the guys, are hanging around on their motorcycles. We go in without even sensing on our backs the usual amused glance.

Pradeem had told us that the most expensive seats were located on the balcony and that they generally cost 35 rupees. There also are other prices for a theater ticket, depending on where you want to be seated : 10 rupees for the ground floor, then 20 for the middle balcony. But our decision of where to be seated is in any case chosen for us by the person in the booth : balcony it is.

We march upstairs, arrive at a long and rather bare corridor. On the left side, hidden by an angle is the food and beverage stand. I ask for some dried, fryed bananas, Marie for some water. A thin, little old man holds the door for us and tears part of our ticket.

We enter the projection room and discover in awe a HUGE theater with a HUGE screen. The front row seats, straight in the middle are not taken, everybody is sitting as of the second one. To our advantage think we....of course, we soon find out it is the main passageway. Oh well! We'll know for the next time.

After a few commercials - mainly for jewellers - where we see one blond girl arriving at a Indian friends' house and going out on a shopping spree with them, cannot decide on which set to buy but doesn't have to bother about it any more because the brother of one of her friends offers her a set as a marriage proposal and it ends with her getting ready for her wedding with him ( I then turn to Marie and tell her we must check out the jeweller because who knows what it could bring us...ha! ), the film finally begins.

It begins with the celebration of a young woman who has been wed and who must follow her new husband to his home. Although the set in itself is rather beautiful yet simple, the costums and the colours are absolutely exquisite.

As there are no subtitles whatsoever, Marie and I try to make our way through the storyline. Apparently, the young girl has wed a man who is only interested in business matters. As they voyage on to his home, they stop to refresh themselves. There, a geny sees them and falls in love with the girl. As soon as the newlyweds arrive to the home of the husband does he have to leave again for business. The geny decides to substitute himself to him and live his life. He explains to the girl that he is a geny but that he is in love with her. They fall in love and she becomes pregnant. The husband returns unexpectedly just when she is giving birth and finds himself considered as an imposter. His father decides to clarify things with the village elders and brings the geny and the husband to be confronted with a very special kind of shepherd. In the meantime, the girl is very sad.

Marie and I have speculated on the ending as we are not quite sure what exactly happened. At least, we understood the ending was a happy one but how....We will definitely have to see it again on DVD to figure it all out, especially to understand the meaning of the title.

In the meantime, we leave the theater extremely happy to have gone to the movies, to have seen one that wasn't grandiose but that told a lovely story and was punctuated by charming songs.

We will definitely recommend it to our friends!