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Movie
horror We decided
to do something different - watch a movie. Something we hadn't Still disbelieving, I figured it was a printing mistake and dug around for another lot of daily papers. But it was the same sorry situation. I counted over 20 theatres and there was absolutely nothing we could watch without blushing. What has happened
to our arts? Or is it that I am old-fashioned and surprise, surprise,
conservative? Remember the days we would all troop into the cinema
and watch ET, Big Foot and Home Alone I, II and III? Those movies
are now officially dead, and replaced with Kama Sutra in three different
languages. Hindi, Chinese and Sinhalese! (Check last weeks papers
if you don't believe me!) Shocked? Amazed?
Well it is sad but true. The other 'must watch' movies that are
now popular are the horror flicks. Guaranteed to give you nightmares
for at least a couple of weeks! Why is it that
such movies are gaining popularity while the more intellectual,
educational and family oriented movies are consigned to the dustbin?
"It's evidently something to do with our society," said
nearly everyone I asked. One really cannot blame the authorities,
since they are basically pandering to mass demand. The way they
see it, cinema halls are supposed to bring in considerable revenue
and spending billions of rupees getting a movie down would be useless
if it cannot draw a full house for at least three days. So they are
tempted to bring down such movies as Kama Sutra that run not just
for three nights with a full house but three straight months! I hate to say
this, but the good old days were better! (Parents can sometimes
be right. And the emphasis is laid on sometimes) There were no restrictions
whatsoever in piling into someone's car and rushing toward a cinema,
without even looking at the billboard, for the movie was guaranteed
to provide entertainment for the entire family. Nowadays there
are fears of increasing traffic accidents by the side of cinemas
as drivers gape at the crude and erotic pictures on the billboards.
Have you ever stopped at traffic lights, only to be asked by your
seven-year-old niece or nephew in the back seat why the hoarding's
painter has forgotten the woman's dress. Why can we
not watch a good, hilarious comedy? That's a mystery. People seem
to be interested in these too and you need only to glance at the
'comedy' shelf in video parlours to check out their demand. Classics such
as 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Sound of Music' are never ever to be
found! So there still remains a number of viewers who see the value
of good movies. Shouldn't they be given a break? Even the Sinhala
movies seem to suffer from the same malaise. The crowd-pullers apparently
are the cheap movies on forsaken love, the famous love triangle
or love affairs where the couple ultimately elope rather than the
award-winners on the ethnic conflict or the position of women in
the country. It's not the fault of the directors, producers or actors
- it's the fault of the viewers! Back at home,
we checked the newspapers once again for a good TV show. Nada, Zilch.
There was nothing. The family movies that were to be featured during
the day were more like advertisements for the latest in lingerie! Reality can
sometimes be so very stark! What did we
finally watch, you may ask? Nothing actually. Gardening and a walk
on the beach were pronounced the ideal form of family entertainment! |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
had
time for in a long while. Eagerly, I sifted through the papers.
My word! What a choice. The variety ran as 'Adults Only', 'Strictly
for Adults', 'Rated XXX', 'Strictly, Strictly and Strictly for Adults'
and this one took the cake - 'No one under 18 admitted unless accompanied
by someone over 18'! (Now if you celebrated your birthday yesterday,
does that mean that you could take your kid sister, aged seven,
for the movie today? Unfortunately, there wasn't a movie help line
that I could check with.
