“What movie are we showing? Your guess is as good as mine!”

Manic Movie-ing

Is it your imagination, or are they making movies faster these days?

You’ve barely had time to register a title, cast and crew, or read a preview through, when a whole new batch of must-sees appears, and you are out-of-date even before you caught up.

A little like the gizmo industry, whose sole purpose is to make you feel like last morning’s newspaper a day after that very expensive, much-deliberated-over purchase.

Movies zoom in and out of theatres like particularly whimsical bats, and while you do see those ‘100 days’ posters around, you need to move fast if it’s a slightly ‘smaller’ offering.

Last week, the generation that once watched, gratified, as the Bachchan and the Bhadhuri made a match of it, got all enthused about catching the movie based on a certain music of their youth, those songs they had replayed over and over again, forcing records to go bald, and their parents nuts.

Getting to their feet with some difficulty (not much, true….as yet), they shuffled movie-wards, only to find that – Whoosh! – It had gone….just like that.

“Gone?” they quavered.    

“Gone,” came the brisk reply.

Obviously, even mildly senior citizens must be quicker off the mark.

Oh, well, that’s life…little, little Waterloos being fought every day.

Not to worry, there’s always Hasta Manana.