The Curious Case of the Silver Screen: it’s growing smaller in size, it’s showing unwanted gimmicks, feeding the most unwanted things, giving sofas to sleep rather than watch movies.

I want to see every good movie out there in a theater. I want to relish the movies on the silver screen which gives me the ‘cinemascope’ feel – the feeling that I’m seeing something larger than life. It’s a sorry state that modern Indian multiplexes are softly killing the experience in their own way. This shows that the men behind the multiplex business don’t understand their business; and it’s not business exactly. It’s Art. A ‘Confluence of Arts’ is a better phrase to describe it. A movie is a combination of different arts: Stage, Music, Storytelling, Dance and a director who orchestrates them all. A confluence of this magnitude deserves theaters that respect it. (Side note: despite such great arts coming together, there are movies which don’t deserve theaters; we’ll leave them out).

A theater without a ‘large’ screen has no soul. I watched ‘The Avengers’ in a branded multiplex. I knew I was cheated the moment I saw the matchbox of a theater. The ticket price was hefty. It wasn’t a weekend either. The screen was awfully small for a good movie experience. The worst part came while I was watching the movie. The top part of actors’ faces were cut from view, while I could see their mouths talking. A good top chunk had disappeared. This evidently meant a good lower chunk had been removed too. For lack of choice, I’ve been to multiplexes before and after ‘The Avengers’ and the sour experience has repeated. One is as bad as the other, no matter what brand of multiplex I step in. And with the price one pays for the ticket, one gets very little of what one deserves from the theater.

I’ve always avoided the 3D versions of movies. The 3D picture is dull. Some part of the picture, which fools the mind as watching a 3D image is falling on the glasses I’m wearing; so the ‘cinematic’ feel is gone already as I’m watching a very dull and diminished picture. Technology cannot make Art. Yes it can aid, but it can never become Art. History has proved this. Movies never became better because they were shot in colour. Good movies come with good stories, good actors and good directors. And a good movie theater aids in elevating the experience further. There are perhaps very few technologies out there which are aiding Art. IMAX, perhaps.  But the current 3D technology is utter garbage. And multiplexes (and studios) have again shown their greed by charging extra for this dismal technology. The ticket price is already higher. They need a deposit to lend you 3D glasses which in my opinion deserve a good crashing under your feet. They again charge something extra for renting the glasses for a few hours. All for a very unsatisfying and a forgettable experience.

Roger Ebert in his fantastic article says, “The theory is that the higher ticket prices are justified by the cost of installing the 3D projectors. Obviously the cost of these projectors has already been met many times over. This is like a toll road that continues to raise its tolls after it has long since been paid for.” The article also discusses the use of 48 fps for ‘The Hobbit’ which is slated for release this December.  While there are mixed responses on the use of 48 fps against the traditional 24 fps, it’s quite obvious most projectors (though the stats are given for US and not India) would require a change. I can already see the multiplex owners grinning their shark smiles ready for charging the viewers for an experience they might perhaps dislike. The viewers are going to dislike the price anyway.

I’ve found just one exception to the multiplex melodrama. Prasadz at Hyderabad has amazing multiplexes (if you count out the one at the corner, behind the popcorn stalls). Add IMAX to the list. It’s a perfect place for movies. There are quite a few stand alone theaters with high standards of movie presentation. Urvashi in Bangalore (their 4K sound just awed me!) is the finest example. Sangeet and Skyline in Hyderabad (which unfortunately have eroded in the wake of real estate boom) were two of the best theaters I’ve ever been to.

The facts presented here are nothing new to the studios and Hollywoods of the world. It’s just that the moviemakers’ love for film making is overwhelmed by the greed of studios+multiplexes.

If such is the experience the end viewer has to endure for watching movies (most of them are mediocre anyway; add the below-mediocre approach of multiplexes), the studios and Hollywoods of the world do not have any moral and ethical right in their fight against piracy. They are pirates themselves.