Isn't it the same with every friend group?
You decide to watch a movie. Everyone agrees to come early, but someone's always late...
Me and Karthik are very good at this.
After a very long time, last month we reached the theatre thirty minutes early. That gave us enough time to think about eating, order some food, wait for the food to arrive late, and still walk into the movie ten minutes after it started.
We managed to keep our record intact.
I watched The Odyssey three times in a theatre.
The first time, I watched it with Karthik. The second time, I went alone. The third time, I watched it with Nakul.
The film did not change between those screenings.
Almost everything around it did.
SCREENING 1 — 18 JULY, 8:00 AM
Karthik and me share a love for movies. He is a fellow filmmaker, and we run Flawsomes together.
I reached the theatre slightly early. Karthik arrived around two minutes after the film had started.
He missed Travis Scott opening a Christopher Nolan movie.
Once he settled down, the conversation became the same conversation we seem to have during every movie.
“This shot is good.”
“Is that CGI?”
“Look at that blue.”
“Can we light something like this?”
“How can we pull this off for Flawsomes?”
Karthik gets fascinated by colours. I start thinking about cameras, lights, and whether we can recreate what we are seeing with whatever equipment and money we have.
Somewhere during the movie, the film stops being only a story.
It becomes another production problem that me and Karthik are trying to solve for Flawsomes.
SCREENING TWO — 18 JULY, 6:00 PM
The second screening happened later the same day.
We had finished some work. Some relatives were visiting my house, and I was already outside. I was not ready to go home yet.
Spending another three hours inside a theatre seemed like a reasonable thing to do.
The first thing I noticed was that the theatre was relatively full. I was sitting alone in an awkward corner seat on the left-hand side. People occasionally had to pass in front of me.
It was a Saturday, and I hadn't taken my afternoon power nap, so I bought a can of Red Bull.
Without anyone beside me to talk to, I suddenly started paying attention to everything I could hear.
I had already seen the movie once. I knew what was coming. That made me notice every sigh, giggle, “uh,” and “aiyo.” (Sorry, I don't know the perfect sound effect to write. I'm sure you know.)
At one point, I did something I would normally never do.
I stood up and looked behind me.
I am partly an introvert, and turning around to look at an entire theatre full of people is not something I generally do. But for a moment, it seemed like a good idea—in hindsight, a bad move.
From the “uhs” and “aiyos” (forgive me), I could tell that the audience badly wanted the film to behave in a particular way.
They wanted a reveal. They wanted somebody to get punched. They wanted Odysseus to fight back. It felt as though they were waiting for a KGF scene to suddenly arrive.
I still have not watched KGF. I should probably fix that before confidently making this comparison.
The film kept delaying the payoff.
Because I already knew when it was coming, I began listening to everybody else wait for it.
Instead of only watching the film, I started watching the theatre.
When Odysseus finally started his mass killing, the theatre erupted.
Was it fun?
Definitely.
Would I watch the movie again to observe the audience reaction?
Definitely.
The second screening was probably the one I enjoyed the most. Not because something different happened in the film. The film was already great, BTW.
It was my favourite because the theatre became another character.
SCREENING THREE — 19 JULY
The third screening was with Nakul.
It was a Sunday. Most of our other friends were away on a Darjeeling trip, and me and Nakul did not have much else to do.
Nakul is not a movie person. He talked a lot when I wanted to concentrate. I talk a lot as well. He responded to certain scenes differently from the way I expected him to.
But by the end, he surprisingly liked it.
The conversation after that screening was not about cameras, colours, or how a shot was made.
It became a conversation about the philosophy of the movie. What was it trying to say? Why did it take so long to say it? Did it earn the three hours it asked from us?
I watched the same film three times.
With Karthik, it became a Flawsomes production discussion.
Alone, I started listening to an entire theatre wait for something to happen.
With Nakul, I started thinking about whether the movie had earned another person's time.
The film stayed the same.
The people around it kept changing what I was watching.
STILL OBSERVING, SAM.