As you probably know, cinema is BIG in India. There are the
blockbusters featuring god-status actors such as Shahrukh
Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai or Salman Khan. But
there are also loads of cheaper productions, mostly action
movies, whose typical hero is a very-average looking large
Indian man, with a big moustache, and of course this guy
always manages to seduce the most beautiful and shapely
Indian heroines, while killing loads of bad guys… And
people do like them, it’s a great way to spend the
afternoon.
It’s this kind of 3rdrank cheap productions that are
usually played in popular cinemas (I mean not the super
fancy modern multiplex type). Tickets sell for a very
affordable price. If you go there and observe a little bit,
one of the most striking facts is that there are almost
never any woman going to watch the movie. Maybe it's a sign
that the Indian traditional society is still reluctant to
see women in any place other than home (cooking, cleaning,
taking care of the kids…), or maybe it’s also due to the
very macho storyline that might not be so appealing to
women…
In Delhi, some of these movies theatres are also of
historical interest, as some of them date from the 1930s,
built under the British rule… and it’s not certain that the
equipment, like the projectors or the seats, have ever been
replaced since then! Anyway, going to watch a movie at the
Excelsior or the West End Talkies (two of the most famous
historical cinemas of Delhi), is quite an experience, maybe
more for the sociological aspect than for the movie itself…
