Malayalam (A)

This narrates the ultimate movie going experience of a Malayalee outside God's own country. It is not every day that one gets to see Mohanlal on screen in a Goan theatre. So, it was when I decided to hear Lalettan mouthing 'Best kanna Best" instead of punctuations after dialogues in the Movie "Chandrolsavam". My interests were accentuated by the fact that the movie was playing at the only Multiplex in Goa. The theatre was half full, malayalee families hoping to touch a chord with the land which they left in search of better things in life. I donot know whether it is a way of going back to better things they left behind.

The movie begins, the titles start rolling. In the dark hall, a man searches for his seat which I thought was normal as one has to be a master of rows and column depiction type, last seen in Matrices and Determinants chapter of class XII Mathematics(CD-12, BD-13...). After three minutes of frantic searching and frustrated sounds from the audience the man sits down on the floor. The audience started feeling uncomfortable, afterall if it was anybody his behavior was not in tune with a Non-Resident Keralite status. I am sure the same crowd would not have any problems if this theatre was in Kerala. The first scene unfolds, and I was waiting for lalettan's entry. The man seated on the floor("We call 'thara seat' in Kerala) started getting restless. He just stood up and enquired "Abey kya ye Malyalam Phillum Nahin hai ka?". The audience and myself ignored the irritant, and asked him to go to check whether he had walked into the right screen. The service personnel addressed his issue and he sat quietly in a corner seat.

At the end of a heady mix of lalettan histrionics, the usual tharavadu-themmmadi-tandavam concoction of Devasuram, Narasimham, Ravanaprabhu movies, I was as exhausted as much as Lalettan after the movie. The man from the corner seat started making loud noices. He was arguing for his money back. The reason which I came to know later was he was upset it was Malayalam movie without an 'A' but a 'U', which he didnot notice.

A look at the morning papers made me pity the poor man, all other theatres had atleast one Malayalam movie playing in the now familiar slot across movie halls in India(the morning show). All had that familiar caption for the morning show MALAYALAM (A).