The global pandemic spread by the novel coronavirus has disrupted all our lives and brought in many new normals for us. One of the things I miss is heading to the theatres to catch the latest movies. And with theatres set to remain shut in India for the foreseeable future, new movies being planned for release on Over The Top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are a God-send for Bollywood fans across the world, even if we missed the fun that’s part of visiting a theatre to watch the latest movie.
There was a time when my elder sister would pester our parents throughout the year to take her for the “first day first show” of every new movie that was released at Chandigarh’s single screen theatres. I failed to understand her obsession with watching movies on the first day, until I too grew fond of cinema, and even bunked a few classes during my engineering days to catch some of my favourite movies on the first day.
But with movies now releasing directly on OTT platforms because of the coronavirus, everything has changed. Gone is the excitement of creating WhatsApp groups to coordinate things between all the friends, classmates, and colleagues joining in to watch the movie, or the adrenaline rush one got while running late for the movie, urging the auto-wallah or Uber driver to magically rush through the traffic.
And gone are the post-movie plans, where half the crowd would go back to doing productive things, while the other half would head to the nearest McDonald’s to discuss the movie’s plot-holes and their latest love interests from the movies over the only meal we could afford, having spent a small fortune on the movie tickets.
When Gulabo-Sitabo premiered on Amazon’s OTT platform, it was like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert that was Covid-19, being the first Bollywood feature film to make its way to online platforms. I no longer had to grab a quick breakfast to catch the morning show, pretending I had had a bath early in the morning. Instead, I could simply watch it in the comfort of my blanket, in my bed, at 12am as soon as the movie premiered.
But I soon realized how enjoyable watching the movie with my extended family, with all the uncles and aunts, would be. And so, on a Sunday afternoon, we finally settled down in the living room to watch the first of many feature films to be released on OTT platforms. Popcorn and Coke were replaced by home-cooked French Fries and freshly squeezed mausambi juice; and the McDonald’s dinners happily exchanged for an equally heavy lunch of chole bhature with namkeen lassi.
And the initial thrill of reaching the theatre on time was substituted by a hurried search for a cable to connect the laptop to the television. The movie-going experience was now complete. And even though we don’t have a home theatre, the living room showed us a good time.
To say that I miss going to the cinema to watch movies would be putting it mildly. The release of new films like Gulabo-Sitabo on OTT platforms has been unceremonious and just doesn’t give you the thrill of rushing against time to secure a few seats of the next upcoming movie a couple of weeks in advance. But given the current scenario, we are lucky to have OTT platforms which we can rely on. In the last week itself, I have watched all the new movies the moment they were released on different OTT platforms, and each of them has been a treat to watch -- and a welcome change from watching reruns of shows from the 90s for the 27th time.
It has also made watching movies with the family more fun. Heading back to movie theatres would be good fun once things normalize, even if it will be very heavy on the pocket. But till then, I’ll make do with an astonishing line-up of movies planned to be released on OTT and home-made french fries.
Rishabh Kochhar is a freelance contributor.