Going to the movies and spending a couple of hours trying to delve into the creative urge (?) of a partially or completely unknown movie maker is not my idea of spending my evenings.

I would rather sit by the hillside and watch the sun go down in all its glory or settle down with a book in the balcony and go through it at a leisurely pace, enjoying the stray droplets of water, as the rains come pouring down. And then again, one can never vouchsafe for the merit of our Bollywood creations, the weekly reviews and the star ratings, not withstanding! Yet, a visit to the “city of movies” (read Mumbai), awakens a certain hidden, and thoroughly unsuspected movie buff in me and every other day finds me making a beeline for the ticket windows of the nearest cinema hall, for the current, most happening movie in town! Each time I land up at the movie hall with a bit of misgiving about the movie not having got “rave reviews”, I find these crowds brimming with enthusiasm and come-what-may-first day-first show zeal, ranging from the budding two-year old cine goer to middle aged mamas and papas!

I shall not forget our night show adventure, when we went to watch ' No Entry' (the movie's name, for the uninitiated!) and the more recent “Gangster”, at the “Getty-Gelexy” (I cannot call it by any other name, I owe staunch loyalty to the autowallahs of Mumbai) where we were greeted by a zapping smell of fish on our entry into the movie hall. No, fish wasn't being sold to the captive customers there!

It was merely that the fishermen and the fish market wallahs (along with their bibis and babas) had wound up their days’ chores and come to watch the movie. Now I knew why the fishermen could stand the smell of fish. They smell of the fish more than the fish itself! There was a lot of whistling and “Abbe! Kya naachti hai re!”And “Sala! Mamu aa gaya!” to spice up the movie. It was one great jamboree! Thoroughly enjoyed! That was yet another taste of Mumbai!