Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Movie-ing Up

I remember going for a movie 20 years ago when I was a kid. It was La Bamba and my friends and I were excited to be able to see a cool movie, eat popcorn and be in a theater. I also remember the torn seats, all of us packed like sardines, smelly neighbours and we were told to keep our feet off the ground for fear of rats and roaches!! Chennai, at the very least, has changed!

The nicest theater when I moved back a year ago was Sathyam Cinemas that houses about 6 different screens. The thing with Sathyam is that each screening room is also of a different level of cleanliness, service etc. The nicest of the lot has leather sofas and in-theater service of the goodies from the refreshment stand. But the sofas seat two and if you don't have a partner, it would be really weird. Or if you go with someone you really don't want to snuggle up with! :) But they also have online reservation of tickets which is quite cool.

The nicest part of Sathyam is that a friend of mine has set up a children's play area in the complex called Magic Hat. Its quite cool - for all those who don't have access to people to look after their child. This place has a video room, play area, sleep area... and its clean and very reasonable. And its open not only to people seeing a movie but for others as well.

Okay, so recently they opened an INOX film complex at the Chennai Citi Center. Its AMAZING. I truly felt like I was back in the US. Its clean, carpeted, air-conditioned. The refreshment stands are great. And the theater seats recline and have cup-holders!!! cup-holders!!!! Yeah! I'm totally excited. Now I'm happy to go watch movies!

5 comments:

Anusha said...

magic hat sounds so neat..and an innovative concept for the city! (altho i would be wary of leaving my kid with stangers - I'm sure it would work well for people who aren't as paranoid as me! and maybe even for older kids..)

Arundathi said...

hi @ - i totally agree with you - i could never leave my daughter there, which is why I never invested in my friend's venture when she asked me. But I kicked myself later, not everyone are like you and me, I found out. They have tons and tons of customers and doing phenomenally well.
And their customers are mostly people who don't come for the movies - ie people using the place as a creche.

Anonymous said...

At least they're still called the refreshment stands and not concessions! The first time I went for a movie, I was told that "concessions only takes cash." Huh? I wondered why someone giving me a concession would me to give them cash. So I asked as much and the girl at the counter almost choked on her chewing gum and her permed hair came undone. :-D

I looked at your picture and wondered why they have bleecher-like seats with people's shoes in your back...till I figured those were the steps! Doh!

Arundathi said...

Manisha:
I actually laughed out loud reading about the concessions! LOL!
And yeah, my treo's camera is absolutely horrid, with no flash - so couldnt take a nice photo. but the place is nice!

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