Amazing Gangs of Spidermen at Times Centre, Wasseypur?

While leaving office on Friday, when I took the elevator, one of my colleagues asked me “So Antarik, what’s the plan for the weekend?” I replied immediately, “Spiderman” with a grin on my face. But truly, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ was what my first choice was for the next time I go for a movie, thanks to the many “Oh, you haven’t seen GoW yet?” s. Not to forget, my roomie from hostel enquiring, “Is this India’s next Oscar nomination?” I took the rickshaw to cover the 1.39 kilometre stretch to Noida Sector 18 Metro Station (as opposed to the 1.95 kilometre distance to the Sector 16 Station- one which I don’t know why, everyone at my workplace seems to think is a shorter distance [Source: Google Earth]) A thought crossed my mind “I am one who can ignore college and every other work and instead go and watch each and every movie that comes out on the very day of its release and never get bored or tired but rather enjoy and learn. In fact, it would feel amazing to see newly released movies back-to-back.  Just one condition: Finance me! Haha…”

Screenshots of the Google Earth Distance Calculator showing the 1.39 and 1.95 km distances

After struggling for an hour and a half to ‘desaturate’ part of a photo on photoshop (yeah, that’s how bad I am on the software although I have been trained to use it) so as to put it as my next display picture on facebook, I went to sleep on Friday night at 1.40 AM. With no intention to wake up early, my eyes finally opened and I left the bed at mid-day Saturday. I have no idea what was going on in my mind, but somehow I felt like opening my laptop and checking the PVR Priya show timings for the day. I took a quick glance at the shows and told my sister, “Get ready. We are leaving in 20 minutes.” Well, yes, this would happen if luck favours us. But what exactly was on my mind?

Fifty minutes past noon, the two of us had skipped lunch at home, and left to catch an auto which should make us reach Priya in Vasant Vihar in 10 minutes. PVR Priya is a single hall cinema and historically speaking, the first cinema to be taken over by PVR back in 1997. Thanks to this, just the best releases of the week are privileged to be screened here. This week’s release, ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and last week’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ were the only two films running at the cinema this week and my plan for the day included a back-to-back viewing of both of these. Only hindrance: Availability of tickets. For Spiderman I expected a really long queue, exactly the way we had faced when we went to see RaOne. For GoW I knew I would be able to lay my hands on the tickets easily as it had already been a week since its release. When we reached Priya, the situation was unexpected.

After 5 minutes which saw my wallet getting lighter by 600 bucks, we left the ticket counter victorious. So it is indeed going to be two back-to-back movies for the two of us today. Wow!  A quick aloo tikki burger and ice-tea later, we entered the cinema, got our 3D glasses and were seated for the first film. 20 minutes of trailers and then the movie begins. Aah no, don’t worry, no spoilers ahead. This ain’t any review. Just a few plot details ahead which might intrigue the spidey-sense in you and force you to go and watch the movie before most of the world does. (Yeah, it’s not out in the US and many parts of the world before 3^rd!)

This being a reboot of the series, fans are sure to draw comparisons between 'Spiderman' (2002) and 'The Amazing Spiderman' (2012)

A teenage plotline, many scenes which would remind you of the first Spidey movie 10 years ago, a (little more) scientific explanation to the ‘magical’ superhero abilities of our new spiderman Andrew Garfield (remember Mark Zuckerberg's best friend and facebook co-founder from The Social Network?) and from what my young cousin and die-hard-Spiderman-fan says, this one is true to the original comic’s storyline unlike the Toby Maguire films. Well, well, well, apart from some good acting, amazing stunts and the keeping up to the franchise thing, this particular film failed to impress me. But before I end, here’s a tip: Do not leave the hall when the credits start rolling; you would not know then why we would surely have ‘The Amazing Spiderman Part 2’ sometime soon. ;)

We exited the hall and rejoined the queue to enter the same cinema yet again. This time for GoW. With the film already screened at Cannes 2012 with rave reviews, Anurag Kashyap has done an amazingly clever trick with the 5-hour long film. Only the first two and half hours constitute the contents of part 1 and the film ends at one of the most ‘’What is going to happen next?” moments and the words ‘To be continued…’ (I just looked up the wikipedia article for the film and found the plotline of both the films. I had to control my urge to read the four lines written about Part 2!)

The GoW poster- 'Teri keh ke lunga'

About this film? Well, ‘A’ rated, a true 70-year story of the mafia operating at a real location around the coal-mines of Wasseypur, explicit use of gaalis and golis, and surely not a movie for the faint hearted (or so it seems from the unforgettable and bound-to-bring-a-laugh-on-your-face welcome that you receive in scene 1 from Ekta Kapoor’s biggest small screen klassic!). I was surprised to see the mention of Coal India and its various subsidiaries in the film. Considering the plot hasn’t reached the 90s yet, I am looking forward to part 2. Will it have a mention of MCL as well? On a serious note, how come they haven’t yet mentioned the serious threat to life of Dhanbad that the burning coal mines under the city possess today? Of course there is still 150 minutes of the movie yet to be seen. A word of caution: Do not go for it if you are a pure vegan- The can’t-see-anything-non-veg types. Check out the movie to understand why I am saying this. Don’t blame me if you puke, you have been warned. Haha…

My wrist watch reads 7.30 and we head out of the hall. ‘Oh, it’s still day?’ my sister exclaims, who it seems, didn’t enjoy this movie and was instead looking for one of the recent romantic flicks or her classic favourite Vicky Donor. But I was enthralled. Just the previous day I had this thought and today I have done this actually- Two films back-to-back. I was sure of one thing in those few minutes after we left- There is a new blog entry coming up tonight for sure! I had a huge smile and a sense of satisfaction on my face.

“It’s Papa-Mama’s anniversary today and more than them, it seems we are the ones who are partying”, we both laughed on the thought. We took an auto and returned home. A day well spent. :)

P.S.: I am sure you know by now that the title to this post is my amateur attempt to come up with a unique title that would be a combination of three names and not as simple as ‘Double Movie Dhamaal’! ;)

P.S.2: Are you wondering about Irrfan Khan's role in Spiderman? Well, I am not commenting. All I can say is he was left hanging and we were left wondering what happened to him. Haha...