It was my husband’s idea that we must have family movie nights every Saturday. It is indeed a rare occasion when the entire family sits and watches a movie together these days. The last one must have been one of the superhero flicks that we watched or perhaps “Gravity.” Most times, Hindi and English movies these days are out of bounds for kids. And stuff like Krish etc. does not appeal to mom and dad. Anyhow, the deal is that each one of us will show our favorite movie or movie we’d like to watch to the others. And, we can’t be fiddling with our phones or reading stuff even when we don’t like the movie *eye roll*. Trust me you have to lay down such conditions :).
So, we gave the youngest member of the family (not Coco silly) the first opportunity to choose, and he selected “Planes.” Normally I do enjoy animated movies, and this one was quite a pleasant watch. My younger son was enthralled, as he loves all kinds of automobiles. On our last trip to Punjab, he bought a toy tractor to add to his burgeoning collection of auto toys. Okay, so the movie went smoothly. Then came the elder brat’s turn, and he suggested “Matrix Revolutions.” I had loved the original Matrix but had not seen this one. As much as I love Keanu Reeves and other cast, this movie was just one never-ending headache of endless noises and crazy wars. I completely hated the experience but what to do, commitment is commitment :D. I sat through it without killing myself though I sulked and threw poisonous glances at my son who was smug at wreaking the ultimate revenge on mom. Dad was enjoying it because he knows he can never make me sit through such balderdash.
Then came my turn last Saturday after a huge gap due to vacations. And I chose to show them “Masoom.” I have already shown them Mr. India earlier. This is one of my favorite movies that tugs at the heartstrings. Perhaps the story line and subject may be a bit mature for the kids. As expected, they started getting antsy 5 minutes into the movie. “When will the good part start, mom,” and they did not mean the songs which were too decent for their taste. “In your time, the movies had terribly long songs!” the elder one mouthed after “Huzoor is qadar bhi na itra ke chaliye…” But as soon as a dog and the daughters came in the picture, they were hooked. The daughters and their constant strife allowed me to show my children the mirror, not that they cared. Overall, the movie stretched till past midnight, and all of them stayed up and watched. The kids were very happy with the ending. And the husband actually enjoyed the movie. The younger one kept saying, “Bad aunty, bad aunty!” to Shabana’s grumpy avatar. And Jugal Hansraj melted everyone.
So, next weeknight is the husband’s turn. I hope he shows something nice to all of us. Please no migraine inducing action. And I just threatened the elder one that we will discontinue this thing because he was reading a book initially when it was MY movie playing, and he and his brother were interrupting a lot of dialogs too. What do you think — I can’t be grumpy!
Empty threat or not, we shall see! Do you do something like this in your home?




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