My skirt, cinema and other things

“I saw My dear Kuttichathan with your pappa for our honeymoon and even now that kuttichathan kinda life is going on, crazy hocus pocus”,says Amma.

“Kuttichaathano? Eppo? I remember going for Titanic. Enth true love? It is based on true events. That’s why we watched it”, papa says.

Once hitched, they went for Passion of the Christ! “Very spiritual movie and so much pain. You should see it Angu”, they say in unanimity.

Ten years down the lane and they haven’t watched a single movie in a theatre ever since. My visits to the theatre with my parents are therefore none. However with cousins and extended family, few ,and friends, eighteen to be exact.

‘Asianet movies channel’ has themes like “Superstar Mohanlal week”, or “Megastar Mammotty week”, when only their movies will be telecast. So on weeks like that, I’ve seen pappa religiously watching, the Mamootty starrer Ooru vadakkan veera gadha, post lunch, usually a Friday. Mamma is always knocked out 10 minutes into any movie. She would occasionally ask me for specific movies, which I bring from far and wide, borrowed from friends, or streamed online or sometimes coaxing my brother into pirating it, only to find her asleep 10 minutes into the movie.

Back in 2006, I was spending my vacation with my father’s cousin and family, when they decided to go for a movie – Chess. A Dileep starrer. That was my first ever movie in the theatre. Except the name of the movie and the cheeriness I associate with my cousins, I don’t remember anything else from the day.

But, a movie experience that was to become etched in my mind, happened in 2010. ‘Cloth-lace-cloth’ was a kind of skirt that was a thing back in 2010. The skirt typically long, had alternate cloth embroidery and lace patterns on it. Everyone I met in church and at supermarkets had it.Hence I wanted one too.Tired of the pestering, amma eventually brought me one; orange embroidery and black lace. After a considerable about of cinema style twirling and swaying around in it, I went out with my cousins to watch a comedy horror movie, In Ghost house Inn .It was a sequel to the movies 2 Harihar Nagar (2009) and In Harihar nagar (1990). You wouldn’t call it a “horror movie” really. What followed after the movie was an even better horror story! We returned home to find a very angry pappa. He held my skirt to stop me from running away, while the fly swatter found its target on my bum. To this day I do not know why I was punished. I’ve never asked. Never will, because more than the whacking, what actually plagued me was the fact that my orange and black skirt had been torn in the process. It was never mended, or thrown way. Its still lying around in one of those’ old clothes’ cartons at home. Infrequently, when on a summer break, we clean and repack things, Amma shows me the skirt saying “Do you remember this unni?” “How can I not, Amma?”