XMAS Day - Movies and Indian Behavior

BharatBeat went to the movies on Xmas Day (evening)  to see with family and friends to  see the new Bollywood buster hit movie "Don 2". This posting is not about this excellent movie, but the abhorrent and careless/in-sensitive behavior of the natives that go to Indian Movies. I was apalled at the embarassing and rude behavior of the parents that bought their infants to this movie.

From what my dear wife tells me this is the norm. So I guess having crying infants, and toddlers running amok is normal for Indian Movie goers.. To me this is just ridiculous..

She also told me over and over again, you can't expect normal behavior of parents at Indian cinema as opposed to what you see in American theater goers.. Why not??  She also told me to just ignore and don't make a scene..I just couldn't help myself to applaud the parent who finally picked up his roaming son who was going up and down the stairs 10 times during the entire move.


From the time we sat down to the on our nice seats at Regal Cinema in North Brunswick, NJ time the movie finished, I truly felt that I was in some time warp or in "India" where there are no respect for other moviegoers or parental discipline (common sense anyone?) shown by the 50 or so parents that bought their infants to this movie.

Knowing full well that the kids would cause chaos with crying and not staying in their seats, why would they bring their infants and/or toddlers to the movies? It's truly amazing that these parents would show the same lack of basic common courtesy and respect for other moviegoers. Do they do this  if they went to see any American movies?




Here's what I observed during the 3 hour movie:

• One toddler going up and down the stairs at least 10 times without the parent taking the child. I was tempted to give a standing ovation when the father finally carried the toddler after this tenth trip up and down the stairs. Yet somehow, I know, this would not be appreciated!
• Infants wailing through out the movie.. because of the loud explosions in the movie, many of the infants were crying.. Thank goodness the sound system drowned out most of this background noise!
• Parents holding crying infants by the exit, as they felt this was better than the child crying at their seats.Of coursed this meant instead of hearing the child wailing in the behind you, you heard the child wailing in front of you!
• Ongoing background chatter during the movie. I guess people needed to discuss the story line real time..
• Cell phones going off.. Silent mode anyone??

Some questions I have to ask:

• Are there no babysitters available to watch the infants or toddlers?

• Can't one parent stay home and watch the child if they can't get a babysitter? Hey that's what I did my kids were young! Keep in my mind that my friend who came to the movie has an infant and a 7 year old and he didn't bring either because he KNEW that they would be disruptive!

A little background on me: Specifically as a South Asian that  has not gone to see ANY Indian Movie in ANY NJ movie theater over 5+ years.. There is of course multiple reasons for this:

• Not many Indian Movies are worth spending $10 to see.
• The crowds at the theater don't have any sense of decorum or just common courtesy for other movie goers.. In other words just plain selfishness. 
• Except for a handful of theaters, majority of the theaters are not well maintained! 
• Most of the movies that are in theaters are typically available via streaming or via DVD almost a week to 2 weeks after release.. In normal lingo this is called the "piracy factor".  BharatBeat in no way endorses this!

So what's the worst thing you have seen when you go to see a "Desi Movie".. We of course don't mean what is on the screen!