Today I had an opportunity to watch for 1hr the movie Half Ticket
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056052/
with kids and wife.
Surprisingly it still entertains the audience. We were all in laughs at Kishore Kumar's antics.
The yongest kid was laughing her heart away. Coming at such a small age, she hardly understood the plot, which made Kishore Kumars antics even more laughable for her. Whilst the elder child didnt relish the movie as much his parents did (when they were kids and even today)
He seemed to lose interest the moment dinner was over and switched channels.
In today's day and age of High Tech Cartoons in full HD, where was he going to relate to Black n White comedy.
Nonetheless, Wife and I had a grand laugh. Laughter remidned me of my childhood. Infact just with this movie alone I have wonderful memories.
And if you grant me the lee-way, I'll bore you here a bit more.
Flash back 25 years or so, I was visiting my Masi (Mother's sister) during summer vacations. Visiting her was a treat for me, specially due
1) They being far better off financially than my parents -> So literally, we (My sister not so much) and myself would line up to visit Masi.
Masi had all that a kid would vye for. Expensive chocolates, Lots of Imported toys, a Hughe campus with lots of kids my age and my lovely cousin sisters.
2) They had a Colour TV and VCR
3) And they usually would rent out newest movies.
I was lireally spoilt for choice when I would visit her. It was paradise. Pure Bliss. It was Movie Bonanza clubbed with all sorts of eats that I would never have access to at home.
So one day, I demanded, I wanted to watch Half Ticket. Having heard rave reviews from my friends but havent watched the movie, had me craving for it. So Masi set out to call about 3 Video Parlours where they would typicially rent out VHS cassettes from. But to our dismay, none of them at the time had Half Ticket on shelf. So I was left dejected.
Months passed by and I was visiting her again, this time over an extended weekend. Usually extended weekends were less fun than Summer vacations, but fun nonetheless. So Masi had to visit a grocery store with my mum to buy our annual pulses (Wheat, Rice and Dal pulses for stocking up for the year). My mom seemed to ravel in these things and masi would never miss out an opportunity to leverage her expertise.
And whilst they were shopping, we stumbled into a unique grocey store, who was Grocer cum Video Parlour guy.
And guess what, right on his display was Half Ticket. My joy knew no bounds. I requested Masi if she could rent it for us.
She asked the grocer who happily let her rent it for 100/- INR deposit as it was our 1st transaction.
So I couldnt wait to come home to watch it. When all my cousins were home, we loaded the cassette into VCR and what unfolded infront of the house was totally anarchy. I laughed my heart out, so loud at time, that others in the home thought I had gone crazy. Tears kept streaming from sheer laughing. But I couldnt stop laughing n crying. It was an experience, I so vividly remember.
And then mid way through the movie, for the 1st time in long long time as my memory could serve us, Power failed in Masi's house. The entire neighbourhood had a power outage. Thus our cassette was stuck into the VCR.
Unfortunately, the agreement with the grocer was to return the cassette to him in the evening same day, as supposedly he had lot of demand for it.
So the grocer sent for a pick up guy to collect it in the evening. But due to power outage we hadnt seen it completely. Masi called the grocer and reasoned for extra day for us.
We had a re-run of the entire movie again that night. And again, I laughed like crazy. Like I never ever have or perhaps will.
And yes, it was a happy ending. I still cherish that movie.
Flash forward today, again after having seen the movie after 25yrs or so, the laughs indeed were toned down. But what was refreshing is even after 3 generations, the movie still makes it audience laugh.
That is an attribute to sheer brilliance of Kishore Kumar and simplicity of the plot.
No fancy script, no high profile sets, no animation and no special effect. Yet, Yet, Kishore kumar still rocks us all.
