Dad and daughter talkies

When I returned home at 8PM last weekend I was dreading a backlash from dad. He instead just asked me which movie I’d been to. I looked at him cautiously.

“By any chance did you go to a Kannada movie?”
“No Dad, I don’t have any kannada friends.”
“But you could have taken them anyway. You could have translated for them”
“Err... Dad, I am not a big fan of Kannada movies”

There have been numerous occasions when my Dad has uselessly tried to convince me about the goodness of kannada movies and why I need to give up all the other recreations, to support my mother tongue. (Unlike my dad, my mother doesn’t actually support the language lividly, but still I am supposed to call it so). When I glare back at him at every statement, he resigns to the fact that the 70’s will never be back again and gives excuses for the TlQM (Total lack of Quality Management). Some of them make sense, but there are others which are so senseless, that they can be mistaken for kannada movie plots. Read on…

1. The multiplexes have come in and movie watching has become more expensive. Kannada cinema has been forced to raise its standards. It has to be given some time. Now is just the churning time, hence movies are crappy.

2. When Rajkumar was reigning, there were no other movie stars. Hence, now there are no sons of movie stars to take the legacy forward. Hence movies are crappy.

3. There are hardly any kannadigas in Bangalore. Kannada movies are trying to satisfy the needs of the “Indian-movie-goer”. Hence movies are crappy.

4. All these Tamil and Telgu movies are stealing our stories, actors and songs. Hence movies are crappy.

5. With all these one ways in Bangalore, it is tough to get to a decent movie hall in time. Nobody gets to watch movies often, hence movies are crappy.

6. There are basically two markets for kannada cinema – the software engineers in America and those who couldn’t make it there, living in Karnataka. It is tough to please both. Hence, movies are crappy.

7. When a kannadiga goes to a theatre he sees a poster of Titanic and a local movie. It confuses him. All this computerization… Hence movies are crappy.

8. I know the movies nowadays are bad, but Rajkumar just passed away. Give the movie fraternity some time to recover… it’ll take a couple of years. Then see the difference.

Every time he does this, I sympathize with dad, and give him a fake smile. This time I plopped down next to him and said, “I agree, Dad… I just watched Spiderman 3.”