‘OTT Platforms, TV Can Never Replace Theatre Experience’

Milee Banerjee, a movie buff from Kolkata, is happy that Covid restrictions on movie halls have been lifted and the audience is taking all precautions

If you want to know how much my family and I love movies, let me disclose that my father named me Milee after Jaya Bachchan’s famous movie by the same name. It is my father who instilled a love for movies in me. We ‘bonded’ the most over Bond flicks. And it was a Bond movie – Daniel Craig’s swan song No Time To Die – that I went to watch along with my friends as soon as the Covid restrictions on theatres were lifted in Kolkata.

It was such a thrilling experience to be entering the theatres after what felt like decades, though it was only a 1.5 years’ gap. It was as sentimental as going to the theatres for the first time in my life with my family, or watching cult classics like Jurassic Park or Hum Aapke Hain Kaun with them. The theatre management had taken total care to follow Covid regulations and the place was spic and span. The seating arrangements were such that there was a gap of one seat.

Given this arrangement, I would say a large number of people turned out once the theatres reopened. The audience were also following all regulations. The whole movie watching experience was smooth and delightful one I would say. Oh, and most importantly, surprisingly the price of tickets didn’t increase by much.

I am an action movies/ horror genre fan and such movies make sense mostly in theatres with their special effects and surround sound systems. It makes you forget time. Moreover, you can’t pause the movies in theatres at will, unlike on your phone or laptop, so you focus on each scene completely, thus respecting the work of the cast and the crew involved.

The second movie that I watched in theatres was Venom and I went alone for this one. I have always been comfortable going to the theatres alone and feel that post pandemic other people should get comfortable with the idea too. Sometimes a movie is the best way to lift your mood and as the pandemic has shown us, life is too precious to not watch the kind of movies you like. Live life to the fullest, even if you don’t find others who enjoy the same genre as you.

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The pandemic has brought about major changes in how we handle many important areas of our lives, be it travel, education, healthcare and even entertainment. The OTT platform literally exploded during the pandemic, for entertainment (or the arts) can help soothe our frayed nerves when everything is uncertain, ease loneliness and even give us hope for the future.

Sometimes immersing yourself in a movie or series is the best way to shut oneself from the gloom and doom of news. I bought subscriptions to two streaming services and immersed myself into the small screens of my phone/laptop. But I was still missing the surround sound experience we get in theatres. Plus, when others in the audience clap, laugh or cry you feel connected at a human level. I watched The Red Notice starring my favourite Gal Gadot & Dwayne Johnson, and of course Ryan Reynolds on my phone. I wish I could have watched that one in the theatres too, but I didn’t have time.

A single movie can bring people out of a gloomy mood and a single actor’s words can make the public follow guidelines they otherwise wouldn’t. But the audience’s role has also widened. More people have now begun appreciating good cinema, because the lockdown gave them some great quality content. Mindless entertainment is on its way out.