Close to my heart. Review on New Vijay - Mumbai

New Vijay is by far the theatre I hold closest to my heart. So many of my undergraduate afternoons have been spent at this theatre, watching movies for 15 rupees when I was actually supposed to be at college. Ok, if you expect a first class movie-going experience for 15 rupees, then you obviously haven't visited theatres in Mumbai for a very very long time. New Vijay is not what people would call a nice family theatre. The seats are made of wood, the sound system is pretty bad...most of the sound comes from the two speakers on either side of the screen, so if you are sitting at the back, you won't be able to hear anything properly. The projector is falling to pieces and ever so often, the screen turn black or the picture turns upside down. And if you have the good luck of going for the night show, you could very well be able to experience the spectacular sight of people throwing glass bottles (of the cold drinks) at the screens. The air conditioning is very bad and breaks down all the time. So why am I so fond of it? Well, can anyone not love the theatre that provided you with that oh so needed respite from undergraduate studies, that too for just 15 rupees. Not just that, even otherwise, whenever I had nothing better to do, I could always hop to New Vijay (it was 10 minutes from where I lived) and spend 2 hours in happiness and peace, no complications, no contradictions, no conflicts, no worries, no exams, no responsibilities, a life away from life.

New Vijay will always remain among the fond memories I hold from my undergraduate days. As I am writing this, reminiscence makes it seem to surreal, I wish I could be there right now.