Hadippa for Bollywood! Queen Rani wows Sydney.
March 13th 2010 08:36
It's CGN!
Whilst this years' opening night drew a much, much larger crowd than last year, I was disapppointed in the organisation. Last year guests were greeted in the foyer by food servers, albeit product placement for Pataks, but inside the cinema we had gorgeous orange silk goodie bags, containing a DVD of "Ta Ra Rum Pum", a sort of less bleak, more glamorous version of "Life is Beautiful" where internment in a Concentration Camp is substituted with rich people, through bad financial management, struggling to pay bills and having their possessions repossessed.
This year, we instead received a plastic bag from Western Union, containing some merchandising gifts, pamphlets, and a couple of Indian sweets. On the armrests were styrofoam burger boxes containing two Indian savouries and a bread roll, and a can of soft drink. However most patrons had already, like myself, forked out $17 on a mineral water and a Medium Combo.
I had booked and paid for tickets to the Q&A session of the film, with the star and director, and it wasn't until a call for all Cinema 2 ticket holders to enter the theatre was announced that I realised there was a problem. Twenty minutes later, and a refund on the extra charge paid for the Q&A, I was seated, disgruntled and disenfranchised, in Cinema 4, with my plastic bad and styrofoam box, resigned to the fact that I would not get to ask a question of our heroine, and disappointed to not receiving a coveted non-pirated DVD, like last year.
But enter a new heroine. Tina from the box office, whom I dealt with, came and looked for me, found me, and told me we could in fact go to the Q&A, if we didn't mind sitting right at the front of house for the film. We jumped at the chance, on the assumption that Rani and Guest, who had seats reserved behind us in Cinema 4, would probably not sit through the film, given her busy schedule at two more opening nights in the next week.
So, squashed amongst the hordes who rushed forth to get photos of and with Rani, my daughter and I were a bit frustrated and uncomfortable, as well as inconvenienced by the poor organisation of the event, but glad to get a chance to see Rani in the flesh. I just wish she had acknowledged and answered my question! Enjoy the footage, and watch till the end, where you get a nice close-up of Rani.
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