City Landmarks – Pepsi, Popcorns & Stairs at Satyam
Checking out a new multiplex in town.
[By Meenakshi Chauhan; she owns the blog Love It or Leave it; picture by Satyam Cineplexes]
Loyalty has no bounds! Since my boss’s son worked on the film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, panned in almost every newspaper review, I felt I had to see it. Another incentive was that it was directed by Shaad Ali who has made lovely films like Saathiya and Bunti Aur Bubli.
So the other day we decided to invest two precious hours of our lives on it and went to Satyam, a new multiplex in town. Opened this June, it’s a branch of the original Satyam which is in Patel Nagar.
My two friends and I reached Nehru Place, which happenes to be Delhi’s biggest software bazaar, around 6. The show was to start twenty minutes later. Outside the cinema hall cars were parked on both sides of the road with not an inch of parking space available. For any movie-going Delhite this, alas, is a common sight.
With all the confusion and mayhem around this congested part of the city random thoughts of fights with parking attendants, Delhi traffic police, car getting towed and challans came to my mind. But suddenly I saw a sign saying “7 Storeys Parking Available”. A brilliant discovery! Right next to the cinema hall too! The parking plaza was of international standards, with lifts that were playing instrumental music. Of course, it all came for a price – Rs 20 for 2 hours, and a minute longer meant paying Rs 20 more.
Parking problem dealt with, we rushed to the theatre, 1 ticket – 175 bucks. What! In Mumbai it’s the norm but Delhi? The best halls here have a standard ticket for 150/- . Oh well.. It’s for a good cause! We owed it to the boss’s son to see the first film he had worked on.
We finally entered the glitzy complex. There was Pizza Hut and McDonalds on the ground floor while the upper floors, which housed the auditoriums, were stylishly designed and elegantly-lit.
The auditorium itself was well laid out but here are the downsides:
The popcorn was horribly stale and costs too much – think Chanakya cinema popcorn but with double the price! Avoid it.
The Pepsi was in an insanely huge glass – 1 litre no less.
The combo – Popcorn & Pepsi cost around Rs 150 (I don’t remember the exact figure as I was flabbergasted.) It took all three of us to finish the glass.
The seats did not recline. Yes, you could have pushed them back but if you were short in height like me your feet wouldn’t have touched the ground.
The air-conditioning was too Arctic. I had goose bumps because I was sooo cold. But that could be because there were only ten people in the audience.
The stairs were dangerous. The scariest moment came when my pregnant friend went to the loo in the dark. The staircase was almost a straight wall (as against a soft hill incline) and we were seated at the top.
And yes, the film was quite unbearable except for the one song that is presently topping the charts – Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. However this song lasts over half an hour which was a bit too much. Other songs like Ticket to Hollywood and Kiss of Love had a good tempo but with nonsense lyrics and with no relevance to the already weak plot were quite a pain.
In all, the new multiplex was not bad but why pay such an obscenely high price when you can enjoy films in better ones at cheaper rates?
[This article was written exclusively for The Delhi Walla.]
Hey, I was just there on Thursday. Fortunately, Life In A Metro was better than that movie seems to have been.The popcorn was indeed funny. We got stale and cold pre-packaged ones, so we complained and the person at the counter said we could get new ones. However, the movie was about to start, so he offered to bring it to our seats when it was ready. How nice! Only that it took like 15 minutes, and then we received another cold and stale ones 🙂So, which are those better cinemas? Which ones do the Delhi movie buffs prefer?
All multiplexes are bloddy expensive and useless in Delhi. Why doesn’t Delhi Walla cover historical pieces like Regal etc?
Thomas Kappler – Personally i feel all the PVR’s are the best in Delhi. you can book your tickets, pay for them and choose your seats online. the popcorn is good.if you want to venture out – DT in Gurgaon and Waves in Noida is good and PVR Spice in Noida.Anonymous -historical halls like plaza , rivoli have also been taken over by the ‘ multiplexes’, i think regal too!
@thomas kappler for the movie buff that i am i cant deal with small screens…after aquiring the new status of always being broke i re-discovered Chanakya. the screen is big, prices are amazing only problem that i cnt risk eating there! but thats a price im willing to pay.@ minx, dude next tiem try going to a cheaper place for films that dontget a good review, im sure u wont feel as bad. plus there’s always an option of the DVD watch if u feel obligated to watch a film! thats my pan for AKS!!!!
tell me about the new satyam! i watched ‘Dharm’ there (satyam being the only hall listed in the paper running this film). that we were seated in the 5th row from the front didn’t help matters. the non-reclining seats were irritating me no end. thankfully i missed the luxury of tasting the amazing popcorn you tried. so much for the ‘when will the new satyam open’ that went on for months. i’m just plain disappointed!
My vote goes to PVR. Never been to Satyam. But yeah I watched Dil Se long time back in satyam at patel nagar. Will not go to the one in Nehru Place though after reading all these horror stories.
For Heaven’s own sake, it’s Satyam, not Saytam! And I did think the seats a bit odd too, but then I am tall enough to handle that. Besides, there is the Skybox option for many movies on there, which is like first class air travel. (At 400 a seat, the fare is too.) But then where else are there footstools to cater to those stinking Delhi feet? And if you know what it’s like to drive from GK to Saket to get to PVR, thanks to the HCBS (whatever that may one day turn out to be), then you’ll rejoice with me. I’ve seen four films at the new Satyam so far, got my car buggered by a Sardar Scorpio outside, got lost in the multi’lavel’ carpark, had the stale popcorn and flavour ridden giant pepsi, but I believe I still will go to it. Skybox, of course. 😉
Dear Mr. Anonymous,Thanks for pointing out the Satyam spelling error.
Dear Mr. SoofiThank you for having corrected it so promptly. Though I must say you would certainly benefit from the use of Spellcheck and Grammarcheck. One finds this blog interesting enough, but these errors are irritating, to say the least. Not that many in Delhi would notice or bother, but then that’s the whole point of the Internet, isn’t it?
Dear anonymous, i think its highly rude of you to keep going on and on about the spelling error! Mr. soofi has thanked you for that. plus what is this with’Not that many in Delhi would notice or bother’? i mean who do you think u are, again!
Dear Anonymous,I agree with you the issues you have raised regarding PVR Saket or Anupam as its commonly called. Why don’t you try any of the halls under PVR in C.P. or even 3 C’s in L.P.N. is not bad!
Mayank, a spelling mistake from you??? you either have great faith in my wiriting skills or your really busy with your new job!
Dear constant travellerThank you for trying to prove me wrong, and for getting involved in the spelling error noticing process, despite being a Delhiite (or are you?).I do believe, however, that this has nothing to do with my feelings, if any, for Mr. Soofi, or for that matter, for you or anyone but myself. I like to read this blog, and I want me to be happier and better satisfied seeing people spell well. Not that spelling is rigid, or ever has been (cf Hoenigswald), as someone once wrote. As for who I think I am, I don’t need to – I know who I am. I should be happy to have a lifesize mirror delivered to your address, or arrange a photo session for you, should you be interested in knowing who you are. Better still, stop and think a bit. Nothing personal, of course. Enjoy the chaat, mate.