It’s playtime at the plexes

Before letting him go, Harsha Bhogle asks Sourav Ganguly: “Who will be the KKR captain in the next game?”

Stumped for a moment, the KKR skipper gets the joke and answers with Dadagiri attitude: “Ganguly!”

Audi 4 in INOX (Forum) erupts in ceetee and taali. Match on.

Lalit Modi always wanted the 200-minute thriller called T20 match to play out like an action-packed motion picture. On Friday evening, that’s what happened — literally — for the first time. At a theatre near you.

Multiplex screens in town hooked to Bollywood thumka and dhishum-dhishum beamed fours and sixes, catches and run-outs for the first time as they screened the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers match live on Day I of IPL Season 3.

From Elgin Road to Prince Anwar Shah Road, Hiland Park to Rajarhat, plex auditoriums turned into cricket stadiums as KKR fans left the comfort of their drawing rooms to catch the match live on the big screen.

“We go in big gangs to watch movies at plexes… so we thought why not make the most of this new opportunity and watch the match together in a similar fashion,” said 23-year-old Shekhar Mehta, wearing a dark purple tee to get into fan groove.

He was one of the 100-odd KKR fans who had paid Rs 230 to watch the IPL opener at INOX (Forum), live from Navi Mumbai.

With popcorn and cola in hand, the movie audience went into cricket mode right from the toss, with the first really loud cheer going up for Adam Gilchrist — his decision to invite KKR to bat first.

But the excitement was shortlived with Manoj Tiwary dismissed first ball. Then came the ‘mute’ moment of the big night — Sourav Ganguly out, snicking to first slip, off the fourth ball.

The silence was deafening. But this was a plex, not Eden, remember. So, up went a roar for the first run on the board, an innocuous leg bye.

A few kilometres away, in the IPL-themed Screen 2 at Fame (South City) all was not well. That the cheerleader trio on the makeshift stage was dancing to the dismissal of Kolkata’s cricket hero didn’t go down well with the fans.

But all was forgiven and fun was soon back on centre stage thanks to the fours and sixes by Angelo Matthews and Owais Shah. The same boys who had hooted out the cheerleaders were blowing the whistles and raising the ‘4’ and ‘6’ placards given to them at the door.

“It was a carnival atmosphere,” said Uddipto Chatterjee, 15, wearing a T-shirt reading ‘Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo’ in Bengali. “I have always watched cricket matches at home. This was so different.”

The festive mood spilled on to the breaks between overs. With no annoying advertisements popping up, like they do on the TV sets at home, the crowds started clapping and grooving to the Uff teri ada and Paisa paisa tracks being played at the stadium on the country’s western coast.

There was a touch of Eden, too, with Andrew Symonds being called a “monkey” every time the camera found him, and shouts of “bari jaa” trying to send the opposition packing.

“We were not sure how many people would leave their homes and catch the cricket on a movie screen but the response has been very healthy,” said Deborshi Basu, the general manager of INOX (Forum). “We are getting a lot of corporate block bookings and we are sure this trend is only going to get bigger and better.”

If the big boys and girls of Bollywood have invaded the cricket pitch, it’s now time for the big boys of cricket to steal their thunder on their turf.

It’s playtime, folks.


Pratim D.Gupta and Saionee Chakraborty, The Telegraph Metro