Week 1539 - Twenty-Four Years of the Wadala IMAX

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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I guess it’s best to call it the Wadala IMAX given that it has gone through so many avatars starting with its first incarnation in 2001 as IMAX Adlabs, then Big Cinemas, after Reliance bought Adlabs, then Carnival Cinemas and now Miraj Cinemas.

I first wrote about the IMAX in 2002, when I put together a piece about a pretentious restaurant in SoBo and a bad movie called “Awara Paagal Deewana”. You can read the piece here. I did not watch the film in the IMAX Dome, but in one of the smaller screens of the IMAX multiplex. For a few years, the Dome played specific movies made for the IMAX screen which were typically on wildlife, or space. I think the Wadala one started with Blue Planet and Everest (thanks Jessy).

Cafe Amore, IMAX and Awara Paagal Deewana

Background: I wrote this piece in July 2002. It is also available in the Internet Archives Awara Paagal DeewanaA review of a restaurant Cafe Amore, Summer Wine and the movie Awara Paagal Deewana Early last morning, we suddenly found that we would be able to go out in the evening.

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

In the initial years, there were a few films that were digitally remastered for the IMAX format and showed in the Dome. I have no recollection so I asked around on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter and people do remember. Anil Shenoy and Meha Savla remember watching Apollo 13 in 2002, Pran, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004 and Superman Returns in 2006, Phalgun, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005 and Akanksha, Happy Feet, in 2006. Some of these were school picnics.

I wrote a piece about watching Parineeta in the IMAX multiplex in Jul 2005, but I had watched Batman Begins in the Sion Cinemax, so clearly the Dome had not started screening regular films at that time.

13.3 - No Duvidha here - Batman Begins pounds Parineeta and Paheli

This was published on 03 Jul 20o5 in the Mumbai Mirror and on my site www.manfrommatunga.com. Man From Matunga: No Duvidha - Batman Begins Pounds Parineeta & PaheliBatman Begins Pounds Parineeta & Paheli After a long, long time, I actually managed to squeeze in three current films within one week.

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Anil Shenoy then remembers watching Christopher Nolan’s Batman: Dark Knight in 2008, which was probably the first mainstream film shot partly using IMAX cameras. Sonal remembers watching Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen in 2009. And then the floodgates opened and more and more films were shot for the IMAX screen.

IMAX Wadala changed its seating when they started screening regular Bollywood and Hollywood movies and for a long time the best seats were B9-B12, to your right just after the first entrance. I have a calendar entry watching Ra-One in Oct 2011, so that must have been the first IMAX screen film for me. The next was Hunger Games in Apr 2012 and then I’ve pretty much watched all the superhero and big-bang films there.

I found a review that I wrote up of Guardians of Galaxy in Aug 2014, a few weeks after the closure of my Mumbai Mirror column. 

AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH…A LONG WINDING FILM REVIEW

This was published 16 Aug 2014 in www.manfrommatunga.com. Here is the archive link. I have been such an idiot…waiting for inspiration to strike, after the Mirror column stopped, figuring out what path to take and what to write about. All the highlights in bold are the ideas

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

The complex deteriorated over time and then one day just shut down abruptly till it reopened recently. We learnt the hard way when we went there in Jul 2022 to watch Thor: Love and Thunder and we found the gates shut even though BookMyShow was still taking bookings. We then rushed to the PVR in Kurla, but the viewing experience sucked.

I realized IMAX Wadala had restarted when the name “Miraj Cinemas” showed up while I was searching for IMAX tickets for the Thunderbolts movie. We booked the recliner seats, but realized this was a mistake, because they are way down and you have to extend your neck to watch the screen, which is quite a pain. 

Since then, I’ve been there 3 continuous weekends including day before yesterday. The best seats are the sofas of row B, seats 11-13, which are bang in the centre. The first movie, two weekends ago was the Superman reboot by James Gunn, the next, last weekend was the F1 movie and day before yesterday was the Fantastic Four reboot. 

Of these, clearly the F1 movie is the best. This is what I wrote down that day in my diary, “it was true "edge of the seat" entertainment. Brad Pitt is amazing but the supporting cast makes a difference. They were all given their time and since F1 is a team sport, that concept worked well. It reminded me of Barcelona (where we had watched the F1 live) and I think we are hardwired to feel excited by the sound of fast cars zooming past. Fifteen minutes to the theatre and straight in with no mall to go through. It makes a difference.”

From my home on a bad day it is 20 minutes, otherwise 15 minutes, which is hardly any distance in Mumbai. There is ample parking. But most importantly, you don’t have to waste time going through a mall. Whether it is Phoenix or the Jio complexes, it takes time to get in and get out and you almost always end up making plans to eat there and a simple movie viewing becomes a whole 5-6 hours outing…which is nice sometimes, but there are times when you just want to watch a movie. Get in, get out…that’s it and in that sense the IMAX behaves like a single screen, because there is nothing else there. 

I remember a few years ago, a friend of mine drove from Nashik to the Viviana mall just because his son wanted to watch one of the new superhero films in IMAX, and this was the nearest screen for them.  I keep reminding myself how blessed I am to be living in Matunga, in Mumbai, within short to medium distance of pretty much any dining or entertainment experience. 

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1573 - Blessed: Music, Matunga, Moments

Blessed to be living in Mumbai in King’s Circle/Matunga with easy access to every venue in the city and having knowledgeable friends and family to guide me across different genres and to go to these performances with.

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia