When I was a kid, the theatre used to play kiddie movies on Sunday mornings. I vaguely remember going with some friends and probably my Dad to see some cartoon movies. Pretty soon though, this stopped and the management started devoting Sunday mornings to the latest Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam movies.

Aurora has actually had a stranglehold on this market for some time. Morning/matinee shows on regular days exclusively screen "South Indian" films. It is on Sunday however that Aurora begins to resemble a Chennai theatre. Tamils from Dharavi or Malayalees from the neighboring Antop Hill/CGHS quarters gravitate towards the theatre. Couples, families, gangs of young men, some in lungis, many with oiled and well-parted hair with many women with long-plaited, oiled hair throng the frontage. Ear-wax removers, shoe-polishers, audio-cassette sellers with portable 2-in-1's, an idli-dosa stand at the far corner, peanut-sellers and a sandwich seller add to the din. Often when the show is full, the black-marketers come out in full-force, shouting at the top of their voices (though these days they are more quiet because of police checks), selling their tickets at twice or thrice the actual rates. Most of the theatre-goers eventually have food at one of the many "Udipi" joints on the circle (King's Circle/Maheshwari Udyan).

I have seen two Tamil films in Aurora, in Tamil. "Roja" and "Thiruda Thiruda", both Mani Rathnam films. I saw Thiruda Thiruda with WFM after having watched Roja in Hindi and having fallen in love with the Mani Rathnam style; it did not matter that I did not know Tamil, since the film was an "action-flick" requiring minimal dialogue. Later I went and saw Roja, in Tamil, with some Tamil friends who enthusiastically explained to me in detail some of the scenes that had been left out of the Hindi version.

When I was young, Aurora rarely screened good films. Typically, Rupam (now Cine Planet) at Sion or Chitra had good new Hindi films and for English films, we anyway had to go to town, to Regal, Strand, Sterling or New Excelsior. I barely remember seeing a couple of films in Aurora, as a teenager. In the last ten years though, things have changed and better and current films are screened. And with the resurgence of theatres, Aurora too has revamped its working, sometimes showing three movies a day including the staple morning "South Indian" movie. This week for example has both Minority Report and Men in Black II playing.

Aurora was also a very badly maintained theatre. About 2-3 years ago, it was finally air-conditioned and the balcony seats were replaced with comfortable upholstery. The upper and lower stalls however had their seats changed only a few months ago. The "box" seats (at the top on both sides, 7 seats each) however are still not good and the last time we sat there, the ceiling leaked and there were mosquitoes.

These days, the best place to go and see movies in our area, is at the Imax Adlabs at Wadala, a 15-minutes drive away. However, unless we are planning an evening out with dinner and a movie or are going out with friends from a different part of town, Aurora is now a viable alternative. A friendly shoe-repairer and his portly friend ensure that whenever we want tickets, they are available; this allows us to make last minute decisions, which are often necessary depending on Maya and Mann's schedules and behavior.

However, the Irani next door to Aurora, where we earlier often used to have "bun-maska" or omlette and "chai" has disappeared, having been replaced by a computer training institute and a cybercafe.