The Happening indeed Is.

The story of seeing this story is crazy.

So Me & Sis decide to go for the Movie "Sex and the City" at PVR. She had bought the tickets in advance directly from the counter for 'em for the 10PM show. I didn't know the Europa Cinema Halls function as correctly as the ones in Innovative Multiplex! Firstly, They had the Right Movies labelled at the Right theatre halls (I hope you are getting the sarcasm here) Secondly, A 10:00PM movie begins at 10:30PM. I think even PVR now operates on this unsaid time phenomenon called "Bangalore Time"... meaning when a True blue Bangalorean tells you "Hey dude lets meet up at 5 PM", it usually means you add 30 - 60 mins to it, if you are sensible.

BT = AM/PM + (30/60) Mins.

And Thirdly, we find out that we were in the wrong theatre (Thanks to Clear Labeling. There were people running between halls once the movie began!) and wait it doesn't end here. We run to the right theatre finally and then we are told that we actually have tickets to "The Happening". Imagine what we were thinking. Not much to think, it was - "WHAT THE FREAKING FUCK!!". The woman at the counter gave my sister the tickets to this movie & not SATC. We never faced this problem before at any multiplex, so she didn't really doublecheck. And to add to my horror, I had read reviews on Rotten Tomatoes which panned the crap outta this movie. So with all sorrow & SMSing the funny state of affairs to my friends, we went in. Sis decided to sleep through it. I waited to watch, suffer & suffer again. And the Movie began...

The Movie spooked the hell outta me. Sis & I were at the edge of our seats & for the first time in my life I actually was spooked out by trees & wind, can you believe that. WIND !!! Her Sleep, My aim to suffer, all trashed.

The plot is basically that Nature takes its revenge on Humans for all that Man has done to it. It does this by spreading neurotoxins that are carried by the wind. The neurotoxin makes man commit suicide. The Suicide scenes are well executed with people suddenly stopping dead in their tracks, rambling some load of crap & then eventually killing themselves. Scenes of randomly scattered dead bodies are also quite scary. The movie actually gives out theories that trees/plants actually respond to Human emotion & that they communicate with each other. An example being cited is that of a species of caterpillars being destroyed by wasps as the plant its feeding on sends out some indication to those wasps of the presence of caterpillars, thereby the plant protecting itself. Similarly nature is saving itself from Humans. The horror begins at the parks in the city, eventually spreading over smaller towns & roads. There is a little bit of trouble-in-the-family story in the movie but I think Shyamalan has managed to fit it well into the script without dragging it any bit or seeming outta place.

I think Shyamalan is an amazing director just for the fact that he took an abstract concept & made one fear it. I mean never did I imagine that I one day would actually see "Trees & wind" as the villains of any movie! I think he has managed to pull it off to a very good level. I actually was so involved I started saying "Dude the wind is starting to blow. Cut the crap & run!" lol. The message is another that I really Love, that of saving our Planet. He has actually made an entertaining yet knowledgable film.

And after seeing it, I think the critics should just go "neurotoxin" themselves. Why can't people just see the damn movie for what it tries to convey rather than dissecting & panning it for every small thing. They deserve Rotten Tomatoes, not the film. Its a definite Must-watch-once Film.

Page 24