In earlier times the ritual of going to a movie was a family affair that was comparable to that of going to a relative’s house, to attend a marriage, visiting a temple festival, or even going to a pilgrimage to a nearby religious place.  Women would plan for it for few days in advance.  They shall advertise it to the neighbours, plan domestic chores in such a way that during their trips to the cinema theatre (on most occasions, these theatres would be far away and for many it can be negotiated on foot only) no work at home remains undone.

On the village side such movie-going events are marked mostly by bus journeys.  Women and children dress for the occasion.  In a village there are many “knowledgeable” individuals who trace the background and constructions of movies very closely and such people express very detailed knowledge in the subject.  For instance, they can tell us about who was the Camera man, director and what are their qualities and therefore how that movie could have been made etc.

These cinema experts depend on many magazines that were published exclusively with cinema content only.  Two of them were very popular upto the 60’s, they were “Pesum Padam” (speaking Movie) and “Cinema Kathir” (Movie Ray).  Also all popular magazines used to carry what was famously known as evening critiques of the new movies.  Many people won’t go to a movie unless they have read a reliable critique from a dependable magazine to know the quality of a movie, lest they may end up going to a movie that is below the standard and was a bore.

As times went by, people did not bother about qualitative cinemas on a movie.  Not only that everybody thought a movie may be bad on the whole, yet it is not without some aspect of praise.