An evening with the Indian Ambassador

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Cinemas are pretty popular in Havana and there are a good number dotted around the place.

The Charlie Chaplin cinema is in Vedado on Calle 23 between 10 and 12, and just around the corner from where we are staying. It has an arty feel - a few stunning black and white photographs of classic Cuban cinematography graced minimal white walls in the foyer and the boho crowd wouldn't have looked out of place in New York or London with their ethnic scarfs and bangles and manbags and slanted haircuts. Fairly unassuming from the outside, we were stunned when we walked into a massive auditorium. At a rough guestimate, I'd say it could hold over a thousand at full capacity. A couple of hundred turned up to see the evening's showing of 'Pushpak' as part of a week long Indian film festival. Tickets cost 2 Cuban pesos (moneda nacional) each. Which translates as roughly 25c in Euros or 20p in Pounds Stirling!

'Pushpak' is an Indian film from the 80s and it is completely without dialogue, but with an understandable narrative. A quick synposis - a hapless unemployed poverty-stricken graduate makes the most out of the slimest of opportunities and manages to live the life of a rich businessman in a hotel. By no means a classic, but not nearly the worst I've ever seen. In fairness it was quite funny. The biggest laugh (in fact the audience broke into a rousing applause) came from a scene in which a street side beggar revealed he had much more money than he was initially letting on. OK so you had to be there, but I did genuinely laugh out aloud too. It was so surreal - watching a wordless Indian film in Havana! You couldn't have predicted it.

To top it all off, as we were coming out, we saw the Indian Ambassador hopping into her brand spanking new crisp white Merc, complete with Indian flags on the bonnet. All that was missing was a pyramid of Ferrero Rochers!

From Jess

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