MAMI delegates shun voting, watch films instead

'Don't Vote, Watch Films' seems to be the diktat issued by MAMI organisers. On a day when polling's taking place in Maharashtra, MAMI organisers using their great wisdom has decided to run movie shows at full steam starting right with the10 am morning shows. While many offices have declared holidays and half days to help citizens vote, MAMI doesn't seem to think it important to change their schedule to allow delegates and other movie buffs to vote. An eyewitness present at the venue told us that a majority of them had turned for the morning screening without voting. Of course, for the sake of argument one could very well say that people could return and vote after the morning shows but given the impressive lineup of events scheduled to take place later in the day including a Master Class with acclaimed French actor Catherine Deneuve and Bollywood Diva Deepika Padukone, it wouldn't be too difficult to hazard a guess that no one would want to miss the above events. Not to forget the other films that would be screened at around the same time. A few people we spoke to yesterday expressed their concern at having to juggle between films and voting. Making matters worse is the decision to have Andheri and Juhu as the venues for movie screenings which effectively puts delegates residing in South Mumbai at great discomfort. Also, utter chaos also prevailed at Cinemax yesterday where many complained about not getting sms or email confirmations while senior citizens expressed the difficulties encountered while registering online. Let's hope MAMI's dishevelled organizing skills don’t ruin the overall movie watching experience.