Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Family's Day Out!


Had a nice trip to Innovative Film City, Bidadi this week. A first-of-it's-kind in India, IFC [www.innovativefilmcity.in] is a short 35 KM drive from Bangalore city and fits the bill nicely for a day's hang-out. While the mock sets for films [from which the name of the place is derived] are not done yet, IFC already offers a good menu of items to choose from, for a family; especially for families with kids.

We have had chances to visit the Disney Land and Universal Studios in LA, USA during one of our stays there, so could not resist comparisons with those. While no doubt that, the scale and grandeur of the US-ones puts them in a very different class, IFC overall does a decent and reasonable job. IFC is a curious mix of the Disney Land and Universal flavors, though on a smaller scale. While the attractions fail to really impress when taken individually, as an overall package it comes out OK. IFC needs to be complemented for attempting something like this and I hope when complete and fully functional, this would be something Bangalore can be proud of.

At Rs.699/- per head for a day's ticket [excluding Cartoon City and no tickets for children below 3], the fare is slightly on the higher side but not outrageous. Some of the good ones were Go Karting [family and sports car options available], Mirror Maze, Funplex with a 4D show and Aqua Kingdom with 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum' being the highlight of the day. There were some very disappointing fares too in the stable with the Wax Museum being a flop show and Miniature City also being another damp squib. Food court is decent.

While I feel good about having something like this here in Bangalore, there are some things that every public place in India is plagued with and IFC is no exception. And one of the most irritating ones is our complete disregard to the queue system. And no personnel around in IFC seemed bothered to do anything about it. And this malice was most prominent at the Ticket Counter, where you begin your day!

And I have noticed the typical way one behaves when caught jumping a queue. First he/she displays an emotion [one not in the nava-rasas] and immediately follow-up with a blinking of the eye and shaking of the head, exhibiting a total non-cognizance of a queue in the near vicinity. Then people do either of the two things, the comparatively-subversive ones will suddenly display immense pleasure in having found the queue and utmost gratitude in locating it for them and soon stand in line. The smarter category, especially if they are the next in turn at the counter will shower you with Sorry, Sorry, Sorry [and some times utter words like excuse me etc.] and proceed with the transaction. And many a time he will get away with that. I came across two while standing in the queue for the ticket at IFC, one from the first genre and another from the latter!

But for these irritations, the place is worth a trip.

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