My IFFK2024 journey and theater reviews

Originally from Hyderabad and currently visiting Tvm for the IFFK, just documenting my progress so far and also some commentary on the different auditoriums. Might help someone out and I will keep updating this till I leave. Firstly, you might not get to watch all the movies that you have planned due to the scheduling, there are 14 screens (!!) overall running parallel and screenings are scheduled close to each other so don’t plan in such a way that you need to travel for more than 15 mins between each. If you're coming from out of station, stay somewheee close to Aristo junction from where you can walk to two of the venues. (6 screens) The best thing to do is to stick to theater groups and only plan your day within the movies getting screened there. This ensures that you are not rushing to find an auto or get delayed due to traffic. 1. Tagore/Kalabhavan/Nishgandhi 2. Kairali Sree Nila/New Theaters 3. Ariesplex/Ajantha/Sree Padmanabha Above is my preferred groupings based on their proximity to each other. Notes on each theater: 1. **Tagore**: The main venue with a large single screen, has lively crowd where you can also just hang out even if you don’t attend any screening. Screen and projection were good, best seats are first 5-10, don’t brother with the balcony. In terms of audio, I felt low frequencies sounded the best in this theater. 2. **Kairali Sree Nila** : Actually my most favourite venue overall. All the three auditoriums are well designed with steep seating and comfortable chairs with good lumbar support. And looks like they have 4K projection with Dolby Atmos in all the auditoriums. Best seats are first 3-5 rows, though the experience is good pretty much overall, just don’t sit in the corners. 3. **Nishagandhi** – The big open air theater with no reserved seats. Best seats are first 10 rows and it’s all plastic chairs so not very comfortable but watching a good movie with the crowd is a great experience. Saw my favourite movie of this festival so far – the opening film “I’m still here”. I was able to get a seat by reaching about 30 minutes prior to the show but expect some traffic . They also have a good canteen with snacks running till late night so you should be sorted for food. 4. **Ajantha** – Single screen. A 10-15 minute walk from Kairali. Projection and sound are alright, though not the best. There’s no Dolby Atmos. Best seats are in the first half, there is enough space between the first row and the screen so even that should be fine. Carry a jacket or layered clothes because they were blasting AC all the way up. By the time of this writing yet to visit the other venues but hoping to cover those in the next couple of days and will update my comments here. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have and ill try to answer.