Three men and a… aaAAAaaccckkk!!
it was Saturday morning, the weather was hot, and i was ploughing away through the pile of clean laundry in the hall. nizam was teaching so i was flicking through astro avoiding ALL the sports channels for a change.
as usual there was nothing really too enticing to watch on astro so i settled for "three men and a baby". you know, the 80s movie - criminal come funny-stupid, a little light headed and supposedly stress-free. i’m sure anyone around my age would have watched it sometime in the past and recaps of it are stored somewhere in your memory banks.
well, if you haven’t, magnum p.i. (or richard from friends), mahony (from police academy) and becker (from becker) are housemates and they get dumped with a baby who turns out to be becker’s daughter. (i had the volume down because tasneem was napping so i didn’t catch their character names). at the same time there’s this drug circle that has intertwined with their lives. i think that’s how the story goes - like i said, i had the volume turned down.
well, the main reason i was watching the movie was because of this rumour that has always been going around that in one of the scenes, the camera catches a glimpse of the supernatural-being.
they said (meaning friends who have watched it) that in the scene where magnum p.i. comes home to their ran-sacked apartment (by the druggies), he goes into a frenzy because he thinks Mary the baby is kidnapped. he runs around the apartment following for the frazzled cries of the baby. and as he rips open curtains to one of the windows, there is this image of a person standing there. apparently you can only see half of it because of the falling curtains.
so anyway, i was sitting there at that scene, eyes potato-peeled to the max, heart thumping (i’m a real scardy-cat), and watched every move of magnum p.i.. and guess what? there were no curtain-flipping in the whole scene. no supernatural being. sheeeeeeeshshshshs… stupid rumours.
actually, i was quite relieved. i started folding my kaftans and went to get a glass of water to replace the sweat that was evaporating from me due to the nerves.
i continued to watch the movie because it was then i realised becker was in it. magnum p.i. and mahony were confronting becker and telling him that Mary the baby was actually his. it was funny, coz i like becker from becker and never imagined him as the jock character.
ten minutes later becker calls his mum to ask her to come over with the intention of passing Mary the baby to her for her safekeeping. so his mum comes over and she’s all excited she’s a grand ma.
she’s carrying Mary the baby around the house and talking to becker. i don’t know what they were saying because (the volume was turned down) AND the camera was in long-shot scaling the breadth of the apartment. and that was when i saw THE SUPERNATURAL BEING.
it was standing in the background looking at the camera. i’m not sure if it was a boy or girl but it had jet black hair and stood out from the white artsy background like and elephant on a see-saw.
at this point in time, i really was not prepared for that. i think i froze for a while after that ridiculous encounter.
i read the three Qul’s a few times over to calm down and next thing i know i was waking tasneem up from her cot. luckily she didn’t cry. hey, i’m not a bad parent, just needed someone to hug and it was time for her apple puree anyway.
i continued to watch the movie reminding myself it was a comedy and not horror movie. tasneem, of course, decided to poo after her lunch so i was busy tending to her and not the movie after that.
i told nizam about it on our way to a wedding later that day but he didn’t seem half as spooked as i was.
24 hours after my first encounter with the supernatural, tasneem was taking her morning nap again and nizam and i were bustling around the house watching "i, robot" everytime we passed by the tv. then one of flicked on the info button and it showed that the next movie was "three men and a ….".
we decided to watch it though i said i wasn’t going to watch THAT scene again. quickly i described the becker-mum scene for nizam’s "ease of reference." we even turned up the volume a bit.
ten minutes later we realised it wasn’t "three men and a baby", rather "three men and a little lady". the sequel! good grief! Mary the baby has grown into Mary a five-year old.
we watched the movie anyway, and it was quite funny. and now i know the names characters are peter, michael and jack.
oh well, salaam all. now you know, you can watch the movie. the three Qul’s come in handy!
