The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

[canadian_turtle]

Going to the world premiere of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tonight? (Dame Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel are...) Send us your pictures from the premiere and we'll post the best ones right here!

[Beate]

The whole gang met at Cafe Nero from 6pm, which is opposite the hotel where most people apart from myself had to collect their tickets. Prettyxcool and hopeprince departed a little earlier than the rest to the red carpet and got access to a "fan pen". We arrived to not such a good view before we got shooed inside by security, but managed to spot Judi Dench (she's tiny) and Bill Nighy. Dev Patel was basically raced past but the woman who played his girlfriend was on the red carpet a bit longer.

We then made our way up a labyrinth of staircases to tiny screen 2 in the far corner of the Curzon Mayfair. 6 of us got allocated seats in row A, 2 in row B and 2 in row C I believe, all equipped with a bottle of water and a hobnob. I approached the usher very politely for the possibility of better seats and he came through for us by coming to our seats and saying that after the introduction we could move higher up to two empty seats.

The introduction was done by John Madden who said he didn't have a clue who we all were but welcome and well done for coming out on such a cold night. He then introduced Tena Desae (the girlfriend) and Dev Patel, which is all we were going to get in terms of celebrities. I guess they all went to screen 1, where soonforgotten managed to end up. I took a few pics, they left, and we moved up to row C where we noticed that we had ended up next to phunkygal! And an annoying bloke who couldn't leave his phone alone until I told him how distracting it was. He then moved a seat over.

OMG, Desperate Housewives on, more later.

[superhero]

Only 1 hobnob? they're on a budget

[canadian_turtle]

1 package with 2 hobnobs in it.

[Beate]

God, how many premiere tweets are there? Can't cope!

Anyway, I really liked the film, it is funny and charming and has excellent actors in it. Unfortunately I was constantly comparing it with two other films: John Madden's masterpiece Shakespeare in Love, and Slumdog Millionaire which is also set in India and features Dev Patel. Compared with those, it falls a little short I am afraid.

I will still give it a solid 8.5/10 and wouldn't mind seeing it again. It is really really nice to see so many older actors in a film, especially such good ones.
Btw, I never realised how tiny Judi Dench is in real live!

"I don't even b*y green bananas!"

[prettyxcool]

That was the most chilly premiere for a film taken place in hot India! My camera ceased up from the cold, and my fingers froze! Me and hopeprince were hanging around trying to take photos and the security guy said we could go into the pen if we wanted, so we did and joined soonforgotten.

It seems that most of the comp winners were sent upstairs to a tiny screening room, separate from the main screen which presumably all the stars went to including lucky soonforgotten, but John Madden did come up to introduce the film and thanked us for coming on such a cold night. He then said only the younger cast could get up the stairs, so I knew immediately who they would be. I thought they were really nice.

It was also lovely to see all the FMUKers tonight, and was amazing that we were seated quite close to each other too.

I really liked the film, thought it was lovely and thought Maggie Smith was hilarious. Easy watching and fun. 9/10.

[Beate]

I got some nice pics of Dev Patel/John Madden but I can't find my downloading cable!

There's some unhappy people on twitter (screen 2 AND film were apparently shite).

Yeah, I didn't like screen 2 either but I got a premiere for free. And a hobnob. Or two.

[elski]

LOL so that's what it's mean to hob-nob with the stars

[Beate]

You got it, elski!

[elski]

that would also explain the McVities comps.