Can’t even remember, right?

But I’m sure at least some of you haven’t entirely forgotten those huge1000-seater old-fashioned cinema halls with noisy air conditioning, temperamentalseats and refreshment counters selling oily samosas. There are still a fewaround. But most theatres are now changing into multiplexes, complete withplush interiors and gleaming concession stands selling nachos and flavoredpopcorn.

We can afford to go to multiplexes, but lots of people can’t. With ticketspriced at around 200 bucks each, you easily spend about a thousand for one tripto the cinema. I understand the logic of the multiplex owners – they areasking customers to pay for the up market environment they’re offering them.

But what of the people who can’t afford it? They have to go to the singlescreen halls, don’t they? But the number of such halls is dwindling rapidly. Sowhere do they go?

Well, guess what? Many of them just don’t go. They catch the movies whenthey are premiered later on TV. Or – if they can — they spend 35 rupees on aMoser Baer CD which normally comes out quite soon after the film’s release.

Something doesn’t sound quite right here, does it? I mean, surely the filmindustry would like everyone to see its films? But they onlyseem to be interested in multiplexes. Maybe the high prices of the ticketsensure that their returns from multiplexes are much higher than from singlescreen halls.

Whatever the reason, the obsession with multiplexes is keeping out a largenumber of film-goers who would otherwise have made a trip to a cinema hall tocatch the latest film. It is still as true as it was thirty years ago – inIndia, films are a medium of entertainment for the masses.

But we seem happy to pretend that India is America or some other affluentcountry, where everyone can spend close to 500 rupees for two cinema tickets.

I’m not against multiplexes, that’s where I see all my movies (though theNet reservation sites suck because they don’t even open half the time, andthere’s hardly any leg room in many of the audis).

But do we have to finish off all the single screentheatres?