🎬 The old single screen near Abids is gone

Drove through Abids last week for a small errand and slowed down where the old single screen used to be. The one my father took us to on Sundays in the nineties. It's a commercial building now. Glass front, a bank on the ground floor. I stopped the bike for a minute and a man behind me honked. I don't think anyone in my family remembers it the way I do. Nobody brings it up. My father always bought balcony tickets, even though they cost more. He said the view was cleaner. I think he just liked being above the crowd. Samosas came from the vendor outside, never inside. The smell of that hall, old seats and dust and a bit of incense, is still in my head. Ceiling fans did almost nothing in May. We watched anyway, wet shirts and all. Multiplexes are better in every way I can list. Good sound, clean seats, air conditioning that works. But in the old hall, when a hero came on, the whole place reacted at once and nobody told them to. At the multiplex we clap on cue, like the film asked us to. My junior at work didn't know single screens used to rule the city. He thought films always came with a seat number. I heard 1 or 2 single screens are still running in other parts of the city. I want to go back to one, just to find out if it's the hall I miss or being 10 years old. If you know one that's still open and worth the trip, tell me the name and the best show. I'll bring a cushion this time. My back isn't 10 years old anymore.

Standing in line for hours for a ticket feels like a distant memory. Last month I told my cousin about it. He's 19 and asked, why not just book online? I said, because then you miss the shoving. The shoving was half the fun. Some man always tried to push in front of my father. He still doesn't get it. I don't think you can explain it, you just have to have been there.

I remember a comedy at an old hall near Malakpet. The audience laughed at all the wrong places. Somebody found a sad scene funny, then the whole row started, and nobody could stop. It made the film better, I think, and I still tell people about that night. Multiplexes are so quiet now. People laugh politely, if at all, and check their phones.