They were the single theatre movie houses of my teenage years. Dotting the Lamington Road/Girgaum landscape in Central Bombay (Yes it was still Bombay not Mumbai). Imperial, Apsara, Alankar, Novelty, Minerva, Super, New Roshan and Naaz. Zanjeer, Zameer, Chupke Chupke, the Bachchan years.
Stale popcorn, the birth of Dolby and 70mm sound.
Then came the first multiplex which soon spawned the second and then they became the trend. Rendering the "movie house" extinct. Some of these gems became shopping malls. Some were razed to the ground to make way for housing complexes. And a few are mere shells with a countless celluloid memories.
