New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- As the lights dim and the trailers start rolling, you sink into your seat, in complete communion with the screen. It's a focus and a withdrawal rarely achieved in any other setting-not watching TV at home, hyper-aware of everything going on around you, and certainly not replicated by peering into a 6-inch screen held in your hand. But soon, a server arrives with popcorn and sodas for the people in the seat next to yours, and you miss the opening credits as they engage in a whispered conversation about modes of payment or a wrong order.

I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to treat a movie theatre as a full-service restaurant, but I haven't stopped cursing them since this "innovation" first started making...