Two school boys on Plaza Cinema campus to watch a movie. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, Nov. 17: Case 1: 11.10 am. Three boys, in white shirts and trousers carrying school bags, enter Plaza cinema complex where a C-grade movie is screened. Purchasing tickets they enter the auditorium without being stopped.

Case 2: 11.15 am. Two boys, sporting white shirts and blue trousers, park their cycles at the stand of Sandhya cinema. There too, they were not intercepted before making an entry to the auditorium for a show of another sleazy film.

It is all but a common sight around 11 am at the cinemas across the state capital.

With neither the staff at the cinemas nor the school authorities taking any stringent measures to put a stop to this menace is on an all-time high in the city.

While some of the school principals said they have not come across any of their students frequenting the cinemas, there are many who have caught hold of them and taken strict actions.

Although the staff of the cinemas said they ?do not allow schoolchildren to watch the C-grade films?, the real picture is quite different.

Most of the children whom this scribe approached shied away from talking about the issue.

One of the students at Plaza cinema said: ?I do not come here regularly skipping my classes. But I think there is no harm in watching such a film once in a while. It is not possible to watch these films at home. There should be some entertainment in one?s life. Sometimes the gate man prevents us and asks too many questions but he gives way if we keep on pursuing,? said the boy, refusing to say either of his name or the school?s.

On the other hand, the authorities at the cinema said they do not allow children to enter the auditorium to watch these films.

?We do not even give tickets to such youngsters who skip classes at the school and come here to watch a C-grade film. Sometimes these schoolchildren come at the cinema complex to take a glimpse of the posters,? said Vinod Tiwari, manager of Plaza cinema.

?What these children do is that they get the tickets from somebody else who is not in the school uniform. Or they come to the school with other dresses in their bags and change it on their way. It becomes very difficult for us to identify these students and that is why may be they get an entry,? said one of the staff at Sandhya cinema.

Principals of city-based schools have different versions to narrate on the menace.

C. Terence, principal of Guru Nanak Higher Secondary School, said: ?Incidents like these have become common now. I had caught a couple of our students when they had gone to see one such movie at Sujata cinema. We had taken strict actions against them.?

Terence further added: ?The morning shows run by these cinemas should be completely banned. Their presence would make these children bunk schools and watch them. Children, especially in their adolescence, neither listen to their parents nor the school authorities, and therefore the hall owners should put a stop to it. Each and every school have coun- sellors so that they can interact with the students and make them stop all these activities.?

On the other hand, Divya Singh, principal of DAV, Bariatu, pointed out: ?Children frequent these cinemas out of curiosity. This creates a lot of distraction among them in terms of their studies. There has not been any such cases reported from my school but the parents should also try and interact with the students more so that these things could be put to a stop.?