Cinema memories and single screen theatres: Yakut Mahal theatre, Hyderabad

Single screen cinemas have been slowly disappearing across various cities in India, due to a variety of reasons including changing audiences, expansion of multiplexes and Over the Top (OTT) services. These cinemas are carriers of social histories of neighbourhoods. So, using cinema memories and living archives – the people associated with the spaces of cinemas, this article discusses Yakut Mahal cinema of Hyderabad. Yakut Mahal defies the dominant logics of ordering of space and fosters several competing sensibilities. By reading the architecture, production relationships of the cinema, memories of cinemagoing, Yakut Mahal becomes an entry into understanding and documenting the changing social life of Yakutpura, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Hyderabad. The article discusses the significance of cinema memories in narrativizing people’s life and the life world of cities. I argue that, unlike official monuments, which are mostly symbols of the elite, cinemas are signifiers of social life from the bottom.