[Reader-list] Sagar Cinema---a cinema space for Telugu migrants

[tangella madhavi]

Sagar Cinema---a cinema space for Telugu migrants

I set out on the research with largely three paradigms. Firstly, the forces at play at a city cinema space called Sagar Cinema located at Malad (a suburb of Mumbai on the Western express Highway). Secondly, the spatial dynamics of this place as a poor mans multiplex. Finally, to gain insights into the lived reality (ies) of the Telugu migrants who visit Sagar cinema.

Sagar Cinema is popularly called a Video theatre largely owing to the fact that it uses VCD’s for screenings. It has multiple screens showing Hindi films through the day. One screen shows Telugu films (morning and night show). One is dedicated to pornography. Sagar cinema flourishes largely in the Malad slum areas which has a large community of Andhra migrants. These migrants do not come to the city with the intention of settling in Mumbai permanently. They belong to a temporary city that is on transit depending upon the rains back Home.

Over the weeks, I have been watching Telugu films with Andhraites and few migrants from Karnataka who can’t even understand Telugu! Some times the adrenalin filled Telugu film creates silent roar accompanied by a running commentary by those who have seen the film over and over again. 

A quiet chat after the screening with the Telugu migrants highlights the inherent contradiction between the films and the lived reality. Those who come by 9.30A.M apparently have found no work at the Naka (corner) near Malad(West) railway station. "... more than 1000 of us -including women- gather at 6.30A.M. If contractors do not pick us up, we come here. What will we do going back to our room?"

Ironically there is no public space where these laborers could meet, rest, and network. The rural poor live as underprivileged urban poor who lack access to spaces on the sheer parameter of money. Spaces like Sagar Cinema are often deemed illegal (notorious places regularly visited by the police demanding haftas) and hence such spaces never gain legitimacy. 

Sagar Cinema fills in for this lack of public space. It translates into a space where the migrants can hear a language they understand and see faces which they can call their own. 


Things to Do
To access the records of the day-to-day screenings of Telugu films. The Telugu films that are screened are on the basis of popular demand. So these records will largely reflect the kind of films that the Telugu migrants like to watch. (and the numbers will reflect their migratory patterns)

Preplan the films to be screened and record their reactions through questionnaires.

Gather data about the number of such theatres around Malad to inquire if they screen regional cinema.
  
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