Liberty Cinema
Art Deco single-screen cinema with original teakwood interiors, unchanged since 1949.
This guide to Liberty Cinema in Mumbai opens with an unfinished Canadian-designed building on Marine Lines after its architect died mid-project, and the cotton trader Habib Hoosein who decided to complete it anyway, laying its foundation stone in 1947, the year of Indian independence. It follows the craftsmen who finished the shell and interiors, panelled floor to ceiling in Canadian cedar and Burma teakwood that the owners still refuse to replace with anything else, and Hoosein's decision to run only Hindustani films when every other cinema nearby showed English ones. Look at the wood paneling around you — it is all original.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.