Directors recall festival nights, first-day shows as Kottayam’s Anaswara theatre closes

There is something particularly haunting about an empty cinema hall after the movie stops playing.
Inside Kottayam’s Anaswara theatre, the silence now feels heavier than usual. The seats have been ripped out row by row. Rusted handles still cling stubbornly to the concrete floor. A pile of discarded 3D glasses lies abandoned in one corner. Torn flex boards and forgotten scrap from old releases are scattered around the hall like remnants of another era. The building that once echoed with whistles, applause, interval chatter and the hum of projector reels now stands stripped of its identity.

For generations in Kottayam, Anaswara was never merely a theatre. It was habit, memory, geography and emotion all rolled into one landmark in the heart of the town, beside the Thirunakkara Mahadeva Temple. Its closure after nearly seven decades marks more than the end of a cinema hall. 
The theatre ceased operations after its property and building were acquired by the Bharat Hospital Group as part of its expansion plans. Formalities related to the takeover were completed this week, bringing down the curtains on one of Kerala’s most cherished single-screen theatres.

Long before it became Anaswara, the theatre was known as Rajmahal. Established nearly seventy years ago, it eventually changed hands in the 1980s and was renamed Anaswara following new management. 
At a time when cinema-going itself felt ceremonial, Rajmahal occupied a special place in the district’s cultural life. Before multiplexes altered viewing habits and before streaming platforms turned films into solitary experiences, theatres like Rajmahal functioned almost like public squares. Families planned outings around releases. Festival days ended with late-night shows. Film songs blared outside the premises through loudspeakers, drawing crowds long before screenings began.

Director Joshy Mathew still remembers the awe of entering Rajmahal as a child. Speaking to Onmanorama, he recalled that watching a film there once felt like a major event in itself.
"Song books used to be sold outside the theatre and the songs would be played loudly nearby,’ he remembered. ‘We would gather there simply to experience that atmosphere before the film even began."​

The first film he watched there, he said, was the 1965 film 'Porter Kunjali'. He was barely ten or twelve at the time.
Joshy also pointed out how architecturally distinctive the theatre once was. Built using black stone by masons from Nagercoil, Rajmahal was considered technically advanced for its time, particularly because of its soundproof construction. The theatre belonged to Mahadevan Swami, who lived in a house close to the premises. The foundation stone was laid by MC Mathew Maliakal, and decades later the property came under the ownership of Maliyekkal George Mathew of the Anand Theatre Group and Central Pictures. After renovation, films began screening under the banner of Rajmahal Movie House, beginning with 'Arikkari Ammu'.

Director Jayaraj described the theatre as a witness to changing generations of cinema. Before multiplex culture arrived, he said, theatres like Anaswara formed the centre of movie-going in towns like Kottayam.

"You could feel the excitement of an IV Sasi release or a Bharathan film inside that theatre," he said. "Even Tamil films by Bharathiraja would create an atmosphere there that people still remember."
For cinephiles, Anaswara also became associated with a more serious film culture. Internationally acclaimed films that travelled from festivals such as Cannes would eventually find audiences there. Watching them in Kottayam carried its own sense of pride.
Jayaraj recalled seeing filmmakers such as John Abraham and G Aravindan at the theatre during earlier decades, memories that transformed the venue into something larger than a commercial cinema hall.

"It is easy to demolish a theatre," he said. "But when a place like this disappears, it feels like a piece of an entire era disappears with it."
He even appealed to the new owners to preserve at least the original structure of the building, if possible, simply for its historical and emotional value.
The theatre’s legacy extended beyond mainstream releases. In 2005, Anaswara hosted Kerala’s first experimental screening using UFO digital projection technology, marking a turning point in the state’s exhibition history. It later became closely associated with the Kottayam International Film Festival, functioning almost as the festival’s permanent home.

During his tenure as vice-chairman of the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, Joshy helped organise the festival in Kottayam for the first time. For audiences and filmmakers alike, Anaswara soon became inseparable from the event itself.
That emotional association is precisely what worries members of the Kottayam film community now.
Director Pradeep Nair, secretary of the Kottayam Film Society, said the theatre had become central to the identity of the festival over the years.

"Anaswara was one of the best venues for a film festival," he said. "People could stay nearby, audiences loved the atmosphere, and every festival there felt alive."
He described the closure as both shocking and deeply personal for those who spent years building a film culture around the space.
Perhaps the most telling memory about Rajmahal comes from an anecdote Jayaraj shared about veteran director J Sasikumar. After one of his films failed commercially, Sasikumar reportedly travelled to Kottayam feeling disillusioned and ready to stop making movies altogether. At Rajmahal, a ticket staff member encouraged him not to give up and suggested he watch the film screening there and continue making cinema with that same spirit. Sasikumar eventually returned to Chennai and went on to direct several successful films.
It is the kind of story that could only belong to an old single-screen theatre, a place where cinema did not merely play on the screen but spilled into conversations, careers and lives.