Neelam Theatre, one of three cinemas built as part of Le Corbusier's construction of Chandigarh, is revealed in these new images by British photographer Edmund Sumner.
Built in the early 1950s, Neelam Theatre is located in Sector 17, the commercial district of the modernist city that was famously masterplanned by Le Corbusier in post-independence India.

But the building was actually designed by Aditya Prakash, one of six Indian architects assigned to work with Le Corbusier and his cousin, French architect Pierre Jeanerret, during the construction of Chandigarh.
Despite his central role in the masterplan, Le Corbusier's involvement in the commercial district was quite limited.

"I'm sure he came to Sector 17, but he had nothing to do with it ? and I don't think he cared either," explained Prakash?s son Vikram, who is an architectural historian at the University of Washington. Aditya Prakash was initially appointed to work on Chandigarh's government museum complex in 1952. When the time came for the three cinemas to be designed in Sector 17, he was a natural choice.
"He was an absolutely committed, thoroughbred modernist," said Vikram Prakash. "Everything he learned about architecture was from Le Corbusier."

Throughout the duration of his masterplan, Le Corbusier's focus was the Capitol Complex, comprising the Legislative Assembly, Secretariat and High Court. The trio of government buildings were made from concrete moulded into gridded...