Madras as seen in 1942

One of the best sources for Madras of the early 20^th century is cinema. The black-and-white era keeps giving us precious nuggets every once in a while, even though most of those films were shot inside studios. A real gem among these is the 1942 film En Manaivi. A.V. Meiyappan was the man behind it, though his famous AVM studios was, by then, still in the womb of time. Having hired the Admiralty House at Mandaveli from the Maharaja of Vizianagaram, he was producing films there under the banner of Pragati Pictures.

Meiyappan had tried his hand at films several times before and undeterred by early disasters, he kept at it till he found success. En Manaivi was one of his early hits. It was based on Samshay Kallol, a Marathi play by G.B. Deval, which was based on Moliere’s 17^th century French one-act verse play Sganarelle or the Self-Deceived Husband. The plot revolves around suspicion between two couples leading to many comic situations. The lead couple was Sarangapani and K.R. Chellam. It is interesting to see that the core of the story – a woman fainting on the street and a portrait landing in the wrong hands – remains unchanged across the original and the Indian versions.

A.V. Meiyappan
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

But it is Madras that sparkles throughout the Tamil film. The casting credits feature a quick succession of cinematographic footage of some prominent locations in the city. We have what seems a ghostly Egmore railway station, followed by a busier but still fairly empty Central. The camera then moves onto what is presently the Muthuswami Iyer Bridge, named after the first Indian to become a judge of the High Court of Madras. From here, with a cyclist pedaling furiously, we see the anatomy block of the Madras Medical College, popularly known as the Red Fort. Though the MMC has moved further down the road and this building awaits conversion into a museum, we can see that the view has remained substantially unchanged.

We are next transported to China Bazaar (NSC Bose) Road where the intersection with Broadway (Prakasam Salai) is seen with a tram cutting across. A careful viewing shows one more of the six boundary pillars of the Esplanade standing at the corner. It has vanished along with four of its companions, leaving the one near Dare House as the survivor. We see trams running along the same road, with the old Madras Christian College buildings still standing – Anderson’s Church, College Hall and College House, of which only the first named remains. We also see glimpses of the High Court and the Law College.

The Central railway station in the 1940s
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

The camera seems to pivot to Esplanade Road, where we see the Travancore Maharaja Park with its statue. The park later became the Broadway Bus Stand, and the statue was shifted to Gandhi Nagar where it stands in the shadow of the Ananthapadmanabhaswami Temple. Raja Annamalai Manram’s space is an empty plot but next to it rises elegant Madras (now Chennai) House, once the headquarters of Burmah Shell and now insurance offices.

The Kodambakkam railway station comes as something of a shock – there is not a soul anywhere around as a suburban train arrives. The road by the side is wide and uncluttered, with a few houses visible. This was clearly somewhere in the boondocks then for a dialogue in the film deals with travelling from Madras to Kodambakkam. The Mylapore Kapaliswarar temple makes a fleeting appearance, but the camera lingers long on Thiruneermalai. The temple and hill are just the same, but GST Road is just a two-way country road with plenty of trees and bushes around it. War Memorial has just the central tower, and the circular colonnade seems partially built. Once again, just a couple of people around and no vehicles of any kind. Connemara Hotel, then the only five-star facility in the city, appears in pristine white and in full Art Deco glory. Gemini Studios follows – an AVM film shows Gemini, its rival.

Broadway junction in the 1950s
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

Lux soap fame R. Padma appears as a maid and sings a song on the wonders of the city. The first deals with loudspeakers set up at the Marina where the public can listen to radio broadcasts. Meenambakkam is next, where vehicles “not led by bullocks, actually traverse the sky” and make landing. A flight is shown landing at the airport when this line is sung. Lastly, the High Court dome functioning as the third lighthouse of Madras is shown, with the second one, the Doric column, standing next to it.

Madras seems another world. From there to the Chennai of today, we have come a long way in just 85 years or so. A lot of change has, no doubt, been to the good, but you sometimes do miss the vast open spaces.

(Sriram V. is a writer and historian.)