Madras as seen in 1942 Premium

Explore Madras as depicted in the 1942 film En Manaivi, showcasing its rich history and transformation into modern Chennai.

One of the best sources for Madras of the early 20th 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 17th 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