Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/12-14 Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/12-14 Publication: 15th & 28th of every month Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • Father of primary healthcare • Madanapalle centenaries • Madras Week Programme • An American & Tranvancore trio Vol. XXIV No. 8 MUSINGS August 1-15, 2014 Madras Landmarks Build as you – 50 years ago please he recent collapse of a not an illegal one. The promot- sanction, it goes without saying T multi-storeyed building ers had sanction for building that they had soil mechanics under construction made head- two blocks of eleven floors each. certification as well. Yet, the line news. While most of the Such structures need to have building collapsed. It is now media focussed on the terrible soil certification to be done for rumoured that the structure fell tragedy that took several lives, because it was built on the bed very few bothered to comment of a lake without proper rein- on the reasons for such a disas- G by The Editor forcements. How could that be ter having taken place. It has if the soil had been found suit- everything to do with an admin- able? istration that has stopped being ensuring load bearing capacity A high profile enquiry has proactive. The construction in- before work begins. This is usu- been launched and heads in dustry, and much else in our ally obtained from a certified official circles might well roll. city, is in a self-governance soil mechanics engineer and the But it is unlikely that anyone mode: Those who wish to abide document is one of the prereq- will bring up the root cause for by rules can choose to do so, the uisites for obtaining approval all this trouble – neither the rest need not, until they com- from the CMDA for going Chennai Metropolitan Devel- mit an error of judgement and ahead with the construction. opment Authority (CMDA), are exposed. Since the developers under The building in question was question had obtained CMDA (Continued on page 2) G Now it is nothing but a cluster of multi-storeyed buildings and a five-star hotel, but till the late 1960s this was the place that embodied cinema. Gemini Studios or, to give the place its proper name, Movieland-Gemini Studios, was the best known among the several film studios of Madras. The story of the property, at the intersection of Mount Road and Watching heritage Nungambakkam High Road, goes back many years. A heavily wooded piece of land, it had in its centre a classical mansion which, according to legend, was once the house of Edward, the second Lord Clive, c.1800. It was in the possession of a J. Sherman in the 1820s. In the 1830s it became the residence of the Rev. F. go up in flames Spring, Chaplain of St George’s Cathedral, Madras, a man who, it would ap- pear, spent more time at the Agri Horticultural Society close by than in the church. In his time, the property came to be known as Spring’s Garden and the here was a time when that the Bank has not largely a wasted effort the way it name continued to be used for a century and more, even as the property changed T Shimla held the record for announced any decision to has panned out. The building is hands – the Rajah of Pithapuram and Sir C Sankaran Nair owning it at various the maximum number of heri- demolish, and is most likely to back to a bad state and the only times. In 1903, the property hosted a session of the Congress party, a pandal to tage buildings burnt down. The restore, the structure. The SBI satisfaction that can be got out house 6000 people being put up in the gardens. excuse given there was that the has had a fairly good track of it is that the structure is still In 1937, the property was purchased by film director K. Subrahmanyam structures were largely of timber record of conserving its built standing. who established a studio there for his Motion Picture Producers Combine and so this was bound to heritage and it is expected that The fire at the SBI building (MPPC). It was here that some of his famous films, Thyaga Bhoomi (1938) happen. Now it would appear was waiting to happen given the included, were shot. On December 21, 1940, the studio was burned to the that Chennai is giving the erst- way the structure was main- ground necessitating a distress sale of the land. It was bid for and bought by S.S. while summer capital some G by A Special tained – unwanted furniture Vasan of Ananda Vikatan. tough competition. The fire in Correspondent dumped at all corners, water Renamed Gemini Studios in 1941, the property embarked on the most excit- the State Bank of India (SBI) seeping through at most places, ing phase of its existence. Several hits, including Chandralekha (1948), were building on Rajaji Salai (First an enormous number of files made here, making Vasan a movie moghul. The studio was a cosmopolitan place Line Beach) is the latest in a it will take up work on the stored disorderly and above all, with people from all over the country and even some foreigners working for The series that stretches back to the Rajaji Salai property in the same arbitrary electric wiring and use Boss as Vasan was always referred to. It was also a ‘must visit’ spot in the city 1980s. Most of them have had spirit. That said, we must cau- of false ceilings and partitions. for any VIP who happened to be passing. only one reason – poor main- tion that the restoration will The last named had been put up The golden era of Gemini was undoubtedly the 1940s and the early 1950s. tenance, something that could not be an easy task given the as and when the necessity arose, Thereafter, it did produce some hits but the purple patch of the earlier decade have easily been avoided. building’s location and its un- without any proper planning. was never matched. Decline set in in the 1960s. The unionised staff, a new The fire at the State Bank doubtedly intricate architec- Thus, what was essentially a political regime and the star as opposed to the studio system meant the good times building was quickly put out – tural elements and interiors. It single storied banking hall be- were coming to an end though Vasan’s grit and determination ensured success to but not before a part of a floor is to be hoped that the SBI will came a two-storied structure a large degree. When the bugles blow, there will be a show was the motto em- bossed under the logo of the famed Gemini twins at the entrance and so the show caved in. It is understood that NOT follow the example of the with the intervening floor being had to be kept going. The Boss died in 1969 after a painful bout with cancer and experts from the Indian Insti- Department of Posts, Govern- put up for accommodating more with him much of the Gemini magic too went. His family decided to focus on his tute of Technology (IIT) have ment of India, when the latter office space. This is the floor publishing activities and preferred to sell Gemini to developers. The bugles had been called in to assess the restored the neighbouring blown, and the show was over. But old memories die hard – the flyover nearby damage. What is heartening is General Post Office. That was (Continued on page 2) is still Gemini to most people. CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS August 1-15, 2014 Watching heritage A Madras Week moment go up in flames h! MMM, such a resolved to have clean public read, MMM was about to “A pleasure talking to toilets, ensure pavement space, shoot off the customary apol- (Continued from page 1) ing to be international in its you,” said the voice over the maintain smooth roads, tackle ogy (‘We know how you feel standards. phone and The Man from the hawker menace, repair but there is very little we can that has now collapsed. Those For a matter of record, the Madras Musings froze in his street lights, and clear garbage. do, etc’) when a line caught his tracks. A sixth sense warned Anyway, it is the thought that attention. Four digit figures in charge of the restoration will SBI building in question was built in 1895 by T. Namberumal him that an impossible idea for counts and MMM is glad to were mentioned as subscrip- need to debate on whether the Madras Week was in the note that the heart of the civic tion and it said that Madras floor has to necessarily be put Chetty, the master contractor of that period, to the design of offing. Sure enough, MMM body is in the right place. But Musings had had the temerity back or whether the old hall can was correct. The person at the leaving all that aside, MMM to charge the correspondent be splendidly restored with the Henry Irwin. It was the head of- other end of the wire, it wonders if the resolution to re- the same figure twice but had space in it being put to better fice of the Bank of Madras seemed, found the poster cul- move posters has anything to not delivered even once.