Sri Murugan Talkies, which was demolished in 2011
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The other day, someone was lamenting that the history of the Madras cinema theatres has not been well documented. I agreed, and then reflected that the story of the playhouses of the city has fared even worse. I do not mean the great theatrical venues, such as the Museum Theatre or Victoria Public Hall, but those where in the heyday of Tamil drama, the public flocked to watch their idols act. For long, before cinema caught hold of our Chennai city, theatre ruled the roost.The chief problem concerning these venues was that they were not permanent. All of them were tin sheds or tents, put up on public/private spaces. And so, when they vanished, they took with them every shred of evidence. Fortunately for us, some scraps of information are available in the writings of theatre veterans.Avvai T.K. Shanmugam in his Enathu Nataka Vazhkai (Vanathi Pathippagam, 1972) gives us details of three such theatres – the Royal, the Grand, and the Empress. All very grand in name but just tents/tin sheds. Which is why such venues were referred to as kottagai in Tamil. The dictionary defines this as a shed with sloping roofs. When cinema arrived, film shows too were shown in these places. And when movie theatres became permanent, they were for long referred to as kottagai!Arriving in Madras in 1921, Shanmugam and his brothers were taken by their father to the Grand Theatre in George Town, where the troupe was slated to perform. Shanmugam fortunately gives details as to where it was located – on its site came up Murugan Talkies, he writes. Located on St. Xavier’s Street in Town, this venue had a long history with the performing arts. As Mohan Raman writes in The Hindu dated December 19, 2011, the site spanning 10 grounds was purchased by Murugesa Mudaliar and first run as a market. Then he ran it as the Majestic Theatre for a while, and this became Grand in 1921. By 1931, it was a permanent cinema house named Kinema Central when it had the honour of hosting the first talkie in which Tamil was heard – Mahakavi Kalidas. It was renamed Sri Murugan Talkies in 1948 and acquired its art deco frontage. It was demolished in 2011.When the troupe’s contract ran out at the Grand, the stagings shifted to the Empress. Shanmugam says this was where the Star Theatre in Thiruvallikeni came to be built later. From here, they shifted to the Royal, which he says was near the Salt Cottaurs area. My guess is that this was at the intersection of Wall Tax Road and Peddunaicken Street where Padmanabha Talkies was built later. The Star survives as a derelict shell, but Padmanabha has made way for a block of flats.
