“Madras…Nalla Madras…” Madras & Movies – F’day Spl. Article by Naveen

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The city of Chennai, originally Madras, celebrated its birthday recently and events were organised to commemorate the founding of the metropolis, which was once a fishing village.

Chenna is home to south Indian cinema. Though Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries later shifted to their own States, Tamil cinema still operates from the city and has made some memorable movies with Chennai aka Madras as the backdrop. This week, as part of its Friday special article series, mykollywood.com tracks some movies that celebrated the spirit of namma Chennai.

CHENNAI 600028

‘Chennai 600028’ is a 2007 sports comedy film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu in his directorial debut. It stars Jai, Shiva, Premji, Aravind Akash, Nithin Sathya and newcomers Ajay Raj, Ranjith, Vijay Vasanth, Prasanna, Inigo Prabakaran, Karthik and Arun in the lead along with Vijayalakshmi and Kristine Zedek, making their acting debut as well.

The film was produced by S P B Charan. The film’s score and soundtrack were composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.  The film is based on street cricket played in Chennai, focussing on various themes as friendship, love and rivalry in an area.
Following its theatrical release on 27 April 2007, it received critical acclaim and emerged a surprise sleeper hit, running successfully for more than one year in theaters, whilst going on to achieve cult status in the subsequent years. The film’s title is derived from the pincode for Mandaveli, a suburb of Chennai, where the story takes place.

MADRASAPATTINAM

‘Madrasapattinam’ is a 2010 Tamil romantic period action drama film written and directed by A L Vijay. The film stars Arya and Amy Jackson, in her feature film debut, while Nassar, Cochin Hanifa, Lisa Lazarus, and Alexx O’Nell play other prominent roles.

The music was composed by G V Prakash Kumar with editing by Anthony and cinematography by Nirav Shah. The film was released on 9 July 2010 and was later dubbed into Telugu and released in Andhra Pradesh as ‘1947: A Love Story’. The film became a box office success

An elderly English woman named Amy Wilkinson (Carole Trangmar-Palmer), almost at her deathbed in London due to a blood clot caused by a past head injury, wants to come down to Madras in search of a young man named Ilam Parithi (Arya), whom she last saw on 15 August 1947. She wishes to return a thali (traditional wedding threads) belonging to his mother, which he gave her as a sign that she belongs to India and nobody can separate them. However, after a turn of events, she had married another man from her hometown and thus felt that the thali was no longer her property.

Amy arrives in Madras with her granddaughter Catherine (Lisa Lazarus), equipped only with a picture of Parithi that was taken 60 years ago. Amy interrogates various people about Parithi’s whereabouts. In the process, she recalls the events when she had first visited Chennai, and the chain of events that took place.

PUDHUPETTAI

‘Pudhupettai’ is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language gangster film written and directed by Selvaraghavan, starring his brother Dhanush in the lead, and Sneha and Sonia Agarwal in the lead female roles.

The film, with music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography by Arvind Krishna, Selvaraghavan’s usual crew members, was released on 26 May 2006.

The story is narrated by the main character ‘Kokki’ Kumar in a jail cell. ‘Kokki’ Kumar is a high school kid who lives in the slums of Pudhupettai, Chennai. After coming home from a film, he sees his mother’s dead body, killed by his father. After learning that his father will kill him too, Kumar runs away from home. Homeless and with no food, he resorts to begging until he is falsely arrested while watching police arresting goons on the street.

After being released on bail, he befriends Mani and other accused, all of whom work for Anbu. Anbu works for the opposition party’s leader Thamizhselvan, who is a goon and local politician. They take Kumar under their wing and give him petty jobs. During a confrontation with rival gangsters headed by the ruling party’s politician Murthy, Kumar kills Murthy’s brother single-handedly amidst 100 goons, earning the respect of his gang.

MADRAS

‘Madras’ is a 2014 political action drama film written and directed by Pa Ranjith. The film stars Karthi, Catherine Tresa, and Kalaiyarasan in the lead roles while Charles Vinoth, Riythvika, V I S Jayapalan, Poster Nandakumar, and Mime Gopi play supporting roles.

The film was produced and distributed by Studio Green in association with Dream Factory. Santhosh Narayanan composed the soundtrack and score, while the editing was handled by Praveen K L.

Principal photography commenced on 11 October 2013 at Vyasarpadi in Chennai. Most of the film’s shooting was done in localities in and around the northern part of the city, namely Kasimedu, a locality in the Royapuram area of north Chennai, Otteri and Perambur. The film released on 26 September 2014 to critical acclaim.

MAANAGARAM

‘Maanagaram’ is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and produced by S R Prabhu. The film features Sri, Sundeep Kishan, and Regina Cassandra in the lead roles, while Charle, Madhusudhan Rao, Ramdoss, and Vivek Prasanna play supporting roles.
Featuring music composed by Javed Riaz, the film finished production in late 2015, and was released on 10 March 2017. Upon release, the film won critical acclaim and became a successful venture at the box office

VADA CHENNAI

‘Vada Chennai’ is a 2018 action crime film written and directed by Vetrimaaran in his fourth film as a director. It is the first installment in a planned trilogy. Produced by A Subaskaran’s Lyca Productions and Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films with Vetrimaaran’s Grass Root Film Company, it features Dhanush in the lead role as Anbu, a skilled carrom player who becomes a reluctant participant in a gang war between two rival gangsters.

Ameer, Andrea Jeremiah, and Aishwarya Rajesh appear in other primary roles, while Samuthirakani, Daniel Balaji, Kishore, and Pawan appear in supporting roles. The film received several awards at the 2018 Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, including Best Actor for Dhanush, Best Supporting Actor for Ameer and Best Music Director for Santhosh Narayanan.

By Naveen
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