Was toying with this idea of writing a short note on a Malayalam movie and its connection to Madras. There are many cinematic representations of Madras in Malayalam cinema, but this movie is close to my heart. The movie is Nadodikattu ( Vagabond/Wandering Wind) and it has Mohanlal and Sreenivasan playing the lead roles. The movie became a success and two more movies came featuring the iconic characters of Vijan and Dasan. The movie is rich because of ideas like migration, nostalgia, acculturation and memory. Two unemployed youth arrive on the shores of Madras. They are duped by an agent who makes them believe that Madras is Dubai. The movie reminds one of the numerous movies in Malayalam which portrayed the Malayali experience in the Gulf. (You can do a quick search in Google to get the list) Some of the movies which I recommend are Arabikatha, Diamond Necklace and even Pathemari. In Nadodikattu, we can see many landmarks in Chennai like Anna Nagar Tower Park, Mount Road, and the most iconic monument in Beasnat Nagar/Elliots Beach – The Karl Schmidt Memorial. Elliot’s Beach is named after Edward Elliot. During the Colonial era, the place was exclusively used by white people. The memorial on the beach is dedicated to a European sailor who drowned in 1930 trying to save the life of a girl. The girl was saved. Karl Schmidt died. The Madras Governor built the memorial. Madras is celebrating Madras Week and all the newspapers have exclusive content about the Madras Week celebrations. The US Consulate had tweeted some archival photographs to commemorate the event. One is the photograph taken when Martin Luther King addressed the gathering at Presidency College. This evening there is a webinar on the topic Memorialization of Post Colonial Spaces which is organized by Christ University, Bangalore. Hope some of you will attend the same. The flyer regarding the same was posted in the group a few days ago. Other topics which can be explored connecting movies and memory studies are
1. The life of film stars ( Rajanikanth, Sreenivasan) in the lanes of Kodambakkam
2. How the studio culture shifted to Ramoji Flim City from Madras
3. The transition from the Analogue to the Digital
4. Movies as Digital Memories
5. Iconic landmarks in Chennai and Movies ( There was an interesting article by the film
historian Mohan Raman in the Times of India (Chennai edition)
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