மெட்ராஸ் நல்ல மெட்ராஸ்; Madras by Night !

 

Madras aka Namma Chennai bustles with traffic all the time – and to a first time visitor from a village can be quite bemusing – road traffic and travel either on road or on train could invoke some fear too – though when compared with train travel in Mumbai or elsewhere, things are much better. 

A few years or couple of decades ago, when there were so many Movie Studios, it was said, that every train to Egmore carried a few dozens of young women aspiring to become heroines and equal or more no. of youngsters vying for an appearance in ‘Soap industry’.  

There are many Cinemas depicting the city of Madras – showing Central Railway station, LIC building on Mount Road, Napier Bridge, Marina beach and the like. One of the first songs that tried to provide a commentary on life in Madras city was Madras Nalla Madras from the film, Anubavi Raja Anubavi.  

Anubavi Raja Anubavi (transl. Experience it boy, experience it) a  comedy film written and directed by K. Balachander hit the screens in 1967.  It starred  Nagesh along with R. Muthuraman, Rajasree and Jayabharathi. The film was remade in Hindi as Do Phool (1974),  in Malayalam as Aanandham Paramaanandham (1977) and in Kannada as Kittu Puttu (1977).  Here is that song partly reproduced: 

மெட்ராஸ் நல்ல மெட்ராஸ்;  மெட்ராஸ் நல்ல மெட்ராஸ்

மெதுவாப் போறவுக யாருமில்லே

இங்கே சரியாத் தமிழ் பேச ஆளுமில்லே

 

ஊரு கெட்டுப் போனதுக்கு மூரு மார்க்கெட்டு அடையாளம்!

நாடு கெட்டுப் போனதுக்கு, மெட்ராஸு நாகரிகம் அடையாளம் !!

Moving away, Madras By Night is a celebrated Tamil comedic murder-mystery stage play written and produced by the legendary playwright and satirist Cho Ramaswamy. The narrative revolved around the investigation of a murder, interwoven with hilarious misunderstandings, eccentric characters, and social commentary.  

 

Here is a picture of real ‘Madras by Night’ taken around 9.15 pm from an aeroplane preparing to land at Meenambakkam airport in 2024.    As could be seen the large dark expanse at the bottom is clearly open sea of Bay of Bengal. The long illuminated coastal road running parallel to the water resembles stretches  Ennore–North Chennai shoreline lighting. The extremely bright industrial cluster near the upper-middle portion looks very much like the North Chennai industrial-petrochemical belt: Manali refinery region / Thermal power / petrochemical infrastructure – around Ennore port area.

 
So a pattern of illumination – dazzling light of Chennai .. ..
 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
10.6.2026