15th Feb 2016.
TN CM Ms J Jayalalithaa Inaugurates All New Kalaivanar Arangam [Childrens Theatre Once]
Posted on the 15 February 2016 by Sampathkumar Sampath
Chhoti Si Baat, is a 1975 Hindi
romantic comedy film featuring Amol Palekar.
Chennai
has a long history of theatres and Mount Road was identified with theatres –
from Shanti to Saffire – so many dotted the road. According to Encyclopedia of Indian
Cinema, edited by AshishRajadhyaksha –
Warwick Major opened the first theater in 1900 – but by other accounts, it was
in 1913, that Warwick Major opened the
first theater in Madras in the present Philatelic Bureau on Mount Road, and it
was titled Major Warwick Electric theater. Triplicane had Star, Paragon and
Childrens’ theater. Of the many movie halls of fame - Sun, Saffire, Anand, Star, Paragon, Wellington, Chitra, Nagesh, Odeon …. have all
fallen by the side.
In
where Paragon once stood, now has a high-rise building and opposite to Paragon
was a theater of a different kind and history… that is what famously was
Children’s theater – a relatively new building with some history in it ! –
nearly a decade ago, when it was pulled down, it was not a dilapidated
structure but a strong one….. pulled down to give way for the new Secretariat
complex planned at that time.
For
the few years it had entertained many, especially children – while all the
other theatres were commercial ones catapulting ordinary people to famed
mortals and some to the heights of rulers of the State, this one was meant for
students education and enlightenment ! through the strong cinema media. Remember
that in mid 1970s, the ticket here was a mere 50 paise for students, later
raised to Re.1 – around which time the box of Devi Paradise was the ultimate
luxury at Rs.2.90. Recall those days
when the theater showcased comedy films in English and some hindi films too. With
the many screenings, the comedy duo of ‘Laurel and Hardy’ the lean bean and big fat reached us. The slapstick comedy of the classical
Hollywood era of American cinema made students laugh heartily. The duo's
signature tune, was known as "The Cuckoo Song."
The building has chequered history -
it was built as a new Assembly Hall in the early
1950s at a cost of Rs 10 lakh as the one in Fort St George was not able
to seat the 375 legislators of the composite Madras State about to be elected
in 1952. So the administrators thought it fit to move out of Fort St. George to
a new building constructed closer to Rajaji Hall and Government House, inaugurated on May 2, 1952 by the then Governor Sri Prakasa. When Andhra Pradesh was
carved out linguistically, the reduced no. of legislators could be accommodated
in the hall inside the Fort and the
otherwise disused building became the Children’s
Theatre where children’s films and documentaries were shown at subsidised
rates. Few years later, the auditorium was
refurbished as a 1000-seat theater and relaunched as Kalaivanar Arangam, named
after N.S. Krishnan.
The
theatre survived till 2008 when, as part of the magnificent obsession to build
a new Assembly-cum-Secretariat in Government Estate, the heritage buildings in
the premises were all brought down one by one. Remember seeing the magic show
of PC Sarkar in May 2009. Now it is back with fresh vigour.
On Sunday, 14th Feb 2016, Chief Minister Ms
Jayalalithaa inaugurated ‘Kalaivanar Arangam’ - an auditorium that can seat
about 2,400 people, through video conferencing.
The auditorium spread over 1.92 lakh sq. meter with state-of-the-art
facilities has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 62.73 crore, according to an
official release. The completely air-conditioned auditorium has seats for 1,100
persons in the first and second floors and about 1,300 persons in the third
floor. The auditorium has escalators, lifts, rooms for officials, food plaza,
guest rooms, conference halls and parking space for about 200 four-wheelers and
500 two-wheelers. The parking space in basement can accommodate 50
four-wheelers and 100 two-wheelers, the release added.
If you wonder why
Chhoti Si Baat featured here… in 1978 with due permission from my parents, me
with a couple of friends went to see a Laurel & Hardy film – little did we realize
that they would change films every Thursday and ended up entering the hall for
the Hindi romantic film[which otherwise was a taboo!] featuring a shy young man
Arun Pradeep (Amol Palekar) lacking self-confidence falling for Prabha Narayan (Vidya Sinha) at the bus stop
en route to work ! ~ the movie had
cameos performed by Dharmendra & Hemamalini and Amitabh featured in a
movie-within-movie sequence.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
15th Feb 2016.
15th Feb 2016.