M Satish doesn’t use a date to describe the day he was born. He calls it the day OSS 117 Mission for a Killer re-released in Madras, way back in 1979. He remembers this detail so clearly because that was the film his father chose over him. Instead of the hospital, M Murugesan was at The Minerva, eagerly watching the thriller.
“Films were his life,” says Satish, now a project executive with a facility management company, talking about his late father, “He stayed in Mint at that time, worked at the harbour and was hooked to English films. He didn’t miss a single English film till he was 70.”
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 24/05/2018: Story on a Chennai collector of old English movie posters. which is now being looked after by his son Satish. Photo: R. Ravindran.
The good ol’ days
Born in 1935, Murugesan grew up in pre-Independence Madras where the beach and the cinema hall were the only sources of entertainment. He had watched a few films with his mother, including 1940’s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe , but it was the biblical drama Samson and Delilah that changed his life.
“It was an unforgettable day for him,” says Satish, “After school, he decided on a whim to watch the film alone.” Those days, theatres had only afternoon shows, and once Samson and Delilah ended, Murugesan walked out of the hall to dark, empty streets. “By the time he got home, his parents were furious and scolded him. But it fell on deaf ears.” And so started Murugesan’s love affair with the movies, often watching every film that released every week. “He worked as a tally clerk at the harbour and that gave him the opportunity to interact with a lot of travellers who’d give him copies of English film magazines. He’d spend just a few hours at work, and leave in time for the afternoon show, often taking the tram or walking the whole distance.”
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 24/05/2018: Story on a Chennai collector of old English movie posters. Photo: R. Ravindran.
Satish jokes that these were the years when his father spent more time at the movies than at home. “He’d always be shuffling between theatres like New Elphinstone, New Globe, Roxy, Paragon, Midland, Rajakumari and Odeon,” he says, holding up his father’s hand-written note detailing the best seats and ticket rates at each theatre. “The people who stood in line with him to buy tickets became actors later; he has watched films with people like typist Gopu and VS Raghavan.”
Here is Murugesan's handwritten chit where he lists various Madras theatres, ticket rates and the best seats in each screen to watch a movie
Inside the theatre, pamphlets used to be distributed, long before cutouts and banners became popular. “He began collecting them along with the film posters theatre managers gave him or those he picked up from the garbage.” Soon, the collection grew in number to include promotional material of rare films like Them, Gun Fury, The High and the Mighty,His Majesty O’Keefe and many more. Murugesan’s love for the big screen also made him dabble in film distribution, though the move was met with limited success.
“My dad had the habit of storing everything; he even carefully preserved all his film tickets, which we cannot locate any more. He didn’t do so thinking that it might be lucrative later, but for remembrance. Even while buying magazines, he’d always buy two; one to read and the other to preserve.”
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 24/05/2018: Story on a Chennai collector of old English movie posters. Photo: R. Ravindran.
The end credits
His habit continued until his death in 2016. “The last movie he watched alone was Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. ” Satish too was raised a movie buff, but he’s now unsure of preserving his father’s treasures. “My dad could have got me a Central Government job but he didn’t believe in recommendation. Times have been tough and we’re considering letting go of some of my father’s posters. But only to someone who loves movies as much as he did.”
