Shanti was 10 when I first saw her.”
It was a meeting that 54-year-old Murali T., working in an MNC in the city now, would never forget. Hailing from Madurai and lured by the sights and sounds of cinema, his dream as a young boy was to watch his matinee idol Sivaji Ganesan on the big screen — at the “cool Shanti Theatre”.
So, on one fine day in 1971, after a family get-together in Madras, Murali went — accompanied by his mother and sister — to watch Thangaikkaga . As luck would have it, the film was pulled off the theatre just a day ago, and a Hindi film was playing. “That didn’t upset me much… I still wanted to watch a movie sitting inside an AC theatre; the cool air inside was just amazing.”
The first fully air-conditioned theatre with modern décor, Shanti — situated on the bustling Mount Road — was the ‘coolest’ hangout a few decades ago. Back then, all leading Sivaji Ganesan classics (the family owned the theatre) including Thiruvilaiyadal , Thirusoolam and Mudhal Mariyadhai enjoyed a long run in the hall. English films too, including Gone With The Wind and The Guns of Navarone , have been screened here. But it wasn’t just the films and the air-conditioning that drew the crowds. There were other features too. “Today’s multiplex audiences would have never experienced the sight of a screen going up,” says Mohan Raman, actor. “That used to happen here. The screen used to go up slowly, before the words ‘Shanti welcomes you’ unfolded on it.”
The movie hall wasn’t close to just theatre-goers, but to filmmakers too. P Vasu, film director who has helmed many popular Tamil movies, shares a personal link with this theatre. It was a place that he frequented so many times as a movie-goer that once he became a filmmaker, he wanted to feature the movie hall in one of his projects. That film was Superstar Rajinikanth’s Mannan .
“I vividly remember going to Shanti Theatre to watch Savale Samali ,” recalls Vasu, explaining the inspiration behind the popular theatre comedy scene featuring Rajinikanth and Goundamani in Mannan. “It was really crowded and I was waiting in the queue. Suddenly, from somewhere, a crowd of people came and joined the queue. I tried to get back my original place, but a cop stationed there wouldn’t let me. Despite my protests, he hit me with his lathi and drove me away from the theatre.” Later, when he became a filmmaker, Vasu weaved this particular sequence — with adequate doses of comedy — into his movie. One of the highlights of Shanti was the huge photos of yesteryear actors from the South Indian film industry that adorned its walls back then. “I can never forget the photos of stars on the walls... I’ve spent hours just staring at these pictures,” Vasu says wistfully.
For film buffs in the 1970s and 80s, evenings would include a visit to the theatre even if they weren’t catching a film. “People used to gather there to discuss films threadbare,” recalls Murali. “Shanti was a mecca for Sivaji Ganesan fans like me. A lot of us might not have been inside ‘Annai Illam’ (Sivaji Ganesan’s house, located in T. Nagar), but we have surely been to Shanti.” Gathered in the spacious verandah, not far from the booth that sold prestigious balcony tickets, fans of the Nadigar Thilagam — as Sivaji was described — used to discuss films and gaze at the long list engraved on a plaque.
Today, Shanti is on the brink of change — a change that will see it in a “new avatar with world-class entertainment facilities” as a result of a recent joint venture agreement between the Sivaji Ganesan family and promoters Akshaya. This might just alter the quaint charm in movie-watching and the old-world allure of Anna Salai, in which the theatre stands. But, as Mohan puts it, “As a member of the film fraternity, I’d like the sentiment of Shanti to stay, but as a well-wisher of the family, I’d like them to take the best commercial decision.”
