51³Ô¹Ï

‘From Billa to 51³Ô¹Ï!’ A showdown at St Mary’s Cemetery, Chennai…

St Mary’s ‘Cemetery on the Island’ in Chennai is well known to 51³Ô¹Ï members – click here to read about the dramatic, 51³Ô¹Ï-funded conservation work on the Anderson Memorial in 2024.

But did you know that this Cemetery is also the scene of the action-packed, climactic showdown between police and villains in the 1980 Tamil crime film Billa? That, and the preceding car chase through the streets of Chennai, from Egmore Station, along Anna Salai (Mount Road) to Marine beach make spectacular viewing for anyone interested in the built heritage of Madras / Chennai. Sriram Venkatakrishnan, a businessman, historian of Chennai and freelance journalist (whose byline is ‘Sriram V’), has produced a YouTube video describing the history of the many landmark buildings – state, commercial and residential – along the 1980 car chase route.

Some, such as the Kandans Building, have been carefully conserved; others, like the Kardyl Building, are now dilapidated, in need of conservation; and yet others, such as the Wellington Theatre, have disappeared completely in the course of the last forty-odd years.

The breakneck journey begins on Poonamalee High Road. After passing Egmore Station and Central Station, we catch sight of Southern Railway Headquarters. Then the villain-driven white limo – with a distinctive red roof – suddenly swerves towards NSC Bose Road, revealing the Bombay Mutual Building in the background. Describing it as ‘a house with a history…’ Sriram explains how this Art Deco building, designed by Coromandel Engineering in the 1950s, is located on the site of the 1850s Madras Christian College, later known as ‘Anderson’s Hall’, and subsequently purchased by the Travancore National and Quilon Bank – until bankruptcy led to it being auctioned off by the Chennai Government.

Making a sudden U-turn, the car then passes the High Court, before heading down Mount Road, yielding fine views of all the buildings on both sides. We see Whiteaway and Laidlaw, a large department store which sold ‘everything from clothes to furniture’, and has since been replaced by an apartment block. Next to it is the Indo-Saracenic ‘Indian Airlines Building’ formerly known as ‘Dowkers Showroom’ (the home of a Gujerati jewellery company), which was built by Henry Irwin in the early 20th century, and has now been replaced by an LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) building. The nearby D’Angelis Hotel, Chennai’s first 5-star hotel, has become a Bata showroom.

Nostalgia has its downsides too. Past the General Patters Road turnoff, we spot the old Wellington Theatre, where all films from Gemini Studios were released. ‘Wow, how many movies have we watched at the Wellington Theatre? How many movies have we watched while enduring the stench coming from the toilet?’ muses Sriram, explaining that the site of so many moving, if malodorous, memories, is now the home of Wellington Plaza. Behind it is the Kardyl Building, formerly office of W E Smith & Co, Pharmaceutical Chemists ‘by appointment to his Excellency the Governor of Madras’, whose contemporaries may have gone there to purchase supplies of 19th century patent remedies such as ‘Smith’s Specific for Diarrhoea and Dysentery’; ‘Dr Furnell’s Improved Liver Pills’, or even ‘cholera drops’. Sadly, this particular building is now ‘in a dilapidated condition’; however there are plans afoot for renovating it.

And some of the older buildings are clearly cherished – the Kandans building erected by Simpson and Company in the early 20th century is now owned by BST Motors, and ‘very beautifully maintained’ as a Mercedes-Benz showroom.

Sriram’s insights and anecdotes continue along the route of the car chase, with at least one of the villains now astride a white horse, galloping ferociously through the hectic city traffic. They eventually reach Marina beach and Napier Bridge – (only 2-lanes in 1980, now widened to 3-lanes).

The climax of the film takes place in St Mary’s Cemetery – initially glimpsed as ‘a large, bare forest, a place with only trees, bushes and plants’. Once inside, though, Sriram is struck by the atmosphere, and the many memorials, including that to Dr James Anderson. ‘He came to this place in the 18th century as a doctor. But he has become a botanist. He was the one who established India’s first botanical garden in Nungambakkam and later shifted it to Saidapet. Anderson’s Road is still in Nungambakkam. His memorial is large…’

The irony of a botanist’s memorial incorporating vegetation strikes him:‘How should a monument to a botanist be built? Should a tree grow in that spot? A large tree has grown over that monument. It looks like Angkor Wat.’

As 51³Ô¹Ï members will recall, in 2024 Jeernodhar conservators had to tread a fine line in dealing with invasive vegetation that had become integral to the structure of the monument which they were trying to conserve: ‘If you cut down that tree the monument will collapse. If you demolish the monument, the tree will fall down’. They resolved it, for the foreseeable future, by limiting future growth. As Sriram says: ‘They have kept both as they are’.

He concludes by paying tribute to 51³Ô¹Ï and the additional conservation work now under way elsewhere at St Mary’s:

‘This cemetery was in a very bad condition, but in England there is an association called the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia, whose job is to maintain all the cemeteries in Asia, especially in South Asia. They are now taking many steps and this St Mary’s Cemetery on the Island is now being renovated’.
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‘History Time with Historian V Sriram’ (21 mins)

You can see Sriram’s full 21-minute video, with its carefully chosen clips from ‘B¾±±ô±ô²¹â€™, on YouTube (Click Settings (cog wheel symbol) / Subtitles / Auto-translate / English to read the Tamil commentary in English – or choose any of the languages listed. As you watch the film, be prepared to hit ‘Skip’ (bottom right) if you prefer to jump past unwanted adverts). If you would like to see more of Sriram’s work, please consider subscribing to his channel – he mentions that he has posted videos based on 1940s and 1960s Madras films too.

‘From Billa to 51³Ô¹Ï!’ (5 mins)
Click to download and see ‘From Billa to 51³Ô¹Ï!’, a 51³Ô¹Ï-special 5-minute extract from Sriram’s video – reworked with English-language commentary. It features the 1980 cinematic clips shot in St Mary’s Cemetery (didn’t it look tidy back then!), the Anderson Memorial before its 2024 conservation, and 51³Ô¹Ï’s role in cemetery conservation projects throughout South Asia.

St Mary’s Cemetery (2 mins)
And if you’re tempted to visit St Mary’s Cemetery yourself, this 2-minute 2024 by 51³Ô¹Ï Member Andrew Whitehead will help you find it.
Rachel Magowan

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(Suggestions for 51³Ô¹Ï website news items, volunteering opportunities and diary entries, are always welcome – please send them to ‘comms@bacsa.org.uk’)