Casino Theatre Chennai

Casino Theater Chennai – The Deco Casino Theater in Chennai was built in 1941 by JH Irani, an ice factory owner, and designed by his engineer son, Firoz. Photo: N Sridharan

In the crowded and bustling Royapuram area of ​​Chennai, the tranquility of the 104-year-old Jal Phiroj Clubwala Dar-e-Meher Fire Temple seems unusual. A man wearing trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap pulls up on a motorcycle and introduces himself as Bomi Vazifdar, a priest of a Zoroastrian temple. “Not many people come to the temple,” he said. “In the past, Royapuram was the city center of the Parsis.”

Casino Theatre Chennai

Casino Theatre Chennai

As you go down the heart of Anna Salai, or Mount Road, the contributions of the Parsis – as the first known Zoroastrians of India – jump from you: the Dhun Building, Tarapore Tower, Casino Theater, and Elphinstone and. Wellington Towers.. theatre. Also popular are several small Iranian cafes on the stretch.

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A quick chai at one of these cafes shows a contrast to their counterparts in places like Mumbai, which are characterized by spacious interiors, wooden chairs, marble-topped tables, chandeliers, and a sharp-eyed Parsi owner behind them. desk. In Chennai, although they are Iranian, the cafes resemble other tea houses, with a traditional image of Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, to distinguish them.

Both Parsis and Iranians follow Zoroastrianism, but they differ when they migrated to India – the former fled Iran around the 8th-10th century, while the latter arrived in the 19th century. The community has dwindled to about 67,000 members across India, mainly in Gujarat and Mumbai, leaving only 250 in Chennai.

Zarin Mistry, a Parsi born in Chennai and Secretary of the Madras Parsi Association, says, “Language is a big barrier here, but people come here as migrants and some have businesses here. My father, Dr MM Cooper, migrated from Lahore. and moved to Chennai in 1934.” As head of the anatomy department of the Madras Medical College, Dr Cooper was an important figure in the medical community of the city and the Parsi community. When he died in 2002, an obituary in the Journal of the Anatomical Society read: “Meherji’s remarkable achievement and life of law helped (sic) put the Parsi name firmly on the map of Madras.”

Some notable Parsi Chennaiites include social worker Mary Clubwala Jhadav (who founded the Madras School of Social Work in 1952); films by Adi Irani (Alam Ara, SS Vasan’s Kamadhenu and Bala Nagamma) and Mehli Irani; Minoo K Belgamala, one of the founders of Madras Motor Sports Club; architect JH Tarapore; civil engineer Hormusji Nowroji (whom historian Sriram V calls “the father of Chennai water”); Soli Darulwala, who opened Chennai’s first modern art gallery; and many more.

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“I think we all succeeded, as I think, I did everything I could. I speak a little Tamil and I like southern culture and food. Many people from Mumbai really want to leave this city, but some are free and choose to stay, Mistry said.

According to him, the first official account of the station of Parsis in Chennai is Heerjibhai Manecji Kharas who came from Coorg along with five other Parsis and two priests in the early 19th century. The East India Company was strong in the fledgling city of Madras. The Parsis decided to put down their roots in the Royapuram area.

It was later, in 1910, that the Cluwala family built a Parsi fire temple – the first and only one in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the former French colony of Puducherry.

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Today, only one member of the Cluwala family remains in Chennai. Born in Karachi, Mani Clubwala married into a family in 1947 and moved to Chennai with her husband, director EID Parry, in the 1960s. His sons and grandson are in the US, and the 86-year-old lives alone in a bungalow in Santhome, south of Chennai. As Parsi families grew over the decades, they gradually migrated from Royapuram to other areas, he said.

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The close-knit community gathers in monthly meetings, on Parsi New Year and during Jamshedi Navroz at Clubwala Hall near the fire temple.

Parsis in Chennai, like elsewhere in the country, are struggling with their dwindling numbers. Clubwala has supported, tongue firmly in cheek, the Government-sponsored Jiyo Parsi programme, which is openly asking Parsis to have more children. “We’re like animals,” he said with a laugh. “I think advertising is fun. All these people need to wake up and do something!”

The Mistrys also left Chennai to do their work. “We don’t have enough young people who can enter the community and, hopefully, marry within the community,” he said.

The Parsis and Iranians of Chennai are determined to support their ancient community. “It is our duty as people to ensure that they live with dignity. Madras Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman has a house and we provide medical assistance, rent assistance and so on,” Mistry said.

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Pastor Vazifdar admitted that whether it is his daughter’s school fees or his wife’s medical expenses, the Foundation and the public are always there to support him.

After more than 200 years in the city, time may be running out for the Parsi community of Chennai, but their greatest legacy lives in the many unique institutions they have left behind in their home. Cinema Wellington! The name itself brings to mind the old days, the good old days of cinema. One of the oldest cinemas in the city, it was also one of the first to fall under the hammer. A commercial building of many colors and incomparable ugliness stands in its present place, under the name of Wellington Plaza.

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There are many interesting aspects to the history of the theater, starting with its name. Earlier this cinema was a traveling company, headed by Rustomji Dorabji. And that was in Bombay, 1901. The Wellington Cycle Company he founded was the Indian representative of many foreign brands and one of his partners was the West End Cycle Co, London. The business prospered and soon Rustomji opened branches in Secunderabad, Poona and Madras. He also added the company name to Seth RustomjiDorabji Wellington. However, he seems to be a man who was always looking for new business opportunities. In 1908, the Wellington Cycle Co briefly started making gramophone records in Bombay and went out of business the following year.

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His first film work was in Madras. It was in 1918, when he established the Wellington Cinema and its neighbour, the West End (a tribute to the origin of the two names) on Patter’s Main Road, off Mount Road. The history of the Dravidian party shows here that the Justice Party held its first meeting of the year, in 1918. In an open area facing the Mount Road he set up his circular house. The success of his theaters here inspired him to lease the Cowasji Framji Institute in the Dhobi Talao area of ​​Bombay and convert it into the Wellington Cinema. He also took over the West End theater in Girgaum. The third, Venus, will appear later. Rustomji was a perfectionist and made it clear that his cinemas only showed British films. Giving an Indian audience was an invitation to disaster he thought, because the sports equipment would be completely destroyed, their love of chewing beet leaves and spitting is the beginning of their bad habits. Make a film one week for the Indian audience, he said, and spend the next three weeks cleaning the place. Wellington in Madras, in the days when cinemas were still silent, had a full orchestra providing musical entertainment even while the film was running on the screen.

Details about who owned the land where Wellington stood are scant. It could have belonged to Raja Venugopaul Bahadur, a Telugu aristocrat who had a lot of wealth and many trading companies in Mount Road, including the Madras Stable Company and most importantly, the Indian Siegwart.