Romance, longing, life, and cinema on Chennai’s beach

Filmmakers have always used certain symbols, motifs, and signifiers to represent ideas, concepts, and places. Over the many years, popular city landmarks, including the hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and the Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, have been used as establishing shots to depict the city in which a film is set. For Chennai, it has always been a toss-up between Marina/Elliot’s Beach, Central Station, Anna Flyover, Spencer Plaza, and LIC Building.

While one could argue that the LIC Building established the “big city” vibe and that Spencer Plaza represented Chennai’s “modern and capitalist” aspects, the beach has always been used to represent love and life.

Remember the song, Enna Paarvai, Undhan Paarvai, from Kadhalikka Neramillai, a popular 60s film that many, swear to be the unmatched “evergreen romantic” comedy. The song showcases a young couple — Muthuraman and Kanchana — shaking a leg to a melodious song at the beach, unrecognisable with manicured lawns and the absence of cars. Similarly, in Mani Ratnam’s Alaipayudhey, staying true to the perception of the beach as a sanctuary for those in love, the lead-in to the song, Snehithane, shows the hero waiting for the heroine at the beach.

The iconic Ilaiyaraaja song Idhu Oru Pon Malai Pozhudhu from the film Nizhalgal showcases the beach as a place where college students go to smoke weed after bunking classes and build grandiose dreams about their future. 

Filmmaker Venkat Prabhu’s debut film, Chennai 600028, captured another aspect of the beach — its popularity as a space for playing sports, until the police began imposing restrictions. While the Gen Z crowd may not be aware, the black tar road on the beach used to be where hundreds of tennis ball cricket matches took place in the evenings, while the fiercely contested football and volleyball games happened on the beach sands. The final “match” with the school kids at the beach reflected its popularity as a space for playing sports, until the police began imposing restrictions.

Filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s Vada Chennai portrayed the lives of those who live near the coast and depend on the Kasimedu Fishing Harbour for their livelihood. While the film itself is about Chennai’s underworld, it focuses on the trials and tribulations of those living near the beach through various points in recent history. Not just the beach, but its people, their politics and economic conditions were the focus of the critically-acclaimed film.

In actor Sivakarthikeyan’s Marina, the beach becomes a place of refuge for those running away from home.

In a way, the Marina, the Elliots Beach, and the sandy beaches along the East Coast Road evoke different perceptions. While the Marina has maintained its position as the city’s major landmark for tourists, the Elliots’ Beach and those further down the East Coast Road have slowly transformed themselves to attract the hip and fashionable youngsters of Chennai.

With the city growing at a rapid pace, there may be more “landmarks” or cultural markers that the filmmakers will be interested in, but one thing is for sure, the beaches in Chennai will continue to fascinate the storytellers for many years to come.