Randor Guy;trip down memory lane of madras in movies

I have always liked reading stories and articles of Randor guy.He has something unique, in style and substance.A very unusual pen name and in tamil, guy used to be written as 'kai' and i used to wonder at its significance.I read about his lec-dem in ps high school on 'madras in movies' as part of madras day celebrations.I made a mental note to be there.
It happened i went with three senior citizens. Amma enjoyed it totally, as she was able to recall and recollect the old movies, their clippings and the places they showed.She was also giving her own take on those period movies.She stayed in lakshmipuram, near the present music academy, and could give her own stories about some of the writers, music directors, actors of those times.

Papanasam sivan is easily the author of music in movies and the current day popularity had a significant contribution from him, Randor Guy said.Valli thirumanam, was a run away hit even with one full reel of film, being missing!It had a second run away hit after receiving the missing one!There were no studios in Madras and they used to be processed in Calcutta, Bombay, Pune and Kolhapur.
We listened to several interesting stories and my favourite is this.The first tamil talkie was really not a full length tamil talkie, but a tamil, telugu and hindi mix.The reason is quaint.The director knew that a hindi talkie has happened , in 'alam ara'. He wanted to make a tamil talkie. But had his own misgivings whether the technology is language independent!He wanted to hedge his bets; hence the heroine talked in tamil, the hero in Telugu and other assorted actors in hindi!There was no way they could shoot a shot and play back and check it out!And he wanted atleast some part of the movie to have 'audio' effect!
I will leave some room for amma to post this eve programme in her blog and fill in any interesting trivia!