The Madras Song -Madras in four minutes

An ode to the city’s 375th birthday, The Madras Song, released a week ago, has already got 109,085 views.

Frilly cut mangoes, giant ghee roast dosas, sunrise by the bay, partying at a beach house, a dance performance at Kalakshetra…what’s your Chennai? Whatever your favourite moment or aspect of the city, The Madras Song encapsulates many of those. An ode to the city on its 375 birthday, this song that was released a week ago, already has 109,085 views. It’s the kind of video that’s making most Chennai-ites go all warm and fuzzy. As for the ‘Aww’s?’ They just keep pouring in.

Filmmaker Vijay Prabakaran.

“The reason it works is because it captures a lot of what people feel about Madras. The spot boys, the assistant director…everybody had a say about what they would like to see. Prior to the shoot, we interviewed many people to understand what the city meant to them,” says filmmaker Vijay Prabakaran, who conceived and shot the video.The four-and-a-half-minute video chronicles the experiences of a girl who is forced to spend three days in the city. She sets out to explore Chennai and right from drinking filter kaapi and shopping for saris to playing a game of chess with Viswanathan Anand… she does it all. "In the first few shots, you see her wearing formal shirts and, as the song progresses, she moves on to casual wear. That shows she's opening up to the city. She then starts dancing as an expression of happiness, which indicates that she’s letting go of her inhibitions,” says Vijay.

Watching the video is like going on a whirlwind tour of the city. There are numerous known and unknown locations featured in it. This involved quite a bit of scouring the city. Vijay and his team shot at 100 locations and, after editing, only 70 made their appearance in the song.





 He says:"We stumbled upon some really narrow alleys in Purasawalkam. In Pondy Bazaar, we found the Old Kerala Salon and the scene where the girl gets a head massage was added impromptu." In spite of being here all his life, there are places the filmmaker didn't know of or had never visited. "Because of the video, I finally visited Kalakshetra," says the 34-year-old. It took the team 15 days to shoot The Madras Song. It had six different versions and finally, they chose this one. "I have heard it more than 1000 times and can close my eyes and tell you which beat comes next, and which scene unfurls to it. The Madras Song is stuck in my head." And not just Vijay, it had stuck in our heads too.

(The Madras Song has been launched by the Murugappa group, in association with The Hindu)