Tamil Nadu

With two songs on Madras, Times of India, The Hindu compete for the spirit of the city

Written by : TNM

The News Minute | August 19, 2014 | 5.58 pm IST Founded on August 22, 1639 - Madras is the first city of modern India. Chennai as Madras is now known  is busy celebrating its 375th birthday- many events are being organized during the week to celebrate the city’s history, culture and traditions.The Madras Day celebrations began a decade ago, but now events held over a week and can go up to a month. But what’s a Madras Week without a song honouring its beaches, idlis, filter coffee and kanjeevaram sarees?The sentiment that Madras' residents have for their city has prompted two of the city's English  newspapers, one with a long-time association with the city and the other an upstart new-comer, to compete with each other to capture the spirit of the city. Both have released "official" Madras songs in the last few days.The first song to hit the block was Kolaveri composer Anirudh’s ‘Chance-ey illa’, a part of The Times of India's campaign Namma Chennai Chance-ey illa. The song has a young Anirudh taking listeners for a walk through Chennai. As Anirudh travels through Mount Road traffic, Besant Nagar Beach, Napier Bridge and sips Mylapore filter coffee, he sings ‘Macha chancey illa, namma chennaiye pole vere oore illa’. (No chance there is a city like our Chennai)And just as Chennai was crooning to Anirudh ‘s song, one more Madras song has been released. This four-and-a-half minute video, The Madras Song by the Murugappa group, in association with The Hindu, is peppy and is a journey about a stranger discovering Madras.A young lady lands in Chennai, at first she isn’t impressed, but soon she is in love with the vibrant city and sings, ‘Pudicha cutout, pudikalane get out… Madras Song ithu marupadiyum repeat.’

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