1965 Tambaram, India

Chandra Vijayan
Born 1952
Tambaram, India
Interviewed on February 3, 2022
by Rohit Giridharan

One of the first movies I can remember watching in a theater was Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum (transl. Child and God). I must have been around 12 years old at the time. I really enjoyed the story. It’s about a pair of twin girls who were separated really young during their parents’ divorce, so they don’t know each other. Then they meet each other and discover they are twins. They hatch a plot to bring their parents back together by swapping roles with each other and succeed in the end. There are lots of funny things that happen throughout the movie and also lots of drama. You know, a pretty normal Bollywood movie. Even today, they still love their romance and drama. One of my favorite parts was when the girl who originally lived with her mother, but is now with her father, figures out her dance teacher’s plan to seduce her father and stops it. I also liked how their grandfather was in on the plan and helped the twins reunite their parents in secret. The songs were also a hit and were very popular. I think the reason that the title is Child and God is because children look past the flaws of others, like God would. So the movie is saying that children are closer to God than adults. I kind of agree.

The actress who played the girls, Kutty Padmini, is just about my age. So, it was cool to see a child my age act so well in the movie. She acted as both the twins but gave each of them separate personalities. I was inspired. I also really liked the actor who played the father, Jaishankar. I thought he was handsome.

I didn’t go to the movies that often. Going to the movie theater was an outing that we’d do no more than once a month. There was no theater in my hometown of Perungalathur, so to see a movie, I had to take a bus to a nearby city called Tambaram. I remember the name of the theater: MR Theatre. It’s still there, I think. They had food and drink at this theater, but we never bought any. My mother would just bring biscuits and nuts from home, and we would eat them during the intermission. It was still a lot of fun. Later, they actually made a small makeshift theater in my hometown. It was just a tent with a large screen; there was no building.

Usually, I’d see movies with my younger brother and parents, and that’s how we watched this movie. But sometimes my parents would send me to go with a friend or a few friends. There would always be some parent to chaperone us though.

I remember my mom would always watch a movie before I was allowed to watch it. There was no Internet for her to check, so my mom would go with her friend to watch the movie a few days before I did. If the movie was appropriate and good to watch, then we would all go together. Otherwise, we were not allowed to watch it. I guess it makes sense looking back on it, because not all of those movies were good for kids to watch. But I wasn’t too happy about it back then. But, all the movies I did watch were entertaining, probably because my mom had vetted them first.

They also brought some Hollywood films to India. I remember seeing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in theaters. That was a lot of fun. I was older at the time so I guess my mom was ok with me watching it. I also saw some 007 films. Those were also exciting. I think I still prefer the Bollywood movies, though. It feels closer to home.