Tracing the history of a bank in Chennai through photos and film

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The Indo Saracenic building of the bank, courtesy ‘Southern India’ by Somerset Playne (1917) | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Being an old movie buff (my preferred era, as the rest of my family mocks, is black and white with mono sound), I particularly enjoy scanning old Tamil films for scenes of Madras. These are not so easy to come by, as much of the action those days was on sets, well within studios. Last week, I struck gold: though having seen the film so many times earlier, I should have known what it contained. I allude to the 1952 film Parasakthi , which launched Sivaji Ganesan on his meteoric film career.

Though the story is set in Rangoon and Madurai, Madras appears briefly, when the protagonist, played by Sivaji, comes to India by ship and disembarks at our harbour. A sweeping shot of the seafront reveals First Line Beach/Rajaji Salai – you can make out Dare House, the GPO, and a couple of other gleaming buildings. What followed next was a puzzle. The hero proceeds to an art deco-fronted building, which is a bank. Here, he collects cash against what I presume are travellers’ cheques (remember those?). The name of the bank was visible on the façade, but the letters were small and the print rather grainy. And I was stymied by which bank this could be.

The art deco building, as seen in Parasakthi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

I made the mistake of assuming that this was not in reality a bank but one of the art deco buildings our city was so liberally dotted with at one time. Having scanned all the photographs I have and come up with no answer, I thought of abandoning the search. For one last time, I gazed long and hard at the lettering on the building in that scene. The first word was clearly ‘The’, followed by something and then ‘Bank’. Below this was clearly an ‘Of’ and then in a third line were four words, the first short, the second long, the third another ‘the’, and the fourth of medium length. It finally dawned on me that this was The Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China. And such is the perversity of YouTube that I was now rewarded with a clearer print that confirmed this.

The bank, founded in 1853 in London, opened its branches in India and China in 1859. The Madras branch, however, was late in coming, only in 1900 or so, when it occupied a historic edifice at the intersection of Armenian Street and China Bazaar (now NSC Bose) Road. This was constructed in 1871 for the Agra Bank, which, having begun in 1833, was in Madras since 1845. The lovely Indo-Saracenic structure, probably designed by Chisholm, was photographed in all its glory sometime in the late 1880s. There are closeups and distant shots available, as also a picture of its magnificent interior.

The modernist building, courtesy S. Muthiah’s ‘Madras The Gracious City’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Early in 1900, what was by then Agra & Masterman’s Bank was facing liquidation.