On Crescent Road behind Ethiraj College for Women, there is an attractive looking 49 year old bougainvillea tree with hot pink flowers blooming on it. However, these attractive flowers distract passersby from seeing a small but important part of the city’s history. A few steps inside, you enter Cambray East, one of the oldest apartment complexes in the city.
When it was first built it was often mistaken for a hotel, but recently the building celebrated its 50th anniversary, where residents, young and old, attended cultural events and reminisced about a time when the building certainly looked younger.
Artwork depicting soldiers in the Cambray East apartments on Crescent Road. Photo Credit: R Ragu
Shonali Muthalali, who lived in the apartment till five years ago, had a meeting which revealed a mystery. “My parents bought Cambray East from the builder [Southern Investments (SI)]And like all the other residents, took the vivid art in the lobby for granted. When I heard that residents were celebrating 50 years of the building, I went back to examine the pieces I had visited every day for decades, curious to learn about their origins. For the first time, I saw how each was unique, with subtle differences in color and detail, yet they all came together as a dramatic and harmonious set. Seeing that ‘Tharini’ worked in Meenakari, I sent a message to the artist. To my surprise (and delight!), artist Thota Tharani immediately recognized the work, and confirmed on a call that he had collaborated with SI’s builder, “AB”, 50 years ago,” she says.
The lobby is staffed by 11 guards with fierce mustaches painted bright red, checking residents and guests as they pass by. No two paintings, mounted as panels on sheets of metal, are alike. There are subtle variations in the details of the coat, pants and shells.
“We would often jokingly scare the children in the building by telling them that if they misbehaved, the guards would imprison them,” says Lakshmi (known as Chelli in the apartment). As the second oldest resident of the apartment, Chelli says that none of the residents knew that this work was by such an important artist. “We had no idea. I think in the old days, builders tried,” she says.
Lakshmi, a resident admiring the painting in Cambray East. Photo Credit: R Ragu
Artist Thota Tharani, who painted the paintings 50 years ago and fired them at the Madras Enamel Factory (earlier on Eldams Road), says he painted them when he was young and was looking for a steady stream of jobs before his career as an art director in films.
“Working with enamel paint is interesting, and it is rare to find such a bright red. I used a technique where I sprayed the paint using a stencil as a base and scratched it on. The paint could not be too dry or wet. In olden times, the artists who made the stencils were from Calcutta and were exceptionally skilled and essential to the job. I waited every evening for the paint to cook because I was impatient to see how the work turned out. I was paid for these ₹75 per square foot and also made other such paintings in different apartments,” he says.
Art in Chesney Nilgiri | Photo Credit: R Ragu
Exploring this rabbit hole of paintings in everyday places led us to Chesney Nilgiri on Chesney Lane, where Indian abstracts by Thota Tharani were observed. He says, “I got the job because SG Vasudev had already done this work with builders. It was through him that I did such work in some other buildings, where the motifs included flowers, plants and even horses.”
everyone in the neighborhood
Art work in the owner’s court. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After wandering through several lanes in Egmore, in search of 50-year-old buildings containing rare paintings by famous artists of the Madras Art Movement, we reached Owners Court on Monteith Lane, where we finally found panels painted by the city’s renowned artist SG Vasudev. “I was interested in doing ceramic work because the builder had assigned me the work of making small-sized paintings, but he insisted on enamel and put me in touch with the factory people. They were making signs that said ‘danger’. Instead of sticking to a single color like the factory workers, I did a lot of experiments. It turned out well in the oven. After seeing this work, I got a 24 feet x 84 feet painting at the Satyam Cinema in Royapettah. Were also called out for graffiti,” he said. They say. Vasudev asks no one to question the meaning of his work. He says, “Is it possible to understand Mahabalipuram? Or Picasso’s Guernica, or the sound of a bird? It is part of one’s education. It is all for enjoyment, not for understanding.”
Although most of the paintings remain intact, some have deteriorated over time. Gallerist Sharan Apparao says this is because the paintings might have been made on copper metal sheets, which tend to rust when exposed in a coastal city like Chennai. She says, “These works of art are experimental and rare. Builders who create works of public art; and painters who engage in creating art need to make decisions regarding the materials used so that the paintings can last a long time.”
Sugumaran N, secretary of Chesney Nilgiri, says that now that they have realized its importance, they are determined to take the work seriously. “We look forward to maintaining them,” he says. “Until now, it was just another painting on the wall.”
published – January 21, 2026 05:48 PM IST