Know My Favourites No:35 Randor Guy

Preface

If you are regular readers of leading newspapers in the country we often get attracted to some writers like Mr.Shekar Gupta and Arun Shourie from Indian Express, Mr.Swaminathan A.Iyer from Times of India, Amitha Malik from The Statesman, Shobha De from Hindustan Times, Mr.Vinod Mehta, MJ Akbar, Ayaz Memon,Rajan Bala, ... and the likes. But if you are regular reader of The Hindu newspaper, you would have surely admired the contributions from Randor Guy. His articles on various controversial topics really expose his courage and journalistic prowess to remain as one of my favourites.

Since I am born and brought up at Ayanavaram, Chennai I had few chances to meet him during his morning walks when I used to fetch milk from Aavin Booth near Sayani Theatre. At that time, I never knew that he is a leading columnist and a renowed lawyer.

Randor Guy

Randor Guy is the pen name of Madabhushi Rangadorai (b. November 8, 1937 or according to his profile at galatta.com , March 13, 1945), a prominent Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper The Hindu .

Early life

Guy graduated in B.Sc and B. L. from Madras University and commenced his career as a lawyer . After practicing as a lawyer for a short time, he quit his job and joined a firm called Paterson and Co. where he worked for 5 years. In 1976, he resigned to devote all his time to writing.

Work as a film historian

Guy has been writing books on history and films since 1967. However, he became popular when his article on Frank Capra was purchased by the United States Information Agency for use as a reference work. Randor Guy remains the only non-American whose work has been acquired as reference material by the Government of the United States of America .

Guy is a regular columnist for newspapers as the Mylapore Times, The Hindu and The Indian Express . He also writes for the film magazine Screen. He writes on a variety of topics though he is mainly popular as a film historian and critic.

Films

Guy has also written the screenplay for a few short documentaries and feature films. He has also produced a few advertisement films. In 1999, he made a 100-minute feature film in English titled Perfumed Garden for a Hollywood film company. The film was also subsequently dubbed into Hindi , Tamil and Telugu as Brahmachari . He has also written a Sinhalese film called Paradise Peak based on a best-selling crime novel written by him. Currently, he is working with the screenplay for an English film called Maya starring Kollywood actress Namitha . Maya is Namitha's first film in English.

Awards and felicitations

On November 12, 2007, during a function commemorating the fifth anniversary of Samudra , a magazine dedicated to art and culture, Guy was awarded the Gnana Samudra award in recognition of his contributions to arts.

Personal life

Guy is married to Dolores Guy. He lives with his family in Ayanavaram , Chennai .

Books by Randor Guy

• While the Breakers Roared . 1967. (Fiction).
• Chaya . 1980. (Fiction - Telugu)
• Kasi . 1981. (Fiction - Telugu)(Fiction - Telugu)
• Madhuri Oru Madhiri . 1982. (True Crime-Tamil)
• B.N. Reddi: a monograph . National Film Archive of India. 1985. A History of Tamil Cinema . 1991. (Film History - Govt. of Tamil Nadu)
• Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema . Amra Publishers. Murder for Pleasure . 1972. (Fiction)
• Chitale (Biography)
• Monsoon . 1997. (Novelization of a Hollywood movie shot in India)