Madabhushi Rangadorai (; 8 November 1937 – 23 April 2023), better known by his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Randor Guy (), was an Indian lawyer, columnist and

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and

legal historian Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and histo ...

associated with the English language newspaper ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''. He was also the official editor of the weekly column "Blast from the Past" that appeared in ''The Hindu'' for many years; in this series Randor Guy wrote about not so well known details about the Tamil movies and the personalities (producers, directors, movie stars, lyricists, featured songs and box office collections), produced since the mid 1930s to late 1960s.

Early life

Randor Guy was born on 8 November 1937. His original name was Rangadorai, but his pen name (an anglicized anagram of his birth name) later became official. He graduated in BSc and B. L. from

Madras University The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

and commenced his career as a lawyer. Fernandez, p 164 After practising as a lawyer for a short time, he quit his job and joined a firm called Paterson and Co. where he worked for five 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. He became popular when his article on

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind Frank Capra filmography#Films that won Academy Award ...

was purchased by the

United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...

for use as a reference work. As of 2008, he remains the only non-American whose work has been acquired as reference material by the Government of the United States of America. Guy was a regular columnist for such newspapers as the ''Mylapore Times'', ''

'' and ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

''. He also wrote for the film magazine, '' Screen''. He wrote on a variety of topics, although he is mainly popular as a film historian and critic.

Films

Guy wrote the screenplays for a few short documentaries and feature films. He also produced a few advertisement films. In 1999, he scripted a 100-minute feature film in English titled '' Tales of The Kama Sutra: The Perfumed Garden'' for a Hollywood film company, directed by

Jag Mundhra Jagmohan "Jag" Mundhra (29 October 1948 – 4 September 2011) was an Indian director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his early career as an American exploitation film writer-director. Family and early life Mundhra was born at Nagpu ...

. It was subsequently dubbed into

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and Telugu as ''Brahmachari''. He later worked with the film's cinematographer,

Ashok Kumar Ashok Kumar (born Kumudlal Ganguly; 13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. He is considered to be the first Super-st ...

, on his trilingual production, '' Kaama'' (1999). He has written a Sinhalese film called ''Paradise Peak'' based on a best-selling crime novel written by him. His recent works include ''Kamasutra Nights: Maya'' starring actress Namitha. ''Maya'' is Namitha's first film in English.

Death

Guy died on 23 April 2023, at the age of 85.

Awards and felicitations

On 12 November 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 the arts.

Books

* (Fiction) * * (Fiction – Telugu) * (Fiction – Telugu) * (True Crime-Tamil) * * (Film History – Govt. of Tamil Nadu) * * (Fiction) *Chitale (Biography) *(

Novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

of a Hollywood film shot in India) *

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Guy, Randor 1937 births 2023 deaths Indian film critics Indian lawyers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Writers from Chennai University of Madras alumni Legal historians Indian film historians The Hindu Group Indian male screenwriters Indian columnists