The birth anniversary of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was observed on Thursday. He was not just a politician but had also contributed so much to Tamil cinema.
Karunanidhi had written over 75 screenplays and many songs. He introduced Dravidian ideologies and challenged the social hierarchy.
Known for his strong sense of socialism and rationalism as well his critique of social evils, Karunanidhi’s characters voiced stiff protest towards intolerance, misogyny and threw light on the plight of Tamil in the lower rung of society.
Karunanidhi started writing scripts at the age of 20 for Jupiter Pictures, in a career spanning decades. He last wrote the screenplay for the 2011 Tamil film ‘Ponnar Shankar’
He began his film career as a scriptwriter in 1947 with ‘Rajakumari’, starring MG Ramachandran – the latter’s first lead role. The film also marks the moment in history where two doyens of Tamilnadu politics struck a friendship.
‘Rajakumari’ was followed by ‘Abhimanyu’ (1948) and ‘Marudhanaattu Ilavarasi’ (1950) – both starring MG Ramachandran. A turning point in Tamil cinema as well as in Karunanidhi and Shivaji Ganesan’s career came with the 1952 superhit, ‘Parashakthi’.
He followed ‘Parashakthi’ with films like ‘Panam’, ‘Naam’, ‘Thirumbi Paar’, ‘Malai Kallan’ and ‘Ammai Appan’. Through his films, Karunanidhi had found a medium which could mirror his political ideology.
If ‘Thai Illa Pillai’ was about caste, ‘Kanchi Thalaivan’ dealt with the ideals of Annadurai. Not just films, Karunanidhi also wrote plays and he became popular as a writer and moved up the ranks as a politician.
BY Naveen
**********
