| | 1 | |
| | 2 | == Elangovan (1913-71) == |
| | 3 | |
| | 4 | Tamil script and dialogue writer in the 40s, |
| | 5 | originally named T.K. Thanikachalam. Début |
| | 6 | with Duncan’s seminal Ambikapathy (1937), |
| | 7 | followed by several story and script credits for |
| | 8 | films which established a new style in film |
| | 9 | melodrama: Raja Chandrasekhar’s Ashok |
| | 10 | Kumar (1941), R.S. Mani’s Kannagi (1942), |
| | 11 | Central Studios’ Sivakavi (1943), R.S. Mani’s |
| | 12 | Mahamaya (1944: some accounts credit him |
| | 13 | with direction as well), K. Subramanyam’s |
| | 14 | Gokula Dasi (1948), S.M. Sreeramulu Naidu’s |
| | 15 | Pavalakkodi (1949), and especially Ramnoth’s |
| | 16 | epic Ezhai Padum Padu (1950). Formerly |
| | 17 | associated with the journal Manikodi whose |
| | 18 | literary idiom he transferred to cinema (cf. |
| | 19 | Kannamba’s monologues in Kannagi). Critic |
| | 20 | and film-maker K. Hariharan writes: ‘ He |
| | 21 | breathed new fire into film dialogues [with] a |
| | 22 | passion quite removed from the standard |
| | 23 | mythologicals’ and quotes popular scenarist |
| | 24 | A.L. Narayanan as saying that Elangovan and P. |
| | 25 | Neelakantan, ‘were the first real screen writers |
| | 26 | in Tamil’. The literary scripting style was |
| | 27 | adopted later by e.g. A.S.A. Samy in Valmiki |
| | 28 | (1946) and S.D. Sundaram in Kanniyin Kathali |
| | 29 | (1949). it was also an important precursor of |
| | 30 | Annadurai’s later declamatory scripts. Wrote |
| | 31 | Raja Sandow’s Thiruneelakantar (1939), Raja |
| | 32 | Chandrasekhar’s Arundhati (1943), S. Nottani’s |
| | 33 | Inbavalli (1949), K.S. Gopalakrishnan’s |
| | 34 | Parijatham (1950) and many others. |