Muthuvel Karunanidhi (b. 1924)
Tamil scenarist and DMK politician born in Tirukkuvalai, Tanjore Dist., TN. Political activist with the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) from the age of 14; left school to become C.N. Annadurai’s assistant and worked on Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker’s paper, Kudiarasu. Led the 1953 Kallakkudi riots in which the DMK protested against the renaming of a railway station after a North Indian industrialist. Elected to the Tamil Nadu State Assembly in 1957 on a DMK ticket. Key figure in the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, for which he was imprisoned. Minister for Public Works and Transport under Annadurai when the DMK was elected in 1967. Chief Minister in 1969 following Annadurai’s death; defeated by his former protégé MGR in
- Returned to power (1988), but was
dismissed by the Congress (I)-backed minority government in 1990; in the 1991 election, following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, his party lost every seat in the state assembly except his own. Defeated Jayalalitha and returned to power in 1996. Film début at the Jupiter Studio, co-scripting A. Kasilingam’s Abhimanyu (1948) with A.S.A. Sami. First DMK film: Manthiri Kumari for T.R. Sundaram (1950). Wrote Kasilingam’s Maruthanattu Ilavarasi (1950), three films for L.V. Prasad (Manohara, 1954; Thayilla Pillai, 1961; Iruvar Ullam, 1963) and his best-known film, Krishnan-Panju’s Parasakthi (1952). According to Ka. Thirunavukkarasu (1990), he scripted 57 films, e.g. S.M. Sreeramulu Naidu’s MGR hit Malaikallan (1954), Kasilingam’s Sivaji Ganesan film Rangoon Radha (1956) based on Annadurai’s novel, and P. Neelakantan’s Poompuhar (1964) and Poomalai (1965). Also wrote c.50 short stories (e.g. Kuppai Thothi/Dustbin?), many speeches, commentaries on Tamil literature and a speculative archaeology of the Tamil language tracing it to the Sangam poets and the Indus Valley. Columnist for the daily Murasoli and the journal Kumkumam. Turned producer with Mekala Pics, initially with MGR, MGR’s wife V.N. Janaki and P.S. Veerappa (Naam, 1953); the partnership soon broke up leaving Karunanidhi proprietor with Murasoli Maran, the duo later expanding into the popular SUNTV Tamil cable channel.