| 1 | '''Muthuvel Karunanidhi (b. 1924)''' |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Tamil scenarist and DMK politician born in |
| 4 | Tirukkuvalai, Tanjore Dist., TN. Political activist |
| 5 | with the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) from the age |
| 6 | of 14; left school to become C.N. Annadurai’s |
| 7 | assistant and worked on Periyar E.V. |
| 8 | Ramaswamy Naicker’s paper, Kudiarasu. Led |
| 9 | the 1953 Kallakkudi riots in which the DMK |
| 10 | protested against the renaming of a railway |
| 11 | station after a North Indian industrialist. Elected |
| 12 | to the Tamil Nadu State Assembly in 1957 on a |
| 13 | DMK ticket. Key figure in the anti-Hindi |
| 14 | agitation of 1965, for which he was imprisoned. |
| 15 | Minister for Public Works and Transport under |
| 16 | Annadurai when the DMK was elected in 1967. |
| 17 | Chief Minister in 1969 following Annadurai’s |
| 18 | death; defeated by his former protégé MGR in |
| 19 | 1977. Returned to power (1988), but was |
| 20 | dismissed by the Congress (I)-backed minority |
| 21 | government in 1990; in the 1991 election, |
| 22 | following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, his |
| 23 | party lost every seat in the state assembly |
| 24 | except his own. Defeated Jayalalitha and |
| 25 | returned to power in 1996. Film début at the |
| 26 | Jupiter Studio, co-scripting A. Kasilingam’s |
| 27 | Abhimanyu (1948) with A.S.A. Sami. First |
| 28 | DMK film: Manthiri Kumari for T.R. |
| 29 | Sundaram (1950). Wrote Kasilingam’s |
| 30 | Maruthanattu Ilavarasi (1950), three films for |
| 31 | L.V. Prasad (Manohara, 1954; Thayilla Pillai, |
| 32 | 1961; Iruvar Ullam, 1963) and his best-known |
| 33 | film, Krishnan-Panju’s Parasakthi (1952). |
| 34 | According to Ka. Thirunavukkarasu (1990), he |
| 35 | scripted 57 films, e.g. S.M. Sreeramulu Naidu’s |
| 36 | MGR hit Malaikallan (1954), Kasilingam’s |
| 37 | Sivaji Ganesan film Rangoon Radha (1956) |
| 38 | based on Annadurai’s novel, and P. |
| 39 | Neelakantan’s Poompuhar (1964) and |
| 40 | Poomalai (1965). Also wrote c.50 short stories |
| 41 | (e.g. Kuppai Thothi/Dustbin), many speeches, |
| 42 | commentaries on Tamil literature and a |
| 43 | speculative archaeology of the Tamil language |
| 44 | tracing it to the Sangam poets and the Indus |
| 45 | Valley. Columnist for the daily Murasoli and the |
| 46 | journal Kumkumam. Turned producer with |
| 47 | Mekala Pics, initially with MGR, MGR’s wife |
| 48 | V.N. Janaki and P.S. Veerappa (Naam, 1953); |
| 49 | the partnership soon broke up leaving |
| 50 | Karunanidhi proprietor with Murasoli Maran, |
| 51 | the duo later expanding into the popular SUNTV |
| 52 | Tamil cable channel. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[Writer]] |