Pammal Vijayaranga Sambandham Mudaliar (1872-1964)

Influential Tamil director; former lawyer and dramatist. Founded the amateur theatre group Suguna Vilas Sabha (1904), staging e.g. Shakespeare and Sanskrit classics in the Victoria Public Hall, Madras. Wrote c.68 plays staged for the city’s political and cultural élite. Many of his plays were filmed, often directly from the stage: e.g. Sarvottam Badami’s Galava Rishi (1932), the second Tamil sound feature, and Mudaliar’s own directions Sati Sulochana and Manohara. Other films based on his plays, setting the norms for an élite, ‘apolitical’ entertainment, include Prafulla Ghosh’s Ratnavali (1935), M.L. Tandon’s Yayati (1938), T.R. Raghunath’s Ramalinga Swamigal (1939), K.S. Mani’s Chandrahari (1941), Murugadasa’s Urvashi Sahasam (1940), Duncan’s Daasi Penn (1943), A.V. Meiyappan’s Sabhapati (1941) and Vethala Ulagam (1948). Published two books on Tamil film in 1937.

FILMOGRAPHY (* also act): 1934: Sati Sulochana; 1936: Manohara*.

Director