Potpourri of tidbits about Tamil cinema - Kalaignar Karunanidhi

The first film for which M.G.R. signed as hero was Marutha Nattu Ilavarasi. He signed for the film on 27/11/1946. But it was his other film Rajakumari which he signed after Marutha Nattu Ilavarasi was released as his first film. The wait in the production of the film suffered by Govindan Company delayed the release of the film. The company paid M.G.R. Received Rs.4000/- for acting in the film while its heroin V.N.Janaki was paid Rs.5000/- for her role. Marutha Nattu Ilavarasi was filmed at Mysore.

Originally the company has contracted one Mr. T.V.Chari to write dialogue for the film. But, the long delay in getting the dialogues from him has prompted the producers to try for some other writer to replace him. M.G.R., who was in close association with Kalaignar during the filming of Rajakumari understood his potential and also knew that it was Kalaignar Karunanidhi who actually penned the dialogues for the films Rajakumari and Abimanyu. He also knew that Kalaignar did not get any credit for his writing for the film Abimanyu and received credit as assistant in dialogue writing for the film Rajakumari.

M.G.R., who knew the problem, took the initiative and informed the producers of Marutha Nattu Ilavarasi the capabilities of Kalaignar Karunanidhi and suggested his name to pen the dialogues for the film. Though the producers signed Kalaignar for writing the dialogue, they were worried about his young age because he was only 22 years then. But when the film was released Kalaignar surprised them with his powerful dialogues. The film released on 2/4/1950, broke all the box office predictions and brought name and fame for Kalaignar, M.G.R. and Janaki.

Kalaignar recalled the filming and success of Mandhri Kumari his other film. He said ‘originally I wrote Mandhiri Kumari as a single stage drama titled ‘Mandhiri Kumari Kundalakesi’ based on the Tamil epic Kundalakesi for All India Radio Tiruchy. I was hurt when it was rejected by them under some excuse and the hurt can be understood only by another writer. But, I took it as a challenge and wrote it as a full length drama. The drama was successfully staged by K.N. Rathinam and Party. When T.R.Sundaram, the owner of Modern Theatres, saw the drama he bought the copy rights from me to take it as a cinema with the same title Mandhri Kumari.

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