Kumbakonam Swaminatha Pillai Krishnamurthy

Kumbakonam Swaminatha Pillai Krishnamurthy is a renowned Indian poet, writer, and lyrist for Tamil films. He was born on the 19th of May, 1914. His parents were Swaminatha Pillai and Meenakshi Ammal. Ku. Sa Krishnamurthy has been fond of acting since he was a child. He left his school at the age of eight years and joined Madurai Original Boys Company. There, under the influence of famous M.Kandaswamy Mudaliar, he turned his liking for acting into a talent. He became a part of the theatre and performed with K.B.Sundarambal, S.S.Viswanatha Dass, and S.S.Kittappa. Along with them, he traveled to places like Singapore, Burma, and Malaysia to perform. Later he took a break from acting and started his publishing house in Pudukkotai, Tamil Nadu. During this hiatus, in 1938, he wrote a play, Andhaman Kaidhi.

Despite staging this play a few times, he always wanted T.K.S. Natak Sabha to stage it. In 1945, he got the chance to share the script with Thiruvananthapuram Kannuswamy Shanmugam, a famous Tamil theatre artist. Krishnamurthy requested T.K. Shanmugan to stage it, who instantly agreed to do it because he found the play perfectly ready for staging without any errors. The play was opened to the audience on the 20th of September, 1945 and it featured Sedapatti Suryanarayana Rajendran, M.S. Draupadi, and T.K. Bhagavathy. The play saw immense success and was also staged internationally in South Africa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. Due to its huge success, the play was turned into a movie by the director V. Krishnan in 1952. Krishnamurthy oversaw the writing of the script and as a screenplay made it suitable for the big screen.

Just like the play, the movie also saw resounding success. His other works include Arutpa Isaiamudham, Isai Inbam, Amutha Tamizhisai, Paruva Mazhai, Kalaivanan, and Tamil Nadaga Varalaru. Krishnamurthy also worked as a lyrist and in his career wrote 750 songs. Some of his famous songs are- Kuttram Purindhavan Vaazhkaiyil, Nilavodu Vaan Mugil Aadudhe from the movie Raaja Rajan, and Ennam Ellaam Inba Kadhai Pesude from Chakravarthy Thirumagal. Krishnamurthy received the best writer award for Andhaman Kaidhi by Tamil Nadu Sangeeta Nataka Academy. In 1966, he received the Kalaimamani Award for his contribution to Tamil writings. His works are nationalized by the Tamil Nadu Government and are accessible online on the website of Tamil Virtual University. Kumbakonam Swaminatha Pillai Krishnamurthy died at the age of 76, in May 1990.