S. Doraiswami Sundaram

S. Doraiswami Sundaram was a great Tamil poet and also a mind-blowing dramatist. He was born in Attur, Salem district in 1920. S. Doraiswami Sundaram was the son of a traditional scholar under whose tutelage composing verse came naturally to him. He learnt acting under `Nawab` Rajamanikkam and developed an interest in playwriting. Sucked into the patriotic fervour of his student days, he was intensely involved in nationalist agitations and arrested for his participation in the anti-British Quit India Movement.

Out of his fifteen plays, the strident Kaviyin Kanavu i.e. `Poet`s Dream` in 1942 was written in prison. It became the most popular and also the favourite of Tamil theatre groups. While working for All India Radio, Tiruchchirapalli, Sundaram composed many radio plays, among them Nam Tay i.e. `Our Mother` in 1946, Manitarum mirugamum i.e. `Man and Beast` in 1953, and Vira masakti i.e. `Heroic Shakti` in 1965 are worth mentionable. He wrote the screenplay for the award-winning Kappalotiya Tamizhan i.e. `The Tamil Who Launched a Ship` in 1961. This was based on the life of the fiery nationalist, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai. He briefly edited the magazine, Natikan kural i.e. `Actor`s Voice` and served on the Tamil Nadu legislative council. S. Doraiswami Sundaram died in 1979.

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