REMEMBERING THE LEGEND

It is the birthday of the "Charlie Chaplin" of India, late NS Krishnan. November 29th marks his 108th birth anniversary. He was born in the year 1908 and it has been 60 years since the great multi-talented artist had deceased. He was a drama artiste, Tamil film comedian, playback singer and also a writer during the early 1940s and 50s.

He was greatly known for his unique sense of humor which also carried a message. He was given the name "Kalaivanar" and he was majorly known only by that name. He was an active member of the Dravidian movement and the Tamil Nadu Government had also built a memorial for him called Kalaivanar Arangam (Kalaivanar Arts Centre).

He had acted as the lead comedian in a number of films featuring PU Chinnappa, MKT Bhagavathar, MG Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan. He had directed 3 films out of which the dialogues for 2 were penned by Kalaignar Karunanidhi, who had also revealed that Kalaivanar is his non-political hero. They were really good friends and they had worked together in a few films.

On 30th August 1957, he passed away due to the complications of Hepatitis, from which he suffered for a long time already.

Ramya NSK, who is now a leading female play back singer and Anu Vardhan, the costume designer who is also the wife of successful director, Vishnuvardhan, are the grand daughters of NSK.