Sri MGR Year 100, 23rd August, Wednesday
The year 2017 is the birth centenary of our beloved Leader Puratchi Thalaivar MGR, not only Tamil Nadu celebrated but the Tamil world honoured. Below is a lengthy article written by DBS Jeyaraj and which is published in "Daily Mirror".
January 17, 2017 was declared a holiday in the Southern Tamil Nadu State of India. This was to acknowledge and celebrate the birth centenary of Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran or MG Ramachandran who served as chief minister of Tamil Nadu for 10 years from 1977 to 1987. It is the political party he founded in 1972 -- the All India Anna-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham -- that is in power today in the State. Various events were held throughout Tamil Nadu to honour the memory of a larger-than-life personality known to millions of people by three letters of the English alphabet denoting the initials of his names - MGR.
MGR though ethnically a Malayalee made a name for himself as an actor in Tamil films and followed it up by becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State. MGR who started acting in minor roles from 1936 got his major break as lead actor in 1947. Thereafter for 30 years till 1977 he was the uncrowned king of Tamil cinema as the biggest box office attraction of them all. The swashbuckling actor starred as an action hero in more than 100 Tamil films. In a film career spanning four decades from 1936 to 1978, MGR acted in 136 films. Most of his movies minted money at the box-office. This was the time when the magical initials MGR was a household name in the Tamil-speaking homes of countries with a substantial population of Tamils, including India, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. MGR had a huge following of fans in Sri Lanka during the time he sparkled on the silver screen. Among his fans in the Island were a large number of Sinhalese and Muslims too.
