Kalki (Author)

Kalki ( Tamil : கல்கி ), real name R. Krishnamurthy (Tamil: ரா. கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி ; born September 9, 1899 in Puttamangalam , Thanjavur district ; † December 5, 1954 in Chennai ), was a Tamil Indian writer, journalist and screenwriter. He was also involved in the Indian freedom movement and is considered the founder of the historical novel in Tamil literature.

biography

Krishnamurthy came from a village Brahmin family who could afford to send him to the National High School in Tiruchi, about 100 kilometers away .

In 1921, motivated by Mohandas Gandhi and his non-cooperation campaign , he left school and joined the Indian National Congress . As early as 1922 he was sentenced to one year in prison for participating in the struggle for independence.

Krishnamurthy began his literary and journalistic writing activities in 1923 for the Tamil magazine Navasakthi , which was published by the freedom fighter V. Kalyanasundaram . Krishnamurthy's first book was published in 1927. From the following year he spent some time with C. Rajagopalachari in the Gandhi Ashram in Tiruchengode in the Salem district . In 1931 he was imprisoned again for six months.

From 1932 to 1941 he worked for the weekly Ananda Vikatan of the later director SS Vasan , where he wrote humorous essays and commentaries on politics, literature, film, music and other art forms. He wrote under the pseudonyms Kalki , Ra. Ki , Tamil Theni , Karnatakam (when he wrote about Carnatic music ) and others. Several of his short stories were published as serial novels in the magazine. In 1939 he wrote the screenplay for K. Subramanyam's film Thyagabhoomi , which became the most successful Tamil film of the 1930s. The story was politically topical and was also published in Ananda Vikatan , illustrated with still photos from the film ; it is set against the backdrop of the independence movement.

In 1941 Krishnamurthy founded his own magazine Kalki , of which he remained editor until his death. There he published his novels mostly first as a serial story before they appeared in book form. The first Tamil historical novel Parthiban Kanavu was published from 1941 to 1943 . He, like his successor Sivagamiyin Sabadham , plays at the time of the Pallava ruler Narasimhavarman I and his victory over the Chalukya king Pulakesin II. The theming of the distant Tamil history was so successful that Krishnamurthy specialized in this genre and historical facts intertwined with legend and fiction. His other well-known works also include Ponniyin Selvan , which is set during the Chola period , and Alai Osai , which is set again during the Indian independence movement.

In addition to this literary work, R. Krishnamurthy earned his living writing lyrics for Tamil film songs. Among the best known are those sung by MS Subbulakshmi in the film Meera (1945) by Ellis R. Dungan . Krishnamurthy's novels were also made into films, based on Thyagabhoomi (1939), Ponvayal (1954), Kalvanin Kadhali (1955) and Parthiban Kanavu (1960). His collected reviews of early Tamil films appeared posthumously in the Kalaichelvam Collection (1956).

Web links

• The Tamil Writer "Kalki"
• Kalki - R. Krishnamurthy - One Hundred Tamils ​​of 20th Century