M. K. Radha

M. K. Radha Biography

M. K. Radha was a noted actor of Tamil cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. Thus he was an actor of early talkies. Sathi Leelavathi (1936) was his debut movie, which marked the career beginning of many legendary and star actors including M. G. Ramachandran, N. S. Krishnan and T. S. Balaiah. These cine artists were introduced to silver screen for the first time by director Ellis R. Dungan, popular American film director who also made his Tamil debut as a filmmaker. The movie came to limelight as it was the first Tamil film to be a subject of court case involving copyright violations. The film was scripted by his father, M. Kandaswamy Mudaliar – a famous theatre artist then. He wrote the film script to launch his son as hero to celluloid and gave opportunity to many stage actors associated with his theater troupe.

M. K. Radha was born on 20 November 1910 in Madras, Madras Presidency, British India. He was born to famous theater personality, M. Kandaswamy Mudaliar. He took up the career of a stage actor since the age of 7. His talents were well nourished by his father, who wanted to make him a popular actor on stage as well as celluloid. When he wrote the script of Sathi Leelavathi, he kept in mind about his son. He launched his son in the lead role through this movie and many theater artists also made their film debut. Later M. K. Radha went on to become one of the popular heroes of pre-independent period.

He played the lead role of the Tamil movie, Chandralekha, the magnum opus of S. S. Vasan released in the year 1948. He shared screen space with T. R. Rajakumari and Ranjan for this historic fiction film. This expensive film was later made to Hindi version, and dubbed to many languages including English and earned appreciation from audience and critics alike. With the late 1950s he moved to character roles and some of his noted roles include - Uthama Puthiran, Vanangamudi. In 1973 he was honoured with Padma Sri by Government of India. Maya Machhindra, Sathi Murali, Vana Mohini, Dasi Aparanji, Gnana Soundari, Kannamma En Kadhali, Samsaram etc are some of his movies in lead role.

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Updated: March 20, 2016