P. Neelakantan

Who was P. Neelakantan?

Palaniyaandi Neelakantan was a Tamil film director, who was active for nearly three decades. He was born at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. He graduated to movies from stage play. His play Nam Iruvar was brought by movie mogul A.V. Meyyappa Chettiar and made into a film in 1947. Then he wrote the dialogues for films like Vedala Ulagam in 1948. His directorial debut was with Oru Iravu in, the dialogue for which was written by C. N. Annadurai. Two films that made him well-known are ALS productions Ambikapadi and Thirudathe. He also has directed movies in Kannada and Sinhalese Suneetha and Sujage Rahase. Neelakantan was mainly associated with creating M.G. Ramachandran's movie persona. Between Chakravarthi Thirumagal in 1957 and Needhiku Thalai Vanangu in 1976, Neelakantan directed altogether 17 of MGR's movies.