Palaniyaandi Neelakantan (2 October 1916 – 3 September 1992) was a Tamil film director, who was active for nearly four decades.

Life

He was born at

Villupuram Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a Municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district. Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major railway junction, ...

, Tamil Nadu. He graduated to movies from stage play. His play '' Naam Iruvar'' was brought by movie mogul Avichi Meiyappa 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 (1951), the dialogue for which was written by

C. N. Annadurai Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969), popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna (''Anna, the scholar'' or ''Elder Brother''), was an Indian Tamil politician who served as the fo ...

. Two films that made him well-known are ALS productions '' Ambikapadi'' (1957) and ''

Thirudadhe ''Thirudathe'' () is a 1961 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by P. Neelakantan. A remake of the Hindi film '' Pocket Maar'' (1956), it stars M. G. Ramachandran, B. Saroja Devi and M. N. Nambiar. The film, produced by V. Arunachalam, ...

'' (1961). He also has directed movies in Kannada and Sinhalese ''Suneetha'' and ''Sujage Rahase''. Neelakantan was mainly associated with creating

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

's ( MGR) movie persona. Between ''

Chakravarthi Thirumagal ''Chakravarthi Thirumagal'' () is a 1957 Indian Tamil language film starring M. G. Ramachandran, Anjali Devi and S. Varalakshmi. The film, directed by P. Neelakantan, had musical score by G. Ramanathan and was released on 18 January 1957. It ...

'' in 1957 and '' Needhikku Thalaivanangu'' in 1976, Neelakantan directed altogether 17 of MGR's movies.

Filmography

References

External links

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Biography of P. Neelakantan

1916 births 1992 deaths Indian film directors Tamil-language film directors Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners 20th-century Indian film directors Kannada film directors People from Viluppuram district Film directors from Tamil Nadu Screenwriters from Tamil Nadu Tamil scholars 20th-century Indian screenwriters {{India-film-bio-stub