Remembering MGR

Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for ten years between 1977 and 1987.
In his youth, MGR and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, MGR joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he graduated to lead roles and for the next three decades dominated the Tamil film industry. He became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rapidly rose through its ranks, using his enormous popularity as a film star to build a large political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, now led by Karunanidhi, MGR's once friend and now rival, to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, he steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a six-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral triumphs in 1980 and 1984.
M.G.R. was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, to a Hindu Malayali family of Melakkath  Gopala Menon and Maruthur Satyabhama from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala.  In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. Later, when he joined the DMK, a pro-rationalist party, he publicly followed the rationalist ideology, though not appearing very aggressively atheistic. In later days, after he founded his own party following his expulsion from the DMK, he seems to have shown some leaning towards the religious faith he originally showed. He had asked his followers to pray for the success of his AIADMK party.
Ramachandran made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi, directed by Ellis Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, MGR got his big breakthrough in the 1950 film Manthiri Kumari, written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he rose to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever Gevacolor movie, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He rose to become the heartthrob of millions of Tamilians with movies such as Thirudadhe, Enga Veettu Pillai, Aayirathil Oruvan, Anbe Vaa, Mahadevi, Panam Padaithavan, Ulagam Sutrum Vaalibhan, etc. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaranin 1972. He acted in many movies that appealed to the direct sentiments of the common man and the rich as well. His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Vaalibhan broke the previous box office records of his movies. It was one of the few movies filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan.  His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure.
After his death in 1987, he became the second Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna. To commemorate MGR's Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "DR. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".