An incident recalled by theatre personality and film actor Avvai T.K. Shanmugam in his memoir Enathu Nataka Vazhkai (My Drama Life) explains the popularity of the patriotic songs of ‘Madhurakavi’ Bhaskara Das, a freedom fighter and the first Tamil lyricist, who was arrested 26 times by the British government. “He had penned a lot of songs in praise of freedom fighters. I have even heard children begging on the streets singing his songs,” writes Shanmugam, the first to introduce national poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar’s songs in plays. Shanmugam, a loyalist of the Congress and wearer of khadi, produced 157 plays for Congress committees in various parts of the State of Madras.
Tamil cinema, an extension of Tamil theatre, soon took a plunge into the freedom movement after the advent of talkies. Despite the watchful eyes of the British government, theatre personalities and film-makers introduced nationalist ideas and songs — particularly those of Bharathiyar — into their plays and films.
