Sujatha Rangarajan

Career

Penning with his wife's name, Sujatha's Tamil literary career spanned more than four decades. An engineer by profession, he was proficient in the language of technology. Widely read and knowledgeable, he presented his knowledge in simple Tamil.

His works stood out during a time when Tamil composing was dominated by social/family dramas and historical novels. His identification with the masses, and his uncanny adoption of their way of talking, behavior, mindset and slang, helped make him popular across multiple demographic segments.

His popularization of technology was one of his greatest contributions – starting with his Silicon Chip composing in Dinamani Kadhir and Yen, Yedharku, Eppadi in Junior Vikatan. At one point, his writings were appearing in numerous Tamil weeklies and journals simultaneously, including Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam, Kungumam, Kalki and Dhinamani Kadhir. Later he contributed as script/screenplay author for several Tamil movies. His notable movies included Vikram,Thiruda Thiruda, Boys and Sivaji. Most of his early novels/stories were made as movies, including Priya, Gaytri, Karaiyellam Senbagapoo and Anandha Thandavam, among others.

In addition to the novels, stories, essays he wrote, he helped introduce haiku poetry to Tamil audiences. Brought up in Srirangam, Trichy, and having spent most of the later part of life in Bangalore, he described both places vividly in his various writings. Among his popular novels are Pirivom Sandhipom (not related to the recent movie of the same name), Rathham Ore Niram, and Kolaiyudhir Kaalam.

He also immortalized Ganesh-Vasanth – an imaginary advocate pair serving as the main characters in most of his detective stories. Ganesh is a level-headed, senior advocate and Vasanth is his flirtatious junior advocate. The Ganesh-Vasanth pair was based on James Hadley Chase's characters, Vic Malloy and his sidekick.

In his later days he restricted his writing to essays such as Katradhum-Petradhum. He began to spend more time reading, especially old rare Tamil literature and writings on the latest developments in information technology and computing.

Biography

Sujatha Rangarajan was born in Triplicane, Madras but spent his childhood in Srirangam near Tiruchirapalli under the care of his paternal grandmother owing to his father's frequent transfers in his job.

Education

He did his schooling in The Higher Secondary School for Boys, Srirangam. He attended St. Joseph's College, Trichy, where he was a friend of Abdul Kalam (who later became the President of India). Sujatha graduated in the 1954 batch with a BSc in Physics (1952–54). Later he studied engineering in Electronics from Madras Institute of Technology. His composing interests were largely inspired by the short stories and serials published in popular Tamil magazines.

Early writings

Srirangathu Devathaigal (Angels of Srirangam) is a series of short stories based on incidents in Srirangam during 1940s and 50s which appeared in Ananda Vikatan. Sivaji, a minor magazine from Trichy, published a story during his student days. His first short story was published in Kumudam magazine in 1962. His Kolaiyuthir Kalam was an exciting ghost-themed novel.

Engineering career

He worked first in Civil Aviation Department of Government of India and later for Bharat Electronics Limited in Bangalore, India before his retirement to Chennai, India, where he lived till his last days. As an engineer, he was a forward thinker and he was the key person behind the development of the Electronic Voting Machine in India. He initiated the development of advanced word processing before the days of personal computers.

Works

The works are not listed in chronological order.

FICTION

NOVELS

NOVELLAS

PLAYS

NON - FICTION

HOW - TO MANUALS

ELIYA ARIMUGAM

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

OTHER PROMINENT COLLECTIONS

MISCELLANEOUS

Awards

Style and influence

Sujatha was a versatile Tamil author, with several short stories, novels, poems, plays, screenplays for movies, articles on popular science and other non-fiction articles, to his credit. Sujatha wrote a number of sci-fi stories in Tamil and sought to explain science in simple terms to the layman. He would routinely answer science questions in magazines like Junior Vikatan. His science FAQ has been released as separate books called En, Etharku, Eppadi and Athisaya Ulagam by Vikatan Publications.

He worked on "Katradhum, Petradhum" in Anantha Vikatan and "Sujatha Bathilgal" in Kumudam and Kungumam.

Interests

His interests included computers, archeology, astrophysics, biotechnology, neuroscience, Carnatic music, Tamil literature, and sociology.

Contribution to films

He extended his composing skills and expertise from science to movies. The first of these efforts were Gaayathri and Priya. In Priya, his fictional character Ganesh was played by Rajinikanth. Kamal Hassan's Vikram was composed by him. He penned dialogues for the movie Roja, directed by Maniratnam. In recent times he has been associated with Mani Ratnam (for Kannathil Muthamittal, Aayitha Ezhuthu, etc.), Shankar (for Boys, Anniyan, Indian, Mudhalvan, Sivaji, and Enthiran) and Azhagam Perumal in Udhaya. He was also a co-producer for the banner MediaDreams, which went on to produce the critically acclaimed Bharathi, a biopic of the great Tamil poet Bhaarathiyaar.

He was working on Shankar's Enthiran before he died on 27 February 2008.

Films

As Writer

As Producer