J. Mahendran

J. Mahendran is an Indian film director in the Tamil film industry. Though largely ignored during his times, Mahendran is regarded as one of the greatest film makers of Tamil cinema and has inspired many upcoming directors. Particularly he has been an inspiration for the legends of Tamil cinema like Mani Ratnam and Rajinikanth.

Mahendran was born in 1939 to Joseph Chelliah, a teacher and Manonmani. Mahendran did his schooling in Ilayangudi and completed his intermediate at American College, Madurai. Later he joined Alagappa Government Arts College to do a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. During his college days, he was very active in stage plays. It was during that time when M. G. Ramachandran was invited as the chief guest for the college day during which Mahendran gave a speech that directly criticized the commercial elements that existed in cinema. Impressed by his speech M.G.R praised Mahendran and said that he could become a good critic. After completing his degree, he went to Madras to study law. Seven months after joining the course he had to discontinue due to financial concerns. He then decided to go back to Ilayangud However, on the insistence of Karaikudi Kannappa Valliappan he joined Inamuzhakkam, a periodical as a journalist. It was during this time he met M.G.R again and he was asked to write the

Source: Wikipedia