Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass – Tamil screenwriter and lyricist who penned songs of Pathala Bhairavi, Missiamma and Mayabazar

Narayanasamy Ramaiah Dass, best known as Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass (1914 – 1965) in Tamil film industry was a prominent screenwriter and lyricist of Tamil cinema throughout 1950s till early 1960s. He was an expert in dubbing scripts to Tamil. He was also a theatre artist who wrote and staged many plays in the 1940s, and later joined film industry as a screenwriter in year 1950. Vijaya Productions’s films such as Pathala Bhairavi, Missiamma, Mayabazar etc are some of his popular works as a lyricist. He wrote screenplay and dialogues for 25 films, story for 10 films and 532 song lyrics for 83 Tamil films in the short spanning period of 15 years till his death in 1965, aged only 50.

His professional career beginning as a playwright

Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass was born in Manampoochavadi in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. After completing his teacher training course, he started his career as a school teacher. In those days he got involved in a theatre as a writer. Initially he worked with Sudharsana Ghana Sabha founded by Jagannatha Naidu, and later started his troupe, Jayalakshmi Ghana Sabha.

His first break to films through Macha Regai in 1950

When actor-director T. R. Mahalingam watched his play, Macha Regai, he wanted to make it a movie. Thus Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass was hired as the writer of the film. Film was made in the same title and was released in 1950. Though the movie was a commercial failure, Dass started getting more offers from cine world, and he stayed here till his death. He worked with Vijaya Productions for one decade till 1960, which gave him numerous hit songs. He also did screenwriting, story writing and dialogues during this period. Later he turned a producer. Unfortunately he couldn’t succeed and faced huge financial loss. The whole wealth he earned through writing stories and songs were lost this way.

Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He had two wives and had children from both wed locks. His son Ravindran is an Editor in Prasad Lab.

2. He published a book – Thirukural Isai Amudham in 1962. The book was released by M. G. Ramachandran. Though he had a legal battle with MGR for the movie, “Lalithangi” and won the case as well, the duo shared a cordial relationship.

3. He created Jigina words for film songs – simple words without any meaning, just to fit into the created tunes.

4. He introduced celebrated screenwriter Aaroor Dass to Tamil cinema, who initially worked as his assistant in writing.

5. He was an unsuccessful film producer, who lost everything he earned through writing.