On December 31, 1940, the now defunct Royal Theatre near Salt Cotaurs in Chennai, had a huge gathering to witness the Valli Thirumanam drama. The audience, however, did not expect the drama to end as quickly as it did and in a tragic manner.
The lead actor playing the role of Lord Murugan collapsed soon after he began singing the first song of the play and died. He was 54-year-old S.S. Viswanatha Das, freedom fighter and popular theatre artist, who instilled patriotism among the masses through his stage performances over the previous two decades.
Modern Tamil theatre, which took shape in the late 19 th century, played an important role in the Independence Movement. Though popular theatre remained apolitical in its early phase with itinerant drama companies largely content with staging mythological stories, the wave of nationalism that spread through the country in 1919-1920 against the backdrop of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Rowlatt Act and the Non-Cooperation Movement changed that.
