Tamil Nadu's game of thrones

Karunanidhi was a ruthless political opponent, steadfast in eliminating rivals in the DMK hierarchy, fighting MGR's AIADMK tooth and nail and playing ducks and drakes with Gandhi family-led Congress

Two themes have predominated Tamil Nadu’s Game of Thrones for over half a century: Films and battles of political succession. Without cinema there would be no M Karunanidhi, the state’s longest-serving, nonagenarian chief minister and DMK patriarch, laid to rest amidst a swollen tide of grieving humanity on Chennai’s Marina Beach; nor would there be cult stars and mass leaders like M G Ramachandran and his successor J Jayalalithaa, who died in December 2016. 

In a dramatic twist, typical of the scores of blockbusters he scripted, there was even a last-minute courtroom drama whether “Kalaignar” could be buried alongside them. Once