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Film News Anandan

film historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ19559951 ↗
Source-derived summary

Film News Anandan (born Mani) was an Indian film historian and photographer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as the "walking encyclopedia" of Tamil cinema.

Early life

Anandan was born as Mani. His father P. K. Gnanasagaram was a government servant. When he was being admitted in school he told his principal his name was Anandakrishnan, which later became his legal name, and was further shortened to Anandan. After school, he joined Quaide Millath Arts college, then known as Government Arts college. When he was a college student, he had a chance to interact with the drama troupes of Y. G. Parthasarathy and M. G. Ramachandran among others. He used to write the dialogues, do stage management and help in small odd jobs.

Career

Anandan was interested in becoming a cameraman and joined as an assistant to C. J. Mohan, who was the cameraman for Kalaivanar. He conducted photography classes for him.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Film News Anandan” as film historian. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current 155-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1928. The account is most persuasive where Film, News and Anandan can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as film historian. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19559951. VIAF identifies the subject as 24130133. The Library of Congress control number is nb2008006450. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Film News Anandan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Film News Anandan primary sources, Film News Anandan archive and Film research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Film News Anandan”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Film News Anandan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.