When Kerala Chief Minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad visited Devikulam to take part in the Communist Party’s victory celebration for the 1958 by-election, he asked the organisers, “ Evidayanu Pavalar Varadharajan ?” (“Where is Pavalar Varadharajan?”). “When he went to the dais, EMS presented Varadharajan with a garland,” recalled Gangai Amaran, lyricist and music director and the youngest brother of Varadharajan. “I was 10. We were there with my brothers Bhaskar and Ilaiyaraaja, and my mother,” he said.

‘Cinematic setting’

The by-election was held in May 1958 after a court annulled the election of Rosamma Punnoose on a petition by her rival, B.K. Nair of the Congress, against the rejection of his nomination. The CPI had 60 members in the 126-seat Assembly and enjoyed the support of five Ind

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