Throughout his writing career he was encouraged by political leaders such as Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi and M. G. Ramachandran.
Ramanathan received first prize in a state level recitation competition organized by Murasoli Arakattalai in 2002 and was felicitated by Mr. M. Karunanidhi, ex Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and a highly recognized figure in the field of Tamil Literature.
Muthuu is the first son of five time chief minister M. Karunanidhi.
Manthiri Kumari (lit. The minister's daughter) was the film version of a play written by M. Karunanidhi and based an incident that occurs in the Tamil epic poem Kundalakesi (One of the five Great Tamil epics).
Upon a Government order issued by Chief minister M. Karunanidhi, on 25 December 2008, Dalits led by the district collector G Prakash and Superintendent of Police Asra Garg entered the temple despite the protest and resentment of non-Dalits, following which it is to remain open and poojas be performed on a regular basis by all.
Several high-profile national politicians took part in the campaigning: Sonia Gandhi (president of the Indian National Congress), Rahul Gandhi (Indian National Congress general secretary), Pranab Mukherjee (Indian National Congress union minister), Nitin Gadkari (BJP president), Sushma Swaraj (BJP MP), Venkaiah Naidu (former BJP president), M. Karunanidhi (DMK chief minister of Tamil Nadu), J. Jayalalithaa (leader of AIADMK) and Vijayakanth (leader of DMDK).
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state M. Karunanidhi and several other political personalities condoled his death.
M. Karunanidhi was arrested at midnight by the police at later produced before Ashok Kumar around 4-30 a.m. and was remanded to judicial custody.
At the inauguration of the 2009 edition of the Chennai Book Fair, M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu regretted the fact that Muthiah's book Madras Rediscovered did not make even a passing mention of the tenures of C. N. Annadurai or himself.
He was considered as one of the best film script writers of Tamil Cinema, and was hailed as such by noted screenwriters like C. N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi publicly.