Can one create a video from sequence of meshes that you already have using blender? If I have a sequence of .obj (or any other readable format) files created from my own simulation code (say cloth simulation), can I use the rendering capabilities of blender to generate a video? 

Is there a way to set the material properties for frame 1 and use the same or rest of the frames while the corresponding meshes are imported afresh from that ones I provide?
If you can get your sequence into a .MDD or .PC2 format, you can try using the Mesh Cache modifier.

If that doesn't work, you can try this addon which handles .obj sequences.

A third option is to write your own python script to toggle the visibility of each mesh so it is visible for only one frame. You can do this with a script that sets the object.hide_render property accordingly.

You can copy materials to from the active to the selected objects with CtrlL> Materials.