History is replete with names of people who have suffered simply because of their passion for cinema. The list starts right from J.C. Daniel, the father of Malayalam cinema. One such person is R.Velappan Nair who sacrificed his all for cinema but was sadly forgotten.
If Velappan Nair’s project had taken off as he had desired he would have found an important place in the annals of Malayalam cinema. Aryankavu Kollasangam was his dream project, an innovative film for which he mobilised funds by selling his property in Alappuzha town.
Aryankavu Kollasangam was a very new experiment in Indian cinema. Velappan Nair was trying to prove that sound was not a necessity in cinema. There would be only background music, no dialogues or songs. His aim was to establish that acting was primary, dialogues only secondary. He firmly believed that facial expression or bhava abhinaya was an effective way to communicate with the audience. But all his experiments did not see the light of day as his film was destined to remain unreleased.
Aryankavu Kollasangam was a precursor to Kamal Hassan’s much-lauded Pushpaka Vimanam . But Velappan Nair was not so lucky. Perhaps he would have got rightful recognition if only some distributor showed the guts to release this experimental film.
Velappan Nair was born in an affluent, aristocratic family Kallelil in Alappuzha. This family owned most of the properties in the town. His passion for theatre brought his school education to an abrupt halt. He even joined a drama troupe from Tamil Nadu and went off with them without informing his family. This troupe travelled and reached Madras. Here Velappan Nair learned driving and found a job in Syamala Film Studio. He was soon promoted as assistant director and also picked up the basics of cinematography.
Soon, Velappan Nair evolved into a leading cinematographer. He worked in 13 Tamil films and directed six. He now longed to direct a Malayalam film. Velappan Nair returned home, got in touch with a businessman friend, Parameswaran Pillai, who was a close friend of Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair. Thikkurissi’s drama Sthree was very popular in Kerala. Parameswaran Pillai agreed to produce a film based on this popular drama, mainly due to Thikkurissi’s insistence. Velappan Nair was the director of this film. He, later, went on to direct four more Malayalam films such as Yachakan , Lokaneethi , Kaalam Marunnu and Minnunnathellam Ponnalla .
By now Velappan Nair had firmly rooted himself in Malayalam cinema losing out on many opportunities in Tamil. Almost the same time heeding to the advice of some of his friends Velappan Nair decided to produce a film on his own. This was also the beginning of his decline. He began work on Aryankavu Kollasangam in right earnest. He sold his properties and when this was not enough to complete the project Velappan Nair borrowed money from a gold merchant. The actors were all newcomers, there were no dialogues, no songs and so distributors were scared to buy this film. Velappan Nair approached several distributors, sometimes carrying the film box himself. This film turned his life upside down. He had no house of his own, did not marry and was dependent on his sister.
Old timers remember Velappan Nair, the man with a long, unkempt beard, who used to be seen wandering the streets of Alappuzha town. No one recognised him as a top director; the film world seemed to have forgotten him. His only source of income was what he got from the State government for indigent artistes.
Velappan Nair did not have the money to buy medicines for a lung ailment that troubled him. Despite all this he did not give away the iron box that contained the film reels of his film. He always hoped that he would be able to release it one day. He kept is safe under his cot. And it remained there till the prints were damaged beyond repair. Upon his demise, the news of his passing was announced in a few lines buried in the obituary columns of a few newspapers.
