Celluloid Page #6

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You are my tenant, Kolappan.

Don't forget that.

My name is not Kolappan now.

l am Paulose now.

Does this land belong

to the East lndia Company

that the Christian may do

anything he likes? No!

This land belongs to the Maharaja.

Tell her that if she flirts about

in the name of drama and cinema...

and come to work in my house,

l will chop off her

hands and legs like grass.

Move the vehicle.

The shooting at Sarada

Vilasom will be over...

...when Rosy's portions are over.

Then l will have to go to Colombo.

All the crew,

equipments, traveling on the ship...

...l will need a lot of money.

Do you have to go to Colombo?

Can't we shoot it here?

lsn't the boy kidnapped

to Colombo in the story?

So it has to be shot there.

How do we come

up with the money?

We will sell off our

palmgroves and homestead...

- at Agastheeshwaram.

Then, l have told some

rich folks in Thiruvananthapuram.

lf the Travancore National

Pictures is made a limited company...

l can ask them to take shares.

How will we get

back what we invest?

Folks will come to watch the film.

Will so many people come?

lt will be shown not just in Capitol,

but in the cinemas in Nagercoil...

Alleppey, Thrissur and so on.

lt will also be shown in the cinemas

of Madras, Madurai and so forth.

Janet, didn't Phalke

become rich making films?

And Nataraja Muthaliyar in Madras?

Wait and watch, it will be

this J. C Daniel here in Travancore.

Jayachandran comes with

Chandrakumarto Sarojini's house.

Sarojini meets Chandrakumar.

She accidentally sees the black

mole on Chandrakumar's back...

and realizes that he

is her long lost brother.

Cut.

The shooting at Sarada

Vilasom is over.

Rosy's parts have been shot.

Daniel has asked me to give

you three days' extra wages.

Take.

Rosy acted fabulously.

All of us liked it very much.

We will inform you when the

movie is screened at 'Capitol.'

You must come.

This is the mundu and jumper

that you wore in the movie.

lt is yours now.

You may go now, Rosie.

Convey our regards

to your father and Asan.

Akashvani...the news

is read by Ramachandran.

The National Film Awards

for this year have been announced.

The President's Gold Medal

forthe best film has been won...

by a Malayalam move

for the first time.

The award is for Thakazhi's Chemmeen,

directed by Ramu Kariat.

The film in which famous actors

like Sathyan, Madhu,Kottarakkara...

and Sheela acted has been

produced by Babu of Kanmani Films.

The film 'Neelakkuyil'

directed by Ramu Karyat

and P Bhaskaran had

won the silver medal

Anna, do you know that old man?

He is an old film maker.

He produced some film a long

while back, and became a pauper.

Sold away all his ancestral property.

He now lives somewhere in

Tamil Nadu.

He comes to this shop whenever

he visits Thiruvananthapuram.

When my father is here he

comes here and tells old stories.

Which movie did he make?

Some movie of yesteryears.

Some silent movie.

What is his name?

Some Nadar...one Daniel.

J C Daniel.

What are you searching?

Aren't you having lunch?

You carry on...

l remember.

This film was released at

the Capitol cinema of those days.

lt was screened only

three or four times.

l saw it one ortwo

days following the release.

Aftertwo orthree reels...

...some landlords sprang

up from their seats...

...and started shouting and booing.

They destroyed furniture...

...and hurled slippers

and stones on to the screen.

The projection had to be stopped.

l remember seeing the scared

Daniel in the projection room.

l have seen him

only on that occasion.

The screening of that

film ended that day in

- Thiruvananthapuram.

Vigathakumaran is the

first film in Malayalam.

The man who made it lives

somewhere in this land.

ls it right that

we don't know about it?

How does it become

the first Malayalam movie?

lsn't T R Sundaram's Balan

the first Malayalam movie?

That was the first sound movie.

lt was released in1938.

J C Daniel made this

movie ten years before that.

How can a silent movie

be called a Malayalam movie?

lt has no language.

lf so, how can you call

Charlie Chaplin's film English.

lsn't that a silent movie too?

Before Balan there

was another film too:

C V Raman Pillai's Marthandavarma.

lt was produced by

one Sunder Rajan of Chala.

He too has become a pauper.

Boss, shot is ready.

Please go, Chelangadan.

Which movie is this?

- Kattumallika

Do you know where this

Daniel is at present?

No.

Ready. We can see once.

Aghastheeswaram.

Come, get down.

Get in.

Do you know where

J C Daniel lives?

He made a film long ago.

Don't know.

Do you know a J C Daniel?

Yea, he is the dentist.

We don't know that he made a film.

lt has been thirty years

since he first came here.

He was a good dentist.

Not now, but a long time back.

See. He took all my teeth.

Where is his house?

Go straight from

here for about a mile.

There is a Christian church nearby.

His house is in the next street.

ls there someone here? Daniel sir?.

ls there someone here?

Who are you?

Daniel sir?

ls there nobody in the house?

lt is locked.

He is inside.

Daniel sir.

He is recuperating

after an eye operation.

Daniel sir...

Who?

This is me, Chellakannu.

The door is locked from the outside.

There is somebody here to see you.

Ask who it is.

Daniel Sir,

l am Chelangad Gopala Krishnan.

l am coming from Cherthala.

What do you want?

l want to see you.

l am bedridden following

an eye operation.

She has gone to Nagercoil

to get me medicines.

l can't see because of my ailment.

That is why she locked the door.

What do you want?

l will wait. Let your wife come.

She has to go for everything.

lt will be dusk when she returns.

Never mind. l will wait.

He was in such an esteemed position.

Now everything has gone.

This is his brother's house.

Their family is in Madras.

They have given half of this house...

...for Daniel sir

and his wife to stay.

His children?

Two boys, three girls.

One is in abroad, another in Salem...

then Madurai,Thiruvananthapuram...

all live in different places.

No one comes here to visit them.

The youngest boy sometimes

sends him money orders from Salem.

That is how they manage to live on.

You didn't say who you are?

l am a journalist.

l write about film personalities.

l am not a film personality.

You were, long time ago, weren't you?

l have come to talk about it.

l do not remember anything.

lt happened long time ago.

What good is it to

rememberthat now?

3rd May 1966.

l saw J C Daniel today.

After a long day's

wait in a dark room...

in an old dilapidated house

in Agastheeshwaram in Tamil Nadu.

The pioneer of Malayalam cinema

lay paralyzed with sightless eyes.

Daniel, Daniel... Are you sleeping?

Have you come?

A man has come to see you.

He has been waiting

outside a long time.

Didn't l say

l don't want to see anyone...

...and no one need see me?

Daniel did not relent

to seeing me at first.

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