Joseph Chellayya Daniel Nadar is known to be the father of Malayalam cinema. He was born on November 28th, 1900 Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram.His parents are Dr. N J Daniel and Njanambal. His wife is Janet and they have 5 children. He completed his education from Maharaja's College, Trivandrum.He was influenced by martial arts and he was become expert in Kalaripayattu(Traditional martial arts of kerala). He was died on 29 April 1975 Nagarcoil, Tamil Nadu. He was the first film maker from Kerala. His first film is Vigathakumaran and its entire work done by him. He was the producer, director, writer, photographer, editor and he acted also.
His dream was to make a film and the common people in Kerala did not aware of the medium of cinema. He left to madras to learn techniques of film-making. As we know Madras was the building center of film production in South India . But he didn’t get entry to the studios in the city and he travelled to Bombay Bombay
Daniel established the first film studio in Kerala "The Travancore National Pictures" in 1926.He prepared script and directed the film and titled it as Vigathakumaran. The film was a mute film. Also he played a important role and P.K.Rosie is the heroine of the film. At that time most of the Indian films stories taken from puranas and social themes were rare. But Daniel proved his creativity in Vigathakumaran and its based on social theme.
Vigathakumaran was first released in Thiruvananthapuram at the Capitol Theatre on 7/11/1928.Film was average hit in box office but collections are very less than production cost.At that era,film is not the common medium to attract audience and people believed that film acting were considered act at par with prostituition. This believe strengthens the woman character in the film.But this movie succeeded in Aleppy and it released at Star Theatre.Alleppy people, they received the film with great excitement.There was an announcer at the theatre to explain the story and situation because it’s a silent movie.
As I told before,movie is not a commercial success and Daniel suffered a lot due to debts. For pay the debts he had to sell his equipments and close the studio. After that Daniel spent his life as a dentist in Palavamkottai, Tamilnadu. But he suffered poverty and changed to Agastheeswaram. He applied pension for Government of kerala under the cheme of ailing artists. But the Government rejected it since he was born in Tamil Nadu and he is not malayalee. The Government reply was that if Daniel want Pension he has to apply it for Tamil Nadu Government, because he was living at Agastheeswaram in Kanyakumari district.
Chelangatt Gopalakrishnan was a noted film journalist and he established that Vigathakumaran. He described the story of Vigathakumaran in his articles published since 1960.Finally Kerala government approved Daniel as a Keralite and decided to honour him as the Father of Malayalam Cinema.
The Government of Kerala under the Department of Cultural Affairs instituted the J.C.Daniel Award in honour of him in 1992.The Kerala State Film Academy
Now, the famous film director Kamal directed a biopic on Daniel named as Celluloid. It portrays the struggles of Daniel to produce and exhibit Vigathakumaran. The film based partially on the novel Nashta Naayika wrote by Vinu Abraham and the Life of J. C. Daniel, a biography by film journalist Chelangatt Gopalakrishnan. It also deals with the life of Rosie, she is the lead actress in Vigathakumaran. Prithviraj portrays the role of Daniel and Mamta Mohandas plays his wife Janet and newcomer Chandini plays Rosie. This film got seven Kerala State Film Awards in different categories and chose it as best film.
