07 June,2026 09:19 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Ahead of the curve: A scene from My Dear Kutttichathan (1984), directed bt Jijo Punnoose, the first 3D film to be made in the country. Pic courtesy/P David, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy
Harris Daniel can still see before his eyes the blue flames that arose when the last of the film bits burned, 83 years ago, in 1941. Then, as a six-year-old, he had held in between his fingers the negatives of Vigathakumaran (The Lost Boy, 1930), the first-ever film to be made in Malayalam, directed by his father JC Daniel.
In 2024, sitting at his residence in Thiruvananthapuram, he recounted to me how a historical artefact was lost to an innocent childhood act.
"The entire film used to be carried around in an iron trunk wherever we went. When I asked him [his father] whether I could play with it, he readily gave it to me, because he too probably thought that it was no longer useful or important. Some of it I cut and exchanged at school for Tamil actor PU Chinnappa's images. The rest, me and my sister used to burn to see the blue flames," Harris reminisces.
One scene from all the negatives he has looked at against sunlight still stays in his mind, that of a young boy riding his bicycle in front of his house being kidnapped, with the boy played by his elder brother Sundaram, the first child actor in Malayalam cinema.
The story of JC Daniel, the whimsical man who did everything in his powers to create a film when no one in Kerala even thought about it, is one of the two rather tragic tales that marked the birth of Malayalam cinema. Marthandavarma, the second Malayalam film, too had to face its share of ill fate. But, first on Daniel.
Daniel, who disappeared from the film scene after his first work, would have remained unknown if journalist Chelangatt Gopalakrishnan had not spotted him by chance near the main bus stand at Thiruvananthapuram some decades later. Gopalakrishnan was looking curiously at this strange man tucking freshly bought pan into his black coat and entering a bus to Tamil Nadu. Right then, he happened to overhear someone at the nearby shop pitying the man: "How grandly he would have lived if only he had not made that film." Gopalakrishnan prodded, and realised that this was the man who made a film much before the release of Balan (1938), which was then considered as the first Malayalam film.
Soon, he landed up at Daniel's doorstep in Kanyakumari, heard his unfortunate story and published an article in a Malayalam weekly, recounting the history. Although there was some reluctance on the part of the cultural and political establishment initially, Gopalakrishnan continued to soldier the fight to get Daniel's contribution recognised, at some personal peril too, which he details in his book Malaysia Cinema Charithram Vichithram. The efforts paid off in the 1980s only, much after Daniel's death in 1975. In 1992, the Kerala government instituted the JC Daniel Award, presented to an individual for lifetime contribution to Malayalam cinema.
Born into a family of doctors in 1900, Daniel, in his 20s, headed to [then] Madras and [then] Bombay to understand filmmaking. Before long, he sold 115 acres of his ancestral property at Panachamoodu in Thiruvananthapuram and bought equipment to set up Travancore National Pictures, his film production company and studio at Pattom. When the friend who promised to fund his film backed out, he was forced to borrow large sums from others. Instead of filming a mythological story, which was a standard practice in other industries, he drew inspiration from real incidents to make Vigathakumaran, a silent film. The story revolved around the kidnap of a child from a wealthy family in the erstwhile Travancore Kingdom to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and the dramatic events leading up to the reunion with the family a decade later. The two trips to Ceylon with the crew to shoot the portions there added to the cost.
Daniel was to score many firsts in Malayalam cinema with Vigathakumaran - first filmmaker, producer and actor. Before him, there were a few like Jose Kattookaran, who went around pitching tents to hold bioscope screenings for the public in the 1910s, using reels procured from outside. It was quite a challenge for Daniel to get an actress for the lead role. After a fruitless search spanning all the way till Mumbai, he zeroed in on PK Rosy, a Dalit woman from Thycaud in Thiruvananthapuram. The shooting of the film started in 1928 and the first screening was at the Capitol Cinema Hall, at Statue Junction, on 23 October 1930 (some have recorded the first screening as 1928, but an invitation to the screening, shared by Daniel's son, shows this date in 1930).
A show of casteist intolerance sullied the first screening. [Savarna] men created trouble during the first show because they couldn't accept a Dalit woman playing the character of a Nair woman. Rosy's house also was under attack and she had to flee, without ever getting a chance to see her face on screen. Until her death in 1990, she remained in Nagercoil, away from the eyes of the public. The film had a few more screenings in other districts, but did not make much money. Hounded by debtors, Daniel had to sell his studio, all his equipment, his car, land and wife's jewellery. It took a couple of years to recover from this jolt. Ever the fighter (as he was also trained in kalaripayattu, ancient martial form that originated in Kerala), he soon took up studies to become a dentist, and had a flourishing practice for a while before film dreams struck again. This time, it did not take off at all.
"But even in his late years, he continued to dream. Once, I saw him reading the Bible intently. When I asked him, he told me he was looking for biblical stories to be adapted to the screen," his 81-year-old daughter-in-law Susheela tells me.
JC Daniel's life story was adapted to the screen by filmmaker Kamal in Celluloid (2013). It really was a fitting tribute to a pioneer who developed a passion for a nascent art form and cut a path through which many are still walking.
Excerpted with permission from Ticket To Kerala: The Story of Malayalam Cinema, by SR Praveen, published by Rupa Publications India
