Educationally enriched people were part of Malayalam cinema right from its beginning. J.C. Daniel, known as the Father of Malayalam Cinema was a dental surgeon by profession, Sundar Raj, the producer of Marthanda Varma , the second silent movie in the language, and most of those who worked behind the camera of the first talkie Balan were all well educated. The producer of Balan , T.R. Sundaram studied in England, while Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai, who wrote the script and lyrics, was a Sanskrit scholar and had worked as a school teacher for some time. Alleppey Wilson who did the coordination and also acted in this film was a law graduate.
This trend continued in Malayalam cinema. Interestingly, even some civil servants and bureaucrats involved themselves with Malayalam cinema. We know of Malayattoor Ramakrishnan and K. Jayakumar who have made important contributions to Malayalam cinema.
N.P. Chellappan Nair, a law graduate, who was conferred IAS, and served as Collector of Alleppey, wrote scripts for films, and also acted in many of them.
Born in Mannar, Alleppey district in 1903, Chellappan Nair’s education, most of it, was in Trivandrum. During this time he was in constant touch with amateur drama troupes. He wrote plays for them and also acted in some of them. He was drawn towards cinema when he was a law student. He first decided to try his hand at scripting. Chellappan Nair began reading voraciously on the subject. He also began to research on the life of Marthanda Varma. He spend long hours at the archives and places associated with Marthanda Varma. Chellappan Nair had made up his mind to write a film script based on the life of the Maharaja. He got a lot of help from many quarters, most importantly from the then regent Sethulakshmi Bai, scholars like Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer and Dr. L.A. Ravi Varma.
C.V. Raman Pillai’s classic on the Maharaja was widely circulated and extremely popular and Chellappan Nair decided to look at the subject from a different angle. A film made on Marthanda Varma had already been made though it was confiscated by the police following a court order after Kamalalayam Book Depot had filed a case against copyright violation.
NP, has Chellappan Nair was popularly known, began writing his script keeping it free from any of these influences. Even though his project received the full backing from the Kowdiar Palace, his ambition to see his script as a film remained unfulfilled. The plan to make it into a film, a big budget one, did not take off owing to lack of funds.
Later, when the Regent took the lead in the production of Prahlada , NP was roped in to write the script. Soon after this, NP was appointed Anchal (postal) Superintendent of Travancore. It was while working in this job that NP penned the script for Sasidharan , in which he also played a significant role. NP managed to balance his official responsibilities with his cinema passion. He was elevated as Magistrate but still found time to write the script for Chechi . Promoted as Revenue Divisional Officer and then as District Collector of Alleppey, NP kept churning out scripts for films like Atmashanti and Atom Bomb .
It was during this time that the Government issued an order restricting them from pursuing other vocations. This forced NP to end his association with cinema. He went on to write numerous stories, mostly social comedy of manners, plays, and novels. NP also won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama in 1961. He passed away in 1972.
