P N Menon

30 Nov, 1927 | Vadakkancherry, Kerala

Director

Biography

P. N. Menon (1928 – September 9, 2008) was an artist and Malayalam movie director. He came into cinema as an art director and poster designer, and then turned to movie directing. Early life Born in a poor family in a small town called Vadakkaanchery in Kerala, the young Menon found pleasure in visionary sketches. He completed his studies at Thrissur and from School of Art in Chennai. He came to Chennai when he was only 20 years old. He couldn't find any job in Chennai, so travelled to Salem as a ticktless traveller in train and become a production boy in a Studio. But, after two-and-a-half years, the studio was shut down and went back to Chennai. He got back to sketches, then painting, moving up to doing magazine covers. One assignment led to another, then more. One of his designing assignments was for one of Producer B. Nagi Reddy's magazines. The production house was so impressed with his talent that when they bought Vahini Studio in 1951, Nagi Reddy's son appointed him as an apprentice in the painting department. That was P N Menon's first paid job in the film world. But the drudgery of painting sets began getting to him again. The turning point in his life came when he got a job as an art director in an English play produced by the daughter of the then Andhra Chief Minister. They had three performances in Delhi, one for the then Vice president Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, another for Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the third for Army Chief Field Marshal K M Cariappa. Ninamaninja Kalppadukal was his first movie Malayalam Movie as the art director and his debut in the field of film direction in the 60s with the film Rosie (1965). Career P N Menon's Olavum Theeravum based on M. T. Vasudevan Nair's script and released in 1970, still holds as one of the most realistic and sensitive films ever in Malayalam. Menon didn't resort to melodrama or sentimentality, just narrated the tale of some characters plucked from real life. All that, very realistically. It won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film. Menon's boldest film is Kuttiyedathi (Eldest Sister), again based on a short story by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. Perhaps his most successful commercial film was Chembarathy (Hibiscus) which was made from a script by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan and starred newcomers like Raghavan, Sudhir and Roja Ramani (Sobhana) along with veteran actors like Madhu and Rani Chandra. Another script of Malayattoor Ramakrishnan named Gayathri which was directed by him was awarded the President's Special Film Award Medal for National Integration. Menon's film Malamukalile Daivam have won National Award too. After a long period of absence lasting more than a decade, he directed a film, Nerkkuneraey ("Face to Face"), in (2004). He had two daughters and his wife's name was Bharathi Menon. He died on September 9, 2008, at a private hospital in Kochi, Kerala.