Film scholar P K Nair passes away

Paramesh Krishnan Nair the founder and director of the National Film Archive of India was in critical condition since the last 10 days and passed away on 4 March.

• He was 82. He breathed his last on Friday morning 11 am and passed away due to cardiac arrest at Pune’s Sahyadri Hospital.

Nair’s Contribution to Indian Film Industry:

• Nair is considered as the Henri Langlois of India because of his lifelong dedication towards the preservation of films in India.
• He contributed in preserving exquisite films such as Raja Harishchandra (1913), AchhutKanya (1936) and Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948) is significant.
• He preserved over 8, 000 Indian films including works from filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray,RitwikGhatak, MarinalSen, V Santaram.He also preserved prints of almost 12,000 films.

Paramesh Krishnan Nair:

• Nair born on  April 6,1933 in Thiruvananthapuram, he started his film career with Tamil Mythological films in the early 1940’s such as K. Subramaniam’sAnanthasayanam.
• He graduated in Science from the University of Kerala in 1953.
• Nair began his stint at the NFAI in 1965 as assistant curator and in 1982 he had promoted.
• By 1991 Nair retired, over 12, 000 films he had collected of which 4000 were foreign language films.