THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Premachandran was in the midst of a journey and happened to stop at a teashop in Koottanad. His eyes fell upon two petromaxes kept idle in that shop. As soon as he learned they were made of ‘panchaloha’ he wasted no time in buying them. Now they are just two items in the treasure he has on the top floor of his house at Gowreesapattom. Premachandran, who has been a part and parcel of the Malayalam film industry as an art director for the past 25 years, is an absolute worshipper of antique stuff. Art director of films like ‘Agnisakshi’, ‘Bhoothakkannadi’, ‘Thoovalkottaram’, ‘Sallapam’, ‘Veendum Chila Veettu Karyangal’, ‘Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal’, ‘Irattakkuttikalude Achan’, ‘Sindoorarekha’ and ‘Ritu’, he admits that he would take that extra effort to buy any antique piece once he falls for it.The penchant for antique stuff might have much to do with the artist in him, he feels. Each item he has stocked has got one speciality or the other. The veena collection being one. He regales being the owner of a Rudraveena and an Afghan veena which he got from Delhi, a sitar he bought from Mysore Palace and a Saraswathi veena he got from the Nilambur Kovilakom. “One of them is about 90 years old. The ‘kudam’ of the veena from Nilambur palace has ornamentation done on elephant tusk. These days, the same work is done on plastic,” he says.A highly auspicious item in his collection is the sword, chilambu (ornament worn on the foot) and aramani (huge and heavy waist belt studded with bells) of a velichappadu (oracle). “I got it from a velichappadu in Kuttippuram, after much coercing, some 20 years back. I don’t think these days any velichappadu would part with them. In fact, the person who arranged these things for me wanted the ‘aramani’ back. But I didn’t budge and instead gave him the money to buy another piece.”Premachandran has a huge box (the antique wooden money box) full of palm leaf manuscripts. “Some of them have legible script. They cover topics such as medicine and martial arts. I have collected them from various traditional Kerala houses (mana). In fact, I have chanced upon most of them during film shootings.” A special item which he got during a film shooting is the brass statue of Lord Ganesha. “I got it from a mana in Ottappalam. This is rare because it shows a baby Lord Ganesha crawling on his knees.” He has a fine collection of wooden household utensils. “Their speciality is that each piece is carved out of a single piece of wood, mostly that of jackfruit tree.” Gramophone record players- one of them belonging to an ‘illam’ (traditional Namboothiri household), in Pulapetta, a teapoy from Mysore Palace, signal lamps used in ships (“I had arranged a few such lamps for Mohanlal,” he chips in), telephones, a cute little iron box, coloured glass bottles which were used to keep perfumes and medicinal oils and a wide range of brass utensils and vessels add to the collection. He has also donated many items to his friend’s curio/antique shop at Kovalam.An alumni of MG College and the College of Fine Arts, Premachandran started off as an assistant art director in Suresh Unnithan’s ‘Jathakam’ and became independent with Suresh’s next venture ‘Radha Madhavam’. Being an art director, he has made use of many items from his collection in some of his films. “For eg, one of the signal lamps was converted into a signal light for the climax scene in ‘Sallapam’. And a kerosene lamp, which I got from Kollengode Kovilakom, has been used in some 30 films of mine.” The latest addition to his collection is a 1947-model Austin England car which was used by a British Viceroy in India. (This column, which appears once in two weeks, features unique hobbies of a few well-known faces around)
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