By Bala Menon

"It's something that I relish," says Mathukara Moothedathu Ramachandran, former banker turned jeweler and motion filmmaker - and now regally ensconced among the top rungs in both fields.

So what can now really elate him?

Only a scenario - that looks like straight out of his movies: the air is hot and humid' thousands streaming out of a palm-thatched picture hall in a small town or a plush cinema in a big Kerala city; wide-eyed, captivated by the entertainment he provides. "That is pure elation, a very exhilarating experience. I want to have it again and again."

Gouthami and Mammooty in the award-winning film Sukrutham

Ramachandran received the National Best Film Award in the regional category in June 1995 for his offering Sukrutham (Goodness), starring Mammooty, Gauthami and Manoj K.Jayan. The film also won that year's National Award for Best Music (Bombay Ravi) and the National Award for Best Background Score (Johnson).

Of course, awards are nothing new for 'dream merchant' Ramachandran, Managing Director of Atlas Jewelry, which boast the largest gold showroom in Dubai. He has had a great run with some 10 films, each one of them acclaimed for various reasons: theme, music, cinematography or just novelty. And films like the voluptuous Vaishali, released in1988 and which attained cult status, kept his tills ringing for a long, long time; and bagged the National Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Singer.

It wasn't always like this. Ramachandran's Midas touch came to him just a dozen years ago. "It was piles of files" until 1983, the year he ventured into the world of jewelry, opening his first showroom in Kuwait.

Starting in Canara Bank in 1963, Ramachandran joined the State Bank of India as a 'probationary officer', and soon was superintendent of a group of branches at the State Bank of Travancore in Trivandrum.

"But I saw that people coming in with money into our branches were all from the Gulf." It was time for a jump, he says candidly, and the Commercial Bank of Kuwait beckoned in 1974.

"Those were boom days and the bank sent me on a training program to New York and Philadelphia and I was in charge of our International Division looking after the branches in London and New York."

Ramachandran says he found 'my life philosophy, my work ethos' at this time. "Whatever you do, big or small, the headaches and the heartaches are the same. So I decided to play it big." And thus was born Atlas Jewelry.

He pioneered the concept of video advertisements for jewelry with the famous Oh Shobana... film clip (for which the actress charged only Rs.10,000 and accepted a gift of a silk sari - this was just after hit debut in the film April 18.) Atlas branched out in Kuwait with five showrooms and Ramachandran also opened an outlet in New York in 1985.

"The purity of my gold surpasses the strict standards set for the metal in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states" says Ramachandran (the businessman talketh!).

Ramachandran made Dubai his corporate headquarters after he lost 'a couple of million dirhams' soon after the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and lost his ownership of the Atlas name. "But I have opened shop in Kuwait again under the name of Plaza Jewelry."

He also has a Kerala-style goldsmithing unit in Dubai, based in Ajman, employing nearly 200 highly-skilled craftsmen, creating wonderful pieces which are prized exports. Successful promotions, in association with Air India and the World Gold Council "have enabled us to become what we are today."

The gold fingers, however, would not remain idle. "The arts have always held a fascination for me, especially poetry and music," one reason why his films are always loaded with lilting songs. Ramachandran's father V. Kamalakara Menon - who died in March 1995 - was a poet and found of the Akhil Kerala Aksharashloka Parishad, which has a large following among Malayalees. (Aksharashloka is a competitive art form in which a poet recites four lines and another poet parries it with a verse beginning with the first word of the third line.)

In 1987 came Chandrakanth Films which now has three home productions to its credit and more in the pipeline: Vaishali, Dhanam (with Mohanlal and Charmilla) and Sukrutham. "On the way, I picked up the distributorship of some excellent films: Vastuhara by Aravindan, Innalle by Padmarajan, Kauravar, Venkalam, Chaakoram, Ananda Vritandam...." Ramachandran says he lost some money on the magnificent art film Vastuhara, because the great director died soon after he made it. "Or it would have brought in a lot of awards at various film festivals."

Ramachandran has been honored by the High Committee of Technicians, Producers and Artistes for his Sukrutham success. The film also won the Critics Award, along with the Ramu Kariat Best Film Award and the Cinema Express Best Film Award.

"I am not just one who finances a film. I am an active participant in the development of the story line...it has to be aesthetically satisfying and also ensure good box-office returns. Unnatural violence and vulgarity and formula fare are out. That is why I am a fan of M.T. Vasudevan Nair (who has won the largest number of National Awards for Scriptwriting and who wrote both Vaishali and Sukrutham).

He cites the haunting climax of Sukrutham as an example. "We show Mammooty who has lived under the shadow of illness - getting cured by turning to holistic medicine - ultimately walking into the shadows of a tunnel near Trivandrum. A train roars into the darkness and comes out the other side... a violent death gently told. There is imagination, idealism, illusion."

Ramachandran has no short-term objectives. "The Almighty has been kind to me.I do not want to be just a jeweler. I like social commitments, a life like a kaleidoscope." He has instituted several gold medals for outstanding students in many community schools in the UAE. "It is quite a substantial investment in the future of young Indians. And I will do more for them in the coming years." He also gives away prizes for cultural activities to organizations like the Dubai Arts and Literature Association and Dubai Priyadarshini.

His own children too are high-achievers, keen on music and the arts. His daughter is a doctor and his son Sreekanth a student of the Cambridge High School in Dubai. "And, of course, my wife Indira is a creative supporter in whatever I do..."

                                                       © 1999, Bala Menon

Email: bmenon@sprint.ca