John Paul is now on a journey in search of the color of death. Bharathan, Pavithran and Kalamandalam Hyder Ali sat in some world of coastal friendship and sought that color which they might not convey through telepathy …
In a friendly gathering of the four, Bharathan asked what the color of death would be. Pavithran said it was brown. Hyder Ali said it would be the color of the torch. “He’s not dead yet, so I do not know,” said John Paul. Bharathan speculated that it might turn blue. ‘After death we go to the sky like this, the color must be light blue if we want to merge there. Then the color of death is light blue, ‘said Bharathan.
That day they parted ways following saying one thing. If any of us dies first and he has opened the telepathy counter there he should first send a message from there what is the color of death. John Paul had often said that even though all three were dead, the telepathy message that conveyed that color had not been sought.
John Paul was the first believer in Malayalam cinema as a religion. He was at the forefront of teachers who might approach the Malayalees for any doubts regarding cinema. John Paul has always been with Malayalam cinema as the mystery of writing and a small smile of creativity.
The life of John Paul, who went from being a bank employee to a journalist and later a screenwriter, was marked by the power of writing when he became an evergreen memory of over a hundred Malayalee films. It is through reading that he enters the world of writing. His father, a teacher, was transferred from Ernakulam to Palakkad Chittoor when he was in fourth class. So John went with him to Chittoor. School hours there were from 7:30 am to 11:00 pm. After playing the rest of the time, John’s father took him to a nearby library. MT Vasudevan Nair’s ‘Nalukettu’ diverted John’s reading habit, which he initially enjoyed reading detective novels. Then reading and writing through it became a part of life.
His study of the Maharaja and later of the poet P. Kunhiraman Nair, Kanai Kunhiraman, G. His friendship with Aravandan and Bharathan also strengthened these two habits. The super hit film ‘Chamaram’ was born out of Bharathan’s liking the college stories told by John Paul. Prior to that, I.V. The story was written for Shashi’s ‘I am the only one’.
John Paul’s journey was then to non-stop writing. Mohan, P.G. Vishwambharan, P.N. Menon, K.S. He wrote for the films of Sethumadhavan, Balu Mahendra, Joshi, Sathyan Anthikkad and Kamal. History goes back to ‘The Sea of Love’.
There is a story behind John Paul Bank quitting his job. After graduating from Maharaja’s College with a degree in Economics, he joined Canara Bank in 1972. At that time there was a provision that literary works were allowed with the permission of the bank and one third of the remuneration was to be paid to the bank. Following this, some stories were published in periodicals. But when he became a film writer, all this went wrong. The screenplay was written until he took medical leave.
On a flight to and from Madras, he met Canara Bank chairman Ratnakar, a native of Mangalore. John spoke to him as a filmmaker, not as a bank employee. Ratnakar once visited the Banerjee Road branch and told John Paul: ‘I knew you were a bank employee. I did not ask for anything, hoping that you would have peace. ‘ Feeling guilty, John Paul resigned in 1983.
He also starred in the films Care of Syrabanu and Gangster. He has made his mark in cultural Kerala as a television presenter, film teacher and cultural activist.
