Centenarian Tan Sri L. Krishnan embodies strong historical link between India and Malaysia
11 Oct 2022 12:48pm
Image for illustrative purposes only - BERNAMA
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The noted philanthropist who will be turning 100 years old on Oct 21, represented the common struggle for Malaysia and India for freedom and human dignity through his services as a member of Indian National Army (INA) assembled by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.
"Krishnan represents a strong link between India and Malaysia in terms of shared historical heritage. The heritage is not just in connection with the Indian National Army, but also in terms of bringing Indian expertise to bear on our Malay film industry," founder of Malaysia-India Heritage Group (My Heritage), Prabhakaran Nair told Bernama.
Prabhakaran said this to Bernama in conjunction with Krishnan’s centennial birth anniversary during the group’s inaugural get together event on Sunday at a hotel in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
During the event which was graced by the Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia, B.N.Reddy and other notable dignitaries, a presentation titled ‘Tan Sri L. Krishnan-Odyssey of a Living Legend’ was presented by V.Sankara Subramaniam of Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama).
The pioneer film maker who was born in Chennai which was formerly known as Madras, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Oct 21,1922 migrated to Penang state as a child and and it was here that he spent his early childhood and adolescent years and attended the Bukit Mertajam High School where he obtained his Senior Cambridge in 1941.
It was during his post war stint in Madras that he became acquainted with filmmaking. In 1947 he became assistant director at Kalaivani Film in Madras, and the first movie that he directed was a Tamil movie,
"Amma”.
He was subsequently recruited by Mr Menon of Shaw Brothers to work in Singapore as Malay movie Director.
It was Krishnan who launched the film career of P. Ramlee as a hero in 1950 in the movie titled ‘Bakti’ besides being responsible for introducing other veteran actors like Maria Menado and Rosnani Jamil.
Krishnan, who now lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand is widely acknowledged as Father of the Malay Film Industry for his instrumental role in developing early acting talents namely P. Ramlee and laying the foundation for the modern film industry in the country.
Meanwhile, Prabhakaran said My Heritage which was constituted in 2017 with the cooperation of Indian High Commission in Malaysia has been focusing on building a corpus of knowledge on overlapping areas of interest in the historical and cultural heritage of Malaysia and India.
"We are now working on the registration of a trust whose beneficiaries will be the members of the Heritage Group,” he said, adding that the trust will be registered with the Legal Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Department. - BERNAMA
