Mortal remains of legendary film archivist P K Nair were today consigned to flames here as eminent cinema personalities gathered in the city to bid adieu to the man who was instrumental in creation of the NFAI.
"The cremation took place at 11 AM. I was in Mumbai and we were devastated to learn of his death. For me personally, his passing away means the loss of a spiritual father," filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told PTI.
"His loss is a big setback to the industry, given the people and filmmakers he inspired through his work, by giving them such phenomenal films to see. At the funeral, Amol Palekar, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, among others were present.
"Several eminent filmmakers like Girish Kasaravalli, Jahnu Barua sent their condolence messages and expressed the loss of a man who was an institution in himself," Dungarpur said.
The documentary film 'Celluloid Man', directed by Dungarpur and released in 2013 tells the story of the struggles and triumphs of Nair in almost single-handedly contributing to the creation of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) here, of which later also became a director.
"The film for me was a journey into Nair saab's lives and his triumphs and the loss of cinematic heritage that his work highlighted. He has left a big void that would be hard to fill. But we will take forward his vision," the filmmaker said.
Nair, 83, breathed his last yesterday in a city hospital where he was admitted for old age-related ailments on February 22. Born in 1933 in Thiruvanathapuram, he is survived by two sons and a daughter.
"His body was kept from 8 am to 11 am at Jaykar Bungalow at NFAI where his office was, for people to pay their respects," Dungarpur said.
Hoping to built a film career, he came to Mumbai in 1953 after graduating from the Kerala University. He worked in association with veterans of the time like Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
However, later he turned his focus to the academic side of cinema and became an assistant film curator of Pune's Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1965.
After starting his quest for films as a research assistant at the FTII, Nair founded NFAI in 1964 which he built brick-by-brick with acquisition of rare films prints and served as its director for a decade.
Like a haunted man consumed by the cause dear to his heart, Nair acquired over 12,000 films, including 8,000 Indian movies and the rest foreign, which he preserved in NFAI.
