N.Velayutham (1926 -1981) was born to Nallaperumal and Manonmani at Bhoothapandy in Kanyakumari district. He lost his mother at a quite young age and was brought up amidst a lot of adversity as a child.
The young boy had to give up his education after his 7th class and had to do a lot of manual labour in order to survive. He had to work in a number of dam sites and gave money to his father and supported the family.
It was in Vadassery that the talented Velayutham learnt weaving as a teenager. The skilled youngster joined the still surviving Chitra Drawing School at Nagercoil and formally learnt how to create oil paintings and drawings over a period of six years. He had to keep his family in the dark about all this for he had to spend a part of the much needed income on art education.
On reaching a certain level he moved over to Trichy and got himself trained as a banner artist under NSK Films, a film distributing company in Srirangam. Banners and cut outs were new to the Madras Presidency and had been used in a big way only at the time of the release of the blockbuster 'Chandralekha'. After spending about 2 years in Srirangam, Velayutham moved over to Coimbatore in search of brighter prospects.
On reaching Coimbatore, the young Velayutham approached the owners of Royal Theatre for an opportunity and they asked him to do a portrait of their father M.A.Guruswamy Nadar in order to assess his skills. The picture came out really well and they let him do the banner and cut out for 'Thooku Thooki' starring Sivaji Ganesan that was being released by Anandha Films in their theatre.
Velayutham worked out of Royal Theatre for some time and moved over to Siviyar Street before settling down at the Vokkaliyar Street. Meanwhile he got married to Velammal and the couple were blessed with four sons and two daughters - Meena & Manonmani. Life moved around 'Five Corners' at all times for Velayutham. Now, the 'Thooku Thooki' of the family had become Cine Arts Velayutham after having founded it in 1954.
Eventually Cine Arts became a name to reckon with in the undivided Coimbatore and Nilgiri Districts. All the cut outs and banners in all the theatres were done by him and he was a real master. His biggest cut out was for 'Avan Thaan Manidhan' starring Sivaji Ganesan and it measured 40 feet. Velayutham was an agnostic and a Communist by heart and most of his friends were from that school of thought.
In any case the hard worker had no time for other things. He faced hazards in the form of short lead time and night work every day. The tedious work took a toll on him and therefore he passed away quite early.
“My father knew the banner sizes of all the theatres by heart and sometimes created banners for quite a few theatres overnight. Making banners wasn’t easy and one had to get the gada cloth stitched by a tailor in order to get the background ready.
Thereafter a wooden reeper frame was made by a carpenter and animal fat known as 'vajram' was coated on the gada after it was made to boil in a container. It used to stink a lot and we had to struggle in order to get used to it. This process used to strengthen the banner cloth and subsequently a primer mixed with linseed oil was applied on the surface.
It was only after this would the artist begin to sketch. Father used to recopy the black and water stills given by the distributor in his own dark room in the night and create a glass negative similar to the slides (they measured 3.5 by 3.5 inches) used in the theatres those days. Then he used to project the slide on the banner with the aid of a' Magic Lantern' and all this had to be done in the night.
He used copying pencils to do the sketch for they would ensure that the impressions rendered were retained. It was just a mark which helped him to ensure that the proportions were in place. The lay out for the banner was created in his mind like poetry and unlike the Chennai banner artists who had to follow the patterns given by the producers he had complete freedom to execute the work in the manner he liked," stated Jeevananthan, the first son of Velayutham. Jeeva as he is known is the first of the six siblings and his younger brother Kalyanasundaram is with him at Cine Arts.
“The Magic Lantern became a thing of the past with the arrival of the 'Epidiascope' which had a huge concave lens and a mirror placed in a box (made by our own carpenter) in a particular style. He used a movie still which was reflected on the mirror and passed through the concave lens onto the banner. This average output was created in the night again for it was just used as a basic sketch. My father had to use three plywood pieces for the 24 feet cutouts and had to work perfectly in order to place them well. For this, we used 8 feet by 4 feet pieces and drew on the three parts and this kind of precision cum work caused his health to deteriorate.
He was the owner, salesperson and worker. A number of aspiring youngsters learnt under him. Cine Arts was a Gurukulam. Father used to paint straight away and only later on was a skin tone made into the first coat. The banners were made with the oil painting technique and color powders (guerilla brand was popular earlier) used to arrive in sacks from Bengaluru. He used to mix it with linseed oil (which arrived in 20 liter drums - 2727 brand) and double boil them. The popular colors were lemon yellow, chrome yellow, raw sienna & burnt sienna ( brown shade ),raw umber, black ( used to have too much of an impact and therefore enamel black was used later ). Red lead was for orange because it was important for the skin tone and it was extremely hazardous. Scarlet red was used and for some time printing ink was used to create Prussian blue, magenta and mauve by mixing the same with linseed oil. Robin Blue was used too for making ultramarine.
Fluorescent colors were used for creating the titles and also for highlighting the cheeks or the edges of the images. The brushes were supplied on credit by agents from Ambala and they used to range from 1 to 4 inches which were used as per the requirement," shared Jeeva who had worked with his father from his childhood days. Kalyanasundaram, the younger brother is an artist too but he was involved in marketing most of the time.
Velayutham used black & white stills for drawing banners for color movies and slowly quick drying chemicals came into play and they were healthier too. The photocopying machines helped out in the seventies of the last century for they were used by Jeeva to create a graph and then proceed with the work. Banner art was fast art and a number of banners and cutouts had to be done in a matter of days for a number of theatres. Jeeva, the Presidential award winning son of Velayutham who got it for his book 'Thiraicheelai' used to keep banners ready based on his father's experience and eventually stopped night work.
“My reading and cinema reviewing habits came from my father and he opposed Dravidian propaganda by making us learn both English & Hindi at school, however he was happy to see me learn Tamil on my own. He told me about the directors Shantaram and Satyajit Ray. He used painted banners for mobile publicity too. He gave a lot of credit and many did not pay up at all. The bills sent by registered post were not responded too. However our main clients P.A.R.Viswanathan of Chandra Prabha Pictures, Rasheed and Krishnamurthy Iyer of Anandha Films besides V.M.Kailasa Gounder of Erode Pictures were the best pay masters. At times we used to make ornaments for the work done for Raja Theatres at P.A. Raju Chettiar & Brother. I got the award for my book due to my experiences with my father, “shares an ebullient Jeeva.
“Father used Winser & Newton pastel colours for making art and he drew for calenders too. See this picture of Bharat Mata vanquishing Ayub Khan was done by him and made into a calendar in Sivakasi. We have a Gajalakshmi done by him at home and my brother has done a number of paintings of my father. He was a very talented multi skilled person who could make slides, blocks etc., but he stuck to banner and cut out work. Our next younger brother is Ramamurthy and the last brother Manikantan is a nationally popular cinematographer these days. My nephew Anand Jeeva is a cinematographer too.Now my brother is the President of the Chithrakala Academy. The wrapper design for the autobiography of C.K.Subramanya Mudaliar (Oru Pithanin Kadhai) was done by him. Unfortunately none of the pieces done by my father exist today. However I am happy to state that some works of my brother Jeeva are well preserved in Switzerland. Our other client who supported us big was Karur Jai Hind Pictures, “stated Kalyanasundaram, the second son of Cine Arts Velayutham.
Ultimately Velayutham had built a house for his family by the year 1979 at N.H.Road and now the family works out of this place. The hard worker knew how to work with stump powder too and incidentally the first picture drawn by him for ' Thooku Thooki ' was that of the villain T.S.Baliah. “The members of the Royal Theatre stood there while my father drew the picture and felt really satisfied. My father used to have the pictures of Raja Ravi Varma and G.Sundaravel of Royal Theatres for celebrating the Ayudha Pooja as a mark of respect to them, “gleaned the renowned artist Jeeva who has just been awarded the ““Nanjil Nadan " award by the Siruvani Vasagar Maiyam.
“When my friends from the mill owning fraternity wanted a welcome banner for the Flying Club in Coimbatore, Velayutham did it no time. He was one of the rare artists who could create banners and cut outs at a speed not possible by anyone else. He was a committed banner artist who lived and breathed his work, “stated G.Rathnavel of Royal Theatre and RHR group of hotels.
Banner artists like Cine Arts N.Velayutham belong to a pride of Coimbatoreans who have added to the work quality of the city.