KOCHI: There is nothing grandiose about EMS. He exudes an air of simplicity, something totally in sync with the true-blue communist he is. In the odd 75 photographs exhibited at Kanakakunnu Palace is an icon, the most-revered leader of CPM, easily engaging you in a dialogue, candid and eloquent. “I don’t think I could capture his spartan life in all its accuracy. When I first met him he had only three pair of dresses, that too issued by the party,” says photographer B Jayachandran.
The way he pursued his ideology, ardent and unswerving, is reflected in each and every frame. There is Kerala’s idol of communism, the two-time chief minister, reclining on rickety bamboo chairs and walking through dimly-lit railway platforms. “When it comes to political figures you will find a stark contrast between their public image and original self. But EMS was an anomaly, the very reason I started this series. As a photographer I consider it a privilege to chronicle the man through my visuals,” he says.
Kerala’s first chief minister never owned a home all through his long political career, and Jayachandran captures his life in a string of rented apartments, all small and modest. “He had no assets and he limited all his needs to the little allowance given by the party. Even his book royalties went to the party.”
It’s not the political idol that gets all attention in Jayachandran’s frames. His camera zooms into the personal vignettes as well - you can see his guileless revelry in the company of grand kids and moments with an equally unassuming Arya Antharjanam. Many portraits in the series show him immersed in reading, browsing through books, pouring over dailies and sitting in his solitary writing room. “I have never seen a man reading and writing so much, I consider him the best theoretician Kerala has ever seen,” he says.
A press photographer who started tailing EMS in the early 80s, Jayachandran has in collection nearly 15,000 frames of the late politician. “But neither EMS nor any of his family members ever asked me about the pictures. He was a man far above such concerns,” he says. It took Jayachandran a couple of years to establish the right rapport with EMS, “Finally we reached a point where he wouldn’t mind or question my presence. And some time later, he was willing to visit Elamkulam Mana, his birth place, after 25 long years for me,” he adds. The exhibition by Kerala Media Academy concluded on Friday.