Wednesday November 14, 2012

Krishnan to continue ‘legacy of kindness’

Delightful time: Krishnan (centre) enjoying a lion dance by the Ti-Ratana Welfare home at his yearly Deepavali celebration in St John’s Institution Hall, Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: When filmmaker Tan Sri L. Krishnan first held his Deepavali gathering, about 20 people from among his staff and volunteers from charity homes attended it.

“Nowadays, we usually get more than a 1,000 people coming,” said long-time aide Josephine Lew, who is now the executive director of Gaya Color Laboratory, an off-shoot of Krishnan’s Gaya Film Studio.

Thirty-three years down the road, Krishnan is as excited as ever as his Deepavali event has become a celebration among old friends who bring along their children for a fun-filled day with the local movie icon.

Known as the director who propelled the late actor Tan Sri P. Ramlee to fame in the 1950s, Krishnan, who celebrated his 90th birthday on Oct 21, said he would continue organising such festivities for the rest of his life.

“I fully intend to keep doing this until 2020, at least,” he joked at his Festival of Lights party yesterday.

Present among the guests was his wife Puan Sri Rukhmanee Krishnan.

Community Service Centre for the Deaf (CSCD) volunteer Cindy Leong, 55, said she had attended every one of Krishnan’s Deepavali events since it was first held at the studio more than three decades ago.

“Through these events, he (Krishnan) created links between the many NGOs that he invited.

“Over the years we got to know each other and this gives us a chance to catch up as we’re usually very busy,” she said.

Leong calls the annual event Krishnan’s “legacy of kindness”, saying many children with CSCD who came to celebrate with him decades ago still attend every year without fail, with some bringing their children along now.

Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) vice-president Dr S. Radha Krishnan, 65, said his friend had always been a very charitable man.

More News