Vigathakumaran (English: The Lost Child) is a 1930 Indian silent film written, produced and directed by J. C. Daniel, who also played the hero in the movie.

[1][2][3] Chandrakumar, son of a rich man in Travancore, is kidnapped by the villain Bhoothanathan taken to Ceylon.

The estate owner, who is British, takes a liking to him and in time, Chandrakumar rises to the post of superintendent.

A scar on the back reveals Chandrakumar's identity which finally leads to the happy reunion of the family.

At that time the common mass of Kerala were not even aware of cinema, hence the idea was quite a challenge.

He took the challenge and left to Madras (now Chennai) to learn techniques of film-making and to acquire necessary equipments.

He was able to gather enough knowledge and equipment for film production from Bombay and came back to Kerala to fulfil his dream.

[7] In 1926, J.C. Daniel established the first film studio in Kerala named The Travancore National Pictures.

He made money for the purpose by selling a piece of land in his name for 4 lakh British Indian Rupees.

[8] The first Malayalam actress was a scheduled caste labourer named P. K. Rosy from a place called Thayycaud near Trivandrum.

Daniel had earlier signed an actress from Bombay named Lana to act in the heroine role.

The announcer explained that since this is the first Malayalam film, there will be some minor problems and the audience received the statement with applause.

After the film not generating enough money at the box office, Daniel suffered from debts and to overcome the situation, he had to sell his equipments and close down his studio.

At the far end of his life, he had told R. Kumaraswamy, the editor of the film magazine Nana: "Malayalam cinema is a thriving industry now.

A lot of literary and cinema works have been made, based on the life of J. C. Daniel and the making of Vigathakumaran.

The film details the struggles of Daniel to produce and exhibit Vigathakumaran, while plunging into financial crisis.

[19] The film generated criticism over its subtle reference to an IAS Officer and the then Kerala Chief Minister, which purportedly points to the bureaucrat and writer Malayattoor Ramakrishna Iyer and K. Karunakaran, who allegedly worked together to deny J. C. Daniel credit for his contribution to Malayalam cinema since he was a Nadar (Christian).

[21][22] Author and civil servant N. S. Madhavan and D. Babu Paul, former Chief Secretary of Kerala have pointed out factual inaccuracies in the film's depiction of Malayattoor and Karunakaran.