Call it a mere coincidence but it may come as a stunner to readers that while the Bollywood actor and film producer John Abraham is a famous celebrity around the globe the other John Abraham, who was a genius filmmaker from South Film Industry is a forgotten identity!!!

Interestingly both John Abraham are Malayali in origin. Another uncanny similarity the two shares is that when Southern filmmaker John Abraham, was a student at FTII, Pune in 1969, his Diploma Film was titled PRIYA and incidentally John Abraham`s wife`s first name is also Priya.

But tragically the similarities between the two John Abrahams end here because despite being one of the brilliant filmmaker, who was groomed by Indian film industries legendary master filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and of Mani Kaul at FTII the world, has forgotten him.

Legendary filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan speaking about him termed him as a phenomenon. In an interview he said, "John Abraham was a prodigy who possessed unparalleled and intrinsic percipience so that his films were always well noted and received the acclaim of critics."

His genius can be gauged from the fact that he was one of the few fortunate South Indian artists to be selected at FTII. Other South artist who got trained from Pune Film Institute include Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Rasool Pookkutty, K.G.George, Actor Mohan Sharma, Ravi Menon, etc

Readers would be surprised to read in a career spanning around 15 years John made just four films viz. VIDYARTHIKALE ITHILE ITHILE (1971, Malayalam), AGRAHARATHIL KAZHUTHAI (1977, Tamil), CHERIACHANTE KRURAKRITHYANGAL (1979,Malayalam) and AMMA ARIYAN (1986, Malayalam) and in this short span he made an tremendous impact not just in India but in International cinema.

His film AGRAHARATHIL KAZHUTHAI not only won National Award but is listed among the 100 Greatest Indian Films of All Time by IBN Live's 2013 poll.

What`s more his other AMMA ARIYAN has the prestige of being featured among the Ten Best Indian movies ever made in India by the world renowned The British Film Institute!!!

So now you know the genius of South film legend John Abraham. Don`t you think a biopic should be made on him and his character played by Bollywood actor John Abraham to make the great film legend immortal!

This article is from Raaga's music blog. Read more at http://blog.raaga.com