Genius Cinematographer K RAMNOTH in 1954 in the 1st pic [ just 2 years before his tragic and untimely death at the age of 42 years  ] and in 1951 in the 2nd pic  - He was born in 1912 at Pujapura, Trivandrum. After passing his Bachelor degree, he arrived in Madras in search of a career. He started as a trainee in development and printing department in Kodak in 1932. While he was working there, he wrote articles on the subject of photography for various publications. He sent one such article to a publication called Sound and Shadow. This publication was owned jointly by Muthuswami Iyer and A. K. Sekhar (Muthuswami Iyer later directed films under his pen name Murugadasa and A. K. Sekhar became an art director.) This article led Ramnoth to join these two after he quit working in Kodak. The reason being that motion pictures and film making always fascinated him. He anyway was toying with an idea of joining film makers enthusiastic about making talkies in Madras.A breakthrough came in 1933 when the trio received a letter from V. Shantaram, partner of Prabath Films in Kolapur. Shantaram requested their help in his production of Sita Kalyanam in Tamil. Ramnoth worked as cinematographer and assistant director. His name was shown as K. Ramanathan in the film credits. No one knows how the puffed up name of Ramnathan got swollen to form Ramnoth with a loud 'O' in the centre indicating the greatness of this man. The small , stocky goggled Ramnoth went on to make a big name for himself. 
The trio then went in charge of the technical department of Vel Studios that was located at Eldams Road in Teynampet. (Later this studio was moved to Guindy). This was the  second sound studio to come up in Madras . It was started by M. D. Rajan on Eldams Road in the Dunmore bungalow, which belonged to the Raja of Pithapuram. They produced films like Markandeya in 1935 and Pathuga Pattabishekam in 1936.
In one of the films he worked for in 1938, Ramnoth introduced miniature photography for the first time in Tamil films. It was a scene showing a downpour of paddy showering on a parched, famine-stricken land. Viewers were awed to see such a scene. The list of films he  went on to do cinematography for are - 

Seeta Kalyanam (1934

Sasirekha Parinayam (1936) 

Grihalakshmi (1938)

Vande Mataram (1939)

Sumangali (1940)

Devatha (1941)

Bhakta Potana (1942)

Mangamma Sapatham (1943)

Chandralekha (1948)

Kalpana (1948)

Beedala Patlu (1950)

Kanchana (1952)

Oka thalli Pillalu (1953)

                

The films he did for Vauhini studios like Vandemataram , Sumangali , Devata & Bhaktha Pothan brought immense fame to him and also to art director Shekar. Their names were plastered all over the country attracting biggies like S S Vasan who then made Ramnoth to work for him exclusively . This was in 1942. Due to World War II, some studios had to close down and as such Ramnoth and A. K. Sekhar went to work for Gemini Studios. They worked in films like Kannamma En Kadhali, Miss Malini and Chandralekha. Both left Gemini some time in 1948–49 and joined Jupiter Pictures who had their office in Central Studios Coimbatore.While at Jupiters, Ramnoth directed Marmayogi which was a success and brought fame to its lead actor M. G. Ramachandran. It was the first Tamil film to be given an 'A' certificate (adults only) by the CBFC because there was a ghost in the film.
Jupiter was making another film Mohini with Lanka Satyam as its director. A scene had to be shot in which the main actor and actress are seated on a flying horse singing a duet. The producer was not satisfied with the shot. He called Ramnoth to redo the scene, and was impressed with Ramnoth's photography. However, Ramnoth asked the producer to give credit only to Lanka Satyam in the film.
After Jupiter, Ramnoth worked for Pakshiraja Studios and then for Modern Theatres. Here is the list of the film Ramnoth directed 

• Markandeya (1935)
• Paduka Pattabhishekham (1936)
• Kanniyin Kaadhali (1949)
• Ezhai Padum Padu (1950)
• Beedala Patlu (1950)
• Marmayogi (1951)
• Ek Tha Raja (1951)
• Thai Ullam (1952)
• Manithan (1953)
• Viduthalai (1954)
• Sugam Enge (1954)

 Earning a formidable reputaion , Ramonth was known to be well read and a genius at that. Ask him anything from carpentry, cinematography, Confucius or cabaret, hewould go on to impart knowledge about them in such a way that the listener would feel that there can be nothing more to it than what he heard from Ramnoth. The filmy industry began to look upon him as a one man brain trust who would know everything about anything. Those days every financier wanting to start a film studio depended heavily on the free advice of Ramnoth . Including S S Vasan who sought the wise counsel of both Ramnoth ad A K Shekar while he set up his famous Gemini studio. Ramonth never cared if his advice was ignored. With a gentle chuckle he would say that they should rely more on logic. Logic was one word that always came in conversations with him as Logic was what taught him everything and he did use it in every aspect of his career. He dared to talk more logic than others and he stuck to it as a proof . Being an ' original thinker ' , he would ridicule mercilessly any foolish copying that accounts for the bungling and clumsiness of the efforts of people. The wealth of information Ramnoth retained in his memory would stagger anyone those days. The most striking feature about him would be his utter nonchalance. His Come-who-may or Come-what - may attitude kept most men mild and meek in front of him. He would offend noe and insult none but sometimes his mischievous smile would end all pretensions. Inspite of being shot he would dominate any group. His wouds would be measured,gentle and low spoken but sometimes with their piercing logic he was capable of rapier thrusts. He may look too egoist to be courteous but he was never discourteous with anyone. To any new hopefuls who went to him he was a warm friend and never a supercilious patron. Due to the total absence of reference to him self or his career in his talks, Ramnoth would appear as if he had no thought to his career . But his career was a story of astonishing progress.With no kicking about, no kicking others, no shouting or fighting , he has arrived to the top of his profession and how ? By the real way of knowing more and more and doing better and better. Ramnoth at wprk would as relaxed as he was away from it. Gentle and unflurried he would go about his job with his mind fully on it. He would show no signs of fatigue even at the end of a long day's work. He had the gift of sleeping anywhere and at anytime. As a cinematographer he would often be found sitting on the camera crane and dozing between takes. If he was not sleeping also he would be fully occupied between takes.he would not chat idly but would rather read a book or a magazine. While shooting ofr a film in a set of a Lawyer's room , in between takes he would be found going through those thick tomes of Law books. 

Ramnoth never kept money on is mind though he was a most expensive director and cinematographer. Money simply came to him and he never gave much thought to it .Still when in 1954, he produced his own film Viduthalai. He suffered financially and mentally due to its failure which led to his death in 1956 at the age of 44....Thus ended the life and career of a brilliant man . Wh

at a loss it was to our film industry !