An incomparable doyen (1930-2014)
The passing away of K. Balachander or KB, one of the greatest film directors the country has seen, cast a pall of gloom across the film industry. Balachander directed over a hundred films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada. KB also introduced to the silver screen more than 60 artistes, the most famous among them being Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, with the latter, who started out as a child artiste, landing his first role as an adult in Balachander’s Arangetram. Rajinikanth whom he spotted while scouting for talent at the Madras Film Institute, played a cameo in Balachander’s Apoorva Raagangal and was later mentored by the director. Others like Sridevi, Saritha, Jayaprada, Jayasudha, Suhasini, Shruthi and Prakash Raj – all KB’s protégées, soon carved their own niche in cinema.
Balachander’s first foray into cinema was through the M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) starrer Deiva Thai, for which he wrote the screenplay. KB however never worked again with MGR, the numero uno star in the Tamil film industry, and directed the other matinee idol of the time Sivaji Ganesan in just one film Ediroli. KB was never enamoured of marquee names and believed in creating stars, something that became second nature to him. His maiden directorial effort was Neerkumizhi, where Nagesh the popular comedian donned the hero’s role.
Balachander swerved from the beaten track very early in his career to direct women-centric films and his protagonists were generally drawn from the middle class milieu, a genre that soon became his happy hunting ground. In several of his films like Iru Kodugal, Arangetram, Aval Oru Thodarkathai, Avargal and Moondru Mudichu, down to some of his latter day ventures like Thanneer Thanneer, Achamillai Achamillai, Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu, Agni Sakshi, Kaviya Thalaivi, and Sindhu Bhairavi, Balachander invested his heroines with a great deal of innate strength and determination to take on all odds. He also utilised these films as tools to explore the psyche and soul of women struggling to find their feet in a patriarchal society. Social issues was another sphere that he handled with a great deal of aplomb, and films like Thanneer Thanneer which dealt with water scarcity, Achamillai Achamillai on how politics corrupts an honest hero, Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu on unemployed youth, and Sindhu Bhairavi that had classical music as its nucleus, were all films that attracted audiences and also won critical acclaim. He remade his Telugu hit Maro Chaitra which had Kamal Haasan and another of his discoveries Saritha in the lead roles, in Hindi as EK Duje Ke Liye, with Kamal Haasan and Rati Agnihotri in the lead, and the film became a blockbuster. However, his other Hindi films like Ek Nai Paheli and Zara Si Zindagi, remakes of his Tamil hits failed to click at the box office. Balachander eventually lost his Midas touch and films like Parthale Paravasam, his 100th directorial venture, and Poi, which came later, crashed at the box office.
The veteran however drifted to TV serials and tasted success with soaps like Kaiyallavu Manasu and Rail Sneham. His production company Kavithalaya which commenced operations in 1981 made several hit films, and in the Mani Ratnam directed film Roja, Balachander introduced the then unknown music director A. R. Rahman. KB also acted in a few films and his swansong as actor, the Ramesh Aravind directed Uthama Villain with Kamal in the lead, is all set for release soon. He has donned the role of a director aptly named ‘Margadarshi’ in the film.
Balachander’s films won a number of national awards in various categories with Rudra Veena netting the Nargis Dutt award for ‘Best Film on National Integration’, and Oru Veedu Oru Vaasal, the award for the ‘Best Film on Social Issues’. KB also won the Padma Shri and the highest award for contribution to Indian cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke award. An affable personality who lived and breathed cinema till the very end, KB was not only far ahead of his times, but was also streets ahead of his contemporaries.