The multifaceted genius (1939 – 2014)
Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran was born in a professor’s family in a village near Batticoala in Sri Lanka, but cineastes the world over knew him simply as Balu Mahendra. The cinematographer, writer, director and editor who gave a new dimension to South Indian cinema passed away on 13 February, 2014. A graduate from London, Balu was inspired to enter the world of the arc-lights after watching a live shoot of David Lean‘s classic The Bridge on the River Kwai in Sri Lanka, as a young lad. Emigrating to India as a callow youth with stars in his eyes, Balu enrolled himself for a cinematography course in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. There he also picked up the ropes in various departments of film making, including inter alia editing, script and story writing, direction etc. He passed out with a gold medal in cinematography and an abiding passion for realistic cinema, which was imbued in most of his films right up to his swansong Thalaimuraigal a touching story of the bonds of kinship between an aging grandfather and his young son. Balu who had never stepped in front of the camera played the main protagonist in the film with a great deal of conviction and won instant acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The film fetched him his sixth national award, posthumously, this time the Nargis Dutt Award for the Best Film on National Integration, a fitting finale to a career studded with awards and accolades.
It was the acclaimed Malayalam film maker Ramu Kariat who made the National Award winning film Chemmeen who first saw the spark in young Balu and entrusted him with the camera work for his film Nellu in 1971. Balu struck gold straightaway netting the Best Cinematography Award from the Government of Kerala. The film provided him a passport to the Malayalam film industry and he worked in several films like Prayanam, Chuvanna Sandhyagal and so on. But while handling the camera for these films Balu’s concentration remained on directing his own films. The opportunity came to him when he helmed the Kannada film Kokila starring a then relatively unknown Kamal Haasan.
The film won him his first National Award for Best Cinematography. In the meantime he also cranked the camera for films like Shankarabharanam in Telugu directed by K Viswanath, a memorable treatise on classical music and dance. Balu also wielded the camera for the debut films of Mani Ratnam Pallavi Anu Pallavi and Mahendran’s Mullum Malarum. His first foray as director in Tamil was Azhiyatha Kolangal loosely based on the Hollywood film Summer of 42. However Balu will be long remembered by Tamil audiences for his super duper hit Moondram Pirai. Among Balu Mahendra’s memorable works are films such as Olangal and Yaathra in Malayalam and Moodu Pani, Veedu, Sandhya Ragam, Vanna Vanna Pookal etc in Tamil. He flirted across genres and never shied away from remaking Hollywood films albeit with an Indian touch. He succeeded in making comedies like Rettaivaal Kuruvi, Sathi Leelavathi with Kamal Haasan and Julie Ganapathy with the Malayalam actor Jayaram and Saritha in the lead.
After a few films that failed, Thalaimuraigal redeemed the director’s image as one of the finest film makers the country has seen. Music was to the fore in almost all his films and Balu found his muse in Ilaiyaraja who worked with him right from his first film to the last. With age catching on, Balu retreated to the sidelines but did well to establish an institute in Chennai titled Cinema Pattarai to train youngsters in such disciplines as cinematography, editing and direction.
Balu’s protégés Bala, Ameer, Vetrimaran, Ram, Seenu Ramaswamy among others are today the toast of the Tamil film industry and have all won laurels at the state and national level. As one who lived and breathed cinema, Balu Mahendra was always spoken of in the same breath as the Tamil film industry stalwarts like Balachander, Mahendran, Bharathiraaja and Mani Ratnam but remained a notch above all of them as he was a multifaceted genius.
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C. V. Aravind
The writer is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist.[/column]