"The first National award I won is on the wall of his office room. His legacy continues in Tamil cinema in the form of his pupils - most of his students such as Bala Pazhanisaamy, Vetrimaaran, and Ameer Sultan have won the National Awards. Their collaboration resulted in several memorable chartbusters that will ring in the ears of his fans till eternity.īalu's "Thalaimuraigal" incidentally had no songs, but it was lauded for Illayaraja's background score. While most of his work was labelled as art films, Balu will be remembered for one of the best Tamil comedies "Sathi Leelavathi", starring Kamal.Īnother fascinating aspect of Balu's life is his association with music maestro Illayaraja, who has composed tunes for all his Tamil films since "Moondram Pirai". Most of my work has been labelled as art, but as a filmmaker I have always strived to entertain my audience with work that will appeal to them on an emotional as well as intellectual level," Balu Mahendra had told IANS. "It's a misconception that art films have to be slow and unemotional.
He also won three Filmfare awards for his work in "Moondram Pirai" and "Olangal".īalu believed in having an emotional as well as intellectual connect with his audience. He won two National Awards for cinematography for "Kokila" and "Pirai".Īs a director, he pocketed three National Awards for "Veedu", "Sandhya Raagam" and "Vanna Vanna Pookal". In his over three-decade-long career, Mahendra directed 21 films across all southern languages. Drawing inspiration from the life of his mother, the National Award winning film is still considered as one of his finest works. "Moondram Pirai" earned Kamal his first National Award.Īnother path-breaking film in Balu's career was Tamil drama "Veedu", about the plight of a middle-class family trying to construct a house. The film's story was inspired by Balu's own relationship with late actress Shoba, whom he married for a brief time before she committed suicide. A runaway success, the film cemented the auteur's career as a director.īut it was National Award winning Tamil film "Moondram Pirai", later remade as "Sadma" in Hindi, that catapulted Mahendra as one of the influential filmmakers of the country. In 1977, Balu called the shots for his directorial debut "Kokila" (Kannada), which featured Kamal Haasan and Mohan in the lead roles.
His work as a cinematographer will also be remembered in films such as "Sankarabharanam", "Prayanam" and "Mullum Malarum". In 1974, he started his career as a cinematographer in award winning Malayalam film "Nellu". He plunged into the world of films as a cinematographer and went on to become one of the finest filmmaker, screenwriter and editor known for his distinct style of visual storytelling.Īfter completing his schooling in Sri Lanka, Mahendra enrolled into a cinematography course at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He is survived by his wife and son.īorn in a Sri Lankan Tamil Christian family as Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, his passion for images started at a young age. You can try MUBI for a hugely discounted price by signing up on or click here.Balu died following a heart attack at a private hospital here Thursday, leaving behind a visually rich filmography and an era of realistic cinema. Along with the thoughts on the film we also talk about the history of caste outfits in Tamil Nadu, the mobilization of such organizations, history of Vanniyar Sangam and PMK as an example and how the Dravidian movement morphed through the decades. Joining Aditya and Anantha for this episode are Niranjana, urban researcher working on everyday life of cities at London School of Economics and Political Science and Vignesh, researcher at King's College London focusing on democracy and politics of mobilization. The film is visceral in its depiction of violence and though it does not name names, Tamil Nadu has a storied history for us to join the dots and talk about the various topics associated with the theme of the film. The film, set in and around an engineering college outside Trichy, touched upon many issues like caste outfits, caste violence, clashing ideologies and transformation of such outfits into political politics. A debut film as actor, writer and director for Vijay Kumar the film had several debutantes in its cast along with Mime Gopi, Citizen Sivakumar among others. In this episode, we talk about Vijay Kumar's 2016 film Uriyadi. Beautiful, interesting, incredible movies-there is always something new to discover. Every day, MUBI premieres a new film, each one thoughtfully hand-picked. This episode is brought to you by MUBI, a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe.