Potpourri of titbits about cinema - ‘Dhigil’ Balachander

S. Balachander, born on 18-1-1927 at Srivanjiyam, near Nannilam in Thanjavur district was a child prodigy. He was adept in playing instruments including ganjira, harmonium, shenoy, tabela and veena right from his early ages. He was referred to as ‘Veena Balachander’ by people in the film industry. He was from a family of artistes. His father Sundaram Iyer was a good actor. He did the role of king Janaka in the film ‘Sita kalyanam’, shot at Kolapur Studios, located in northern India. His eldest son Rajam did the role of Rama while his daughter Jayalakshmi was Sita. Balachander did the role of a ganjira player. Jayalakshmi paired with Thyagaraja bhagwadar in the film ‘Sivakavi’. Balachander’s first film as a child artiste was ‘Aaraaychi mani’. He did the role of the young son of Manu Needhi Chola. And, he was the child Rishyasringar in the film ‘Rishyasringa’. When he was 20, he did double-role as Maadhu and Gopal in the film ‘Idhu nijamaa?’

Balachander was also interested in other aspects of cinema like screenplay, direction etc. He was very eager and keen on introducing modernity and novelty in his works. ‘En kanavar’, released in the year 1948 was his directorial debut. He wrote the story and dialogues also for the film. Next was ‘Kaidhi’, produced by Jupiter Pictures. Balachander wrote the story, directed the film and acted as the ‘kaidhi’ (prisoner). The film ‘Rajambal’ with R. S. Manohar and P. K. Saraswathi in the lead catapulted Balachander to fame and recognition through his different acting as the villain. AVM’s ‘Anda naal’, directed by him and released in 1954 created buzz in the Tamil film industry due to its revolutionist genre. The movie was a total shift from the regular formula movies – it had no song or fight sequences; Sivaji Ganesan, the hero was portrayed as a negative character. ‘Bommai’ and ‘Nadu iravil’ were horrors that became big blockbusters. His close friends started addressing him as ‘Dhikil’ Balachander after the release of these movies. In the film ‘Penn’, Balachander danced beautifully to the song ‘Kalyaanam vendum …”, sung by actor Chandra Babu. He started his own production company S. B. Creations in the year 1960 and produced the movie ‘Avanaa ivan?” for which he wrote the story and dialogues. Also, he directed the movie in which he was the hero too. His wife’s name is Santha. His son Raman is a lawyer.