Sophisticated Balachander aka Sundaram Balachander.

Sophisticated Balachander aka Sundaram Balachander. Did the name ring a bell? Oh yes the man who was an Ace film maker who unfortunately has been forgotten by many. Sundaram Balachander was born in Chennai though his origin is near NAnnilam. NAnnilam seems to be really a “Nannilam” in yielding 2 balachander(s) both being great creators in their own way. His family members were already associated with the film world it wasn’t easy for the young balachander to act in a drama at the age of 3 years. He forayed into films at the age of 10 in the movie “Seetha kalyanam” in 1933. He played the role of a Kanjira player. He appeared in quite a few movies as child star and made his debut as hero in 1948 film “Idhu Nijama” and that film was a thriller movie may be that paved the way for SB to make thriller flicks. He also appeared in the movie “Khaidhi” in the same year 1948 which also was a crime thriller. Since he came from a family with bundle of arts flowing in Music was in his blood thus he was the composer for his debut movie as well. Yes he composed the songs for the movie “Idhu Nijama” and his tunes were popular as well. Songs like “Aanandham adainthene” and ofcourse he also composed a beautiful tune mixing thyagaraja kirthi and a western tune which was quite popular during that time. Following khaidhi he acted in movies like Rajambal, devaki, Rani etc. With khaidhi he elevated himself as director. He was man of many talents yes musician, director, editor, singer and what not. While on one side he was acting and composing music his stronghold in Carnatic music was not going away. He was pushing himself in both arenas. AVM Chettiyar who was impressed with SB worked with him for a project thus “Andha Naal” was born. A remarkable venture by SB , rather bold those days to make a film without a song when others were making films with 10-20 songs this man silenced the critics with the silence in the film. Yes Film had no songs and yet it was a super hit movie. Useless critics even now can say it was adaptation from English film but those illogical idiots can bark anything but adaptation and presenting it to a different set of audience takes a lot of effort and this man did with par excellence.. Andha naal is considered as a pioneer for many film makers even today. Right from the gun shot in the opening scene movie is a well made thriller with wonderful performances by the then new comer Sivaji ganesan, Pandaribai, T.K.Balachandran and ofcourse Javert Seetharaman as the CID(who was responsible for dialogues as well). Stellar performances from the actors and gripping screenplay made this movie stand out and till date it’s been the reference manual for many film makers and thus SB set Hollywood standards to Kollywood movies. Andha naal earned President’s medal in 1954 for the best Tamil movie. SB continued as actor in movies like Penn, Koteesawaran & Maragadham. Can we forget ever beautiful “Kalyanam aaha kalyanam” for which JP.Chandrababu lent his voice for SB. Personally I was impressed with his wonderful performance in “Doctor Savithiri”. Another thriller where in SB played the sikh role impressing Anjali devi and turns out to be the killer. P.Leela’s “then suvai mevum” is a class song by G.Ramanathan. Following Andha naal he made “Avan Amaran” which was impressive as well. Kannamba, KRRamasami & Rajasulochana gave wonderful performance. Avana Ivan is the next movie SB made under his own Production(SB creations). Once again a wonderful thriller. Kids Kutti PAdmini & Master Sridhar witnesses SB murdering his wife Lakshmi Rajyam. They are shocked to see him getting engaged to their sister Vasanthi B.A. The whole story revolves about how the kids fight hard to unveil the truth. Wonderful performances by all and ofcourse SB gave wonderful music as well. P.Suseela’s Kalyana thirunaal & Kalyana penne kalangadhe kannu(LRE & Renuka) both are quite popular even now. Like Andha naal SB made another classic in the name of “Bommai”. Another well-made adapted Toy story. Once again a thriller story where in a bomb planted in a toy to kill the hero and how the toy gets to several hands and how they try to trace the toy forms the rest of the story. L.Vijayalakshmi as the hero’s sister gave a nice performance while SB, V.S.Raghavan & others performed well. Bommai stands out for various reasons. Toy story was first of a kind for Tamil audience. Introducing the entire cast and crew of the film at the closing cards was another new feature which was quite impressive and amongst the playback singers you can spot the young & lean K.J.Yesudas who made his debut to TFM with this film (Neeyum bommai naanum bommai). SB’s compositions in Bommai impressed everyone especially “Engo Pirandhavaram engo valarandhavaram” is a fantastic composition by SB , beautifully sung by P.Susheela & well performed by the ace dancer L.Vijayalakshmi written by Vidwan Lakshmanan. Bommai is a class of it’s own and SB need to be applauded for having such a thought to make this film for tamil audience. Following Bommai SB made another Hitchcock Thriller “Nadu Iravil”. Major sundarrajan & pandaribai as the old couple and SB as the family doctor performed so naturally. Story is about inviting all the relatives to settle the property as Major is in his last days due to cancer, but the relatives get killed one by one finally the truth is revealed. It was indeed a spine chiller. As usual SB rocked with his scintillating music as well. “kan kaattum jadaiyile” by P.Susheelamma(for sowcar janaki) & Naalu pakkam yeri by LRE (for V.R.thilagam) were fantastic compositions. Just 2 songs for the apt situation in the film and SB rocked. BGscore was impressive as well. Unfortunately this marked the last venture of SB in films. Caught between his 2 passions he chose Music and continued to be the greatest Vainika. Having quit film making he took music seriously and he knew to play 40 instruments but Veena became closer to his heart and thus experimented with veena and created his own way of playing veena. Having moved away from films he gave numerous veena concerts and even today called as “Veena” Balachander thus veena stuck with his name. Carnatic music lovers still remember SB as the great vainika and do talk about him while film makers have forgotten this highly talented tall(literally he was tall) film maker with immense knowledge of film making & music. Nevertheless SB is no less than KB in his own way and what a musician he was. In simple words a “Brilliant Personality to be remembered always”. Will come back with another artist soon. Adios – Rajesh Lavanya