When the Hindi film Ek Duje Ke Leye took the nation by storm through the powerful narrative of a simple love drama, its director, K Balachander, was already an icon in south Indian cinema, particularly Kollywood. That he continued to endear film goers till his passing away on Tuesday at the age of 84 in Chennai was evident from the way the film industry expressed its sense of loss. Starting off as a scriptwriter for an MGR film, Deiva Thai, in 1964, Balachander took to direction the next year in Neerkumizhi. It was the time when Tamil cinema was in the clutches of politics. Those were the days of the swashbuckling hero taking on a dozen brawny thugs at a time and also running around trees singing love songs to the heroine. More than that, film heroes often wore party colours in their sleeves and delivered dialogues scripted to propagate the political ideology they espoused even in real life. And films ran on the strength of the hero’s popularity.
But Balachander bucked the trend. His heroines worked hard for their families, loved the men of their choice and fought for their own rights. His heroes were down to earth mortals and he chose his own actors, thus giving a break to a plethora of future stars, including Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. He portrayed unemployment, poverty, social evils and everything that he wanted to change. And the crowds came to watch the “Balachander movie”, not the actors playing the roles created by him.
Recognition came his way manifold. The Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2011 was the crowning glory. He had won nine National awards, a national level Filmfare, 12 south Indian Filmfare awards, state honours like Kalaimamani and Arignar Anna awards, 10 Tamil Nadu film awards and a slew of honours from states and industry bodies. As tinsel town gathered to pay last respects on Wednesday, he drew the best recognition: copious tears of men and women, who he had spotted, groomed and nurtured.