It was custom duty of middle class family to watch Oliyum Oliyum during Fridays and watch regional movies in Podhigai during Sundays. It was one fine Sunday when the entire family was watching a movie called Kalki, There was one particular scene where the lead actress would have an encounter with her Ex Boyfriend, The heroine would candidly ask her boyfriend "How she looks with baby bump?" I guess that was my first KB movie.
Just imagine in 1996, He directed a movie which talks about live in together, breaking up with relationship and coping up with relationship after pregnancy.
Yes! I am talking about the film Kalki and this post is about K. Balachander. Imagine a government servant who worked in an unknown village as accountant with his hard work and hope went on to direct 101 movies , produced numerous movies, pioneered tamil tele serial and introduced more than 100 artists to Indain film fratenity.
Why should one write a post on KB?
KB is not just 1 film director who used cinema for commerial gains, his film were of low budget costs, I heard from people that actors used to pay KB just to be part of his film.
KB the name itself in later stage went on to become a brand. (Ramesh Aravind, Director Vasanth, Director Samoothrakani are some of the gems mentored by him).
The brand KB become so unique by seeing the camera angle, hearing a single dialogue let people decided that this creation belonged to KB
Even when color cinema was introduced, he took films in black and white. He was a kind of person who used tele film and tele serial as a medium to convey his displeasures with the society, he believed tele film and tele serial as a powerful tool to fight against the injustice melted against the innocent people.
I am neither a film reviewer nor a film maker to talk about the nuances of his direction or screenplay. In this post I am going to share my views about my favorite films directed by KB and the way he handled social issues.
Women Empowerment:
It has become a fashion for naive people to talk about women empowerment. Empowering women from same family (mother and sister) is not women empowerment. Certainly I am not talking about Rahul Babha, SoniaG and PriyankaG ;)
KB was one director who never portrayed women has a sex object, His entire film would be female centric, very few works of him had an item song.
Here we can take the classic cult "Aval Oru Thodarkathai" (Her life is a unending story), where heroine (Sujatha) would sacrifice her love when she was asked by her boyfriends mother to sacifice her job and family. She would sacrifice her wedding with kamal to uplift her family, The entire film revolves around the heroine.
He never directed a movie with stalwarts as hero, his characters and his products later went on to become stalwarts. His movies had a unique speciality that the story was the hero and in most of the story plot the heroine were playing the role of hero.
A Reformist:
KB always dealt social issues with at most care, In "Thaneer Thaneer", he spoke about water scarcity and condemned the government, bureaucracy and feku sadhus (POOSARI), who were exploiting the common people. In the same movie when Heroine (Sarika) was asked to end the dharna by her police husband (People were protesting (dharna) for poor water resource against the government), She chose to annul her marriage, when she found her husband demands were against the welfare of her village people.
In his films he portrayed women as a decisive power than a divisive power.
KB, Although hailing from a Brahmin family, he strongly advocated inter caste marriage and opposed evil practices followed in the society.
There was 1 scene from the film Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, Where Sita (from lower caste) kisses Kamal (upper caste) in front of her future father in law stating that there is no difference between the kiss rendered by an upper caste girl and a lower caste girl. The film itself conveyed the frustration faced by the lower caste people and how their basic demands where denied by the upper sect.
KB being an ardent Subramanya Bharathiyar fan, he propagated Bharathiyar kavithai in form of songs in almost all the films, He took Carnatic and Bharathiyar to masses. The film Sindhu bhairavi is a perfect example where he took classical music to the lowest sect of people and popularised bharathiyar, bharathidasan, nattupura padal vaarigal via Carnatic music.
A scene from Varumayin Niram Sigapu, where Kamal was forced to sell the Bharathiyar kavithai book to a paper man for food, he would mimick the society by saying "These people might have made me to sell your books (Kamal would try to talk to bharathi) not my principles or learnings"
KB : A Communist in thoughts, A rationalistic theist in following his religion
His communistic views were reflected via Kamal in Varumayin Niram Sigappu, he bashed Govt, Society, the education system for the ongoing poverty and unemployment. Indeed one can say VGM, so far is the only movie in India which exactly reflects the atrocities faced by unemployed youth.
(A scene from VNS Interviewer: Do you belong to the communist sect? Kamal: I belong to the unemployed sect of independent India).
KB candidly conveyed if the trend continues, unemployment sect itself would become a distinctive religion
Romantic killer:
KB = Romance, The way he handled subjects such as love after marriage or Young boy falling in love for an elderly woman or Extra marital affairs ( Manmada leelai) or Love after love failure (Punnagai mannan) or Triangle love plot (Avargal) or Two brothers loving a same girl (Duet) gave him a cult status in the industry for handling the subjects well ahead of the time.
How can 1 forget his Ek Thuja keliya?
I would say Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was an extended version of Puthu Puthu Arthangal.
Music & Art lover:
He never used songs in films just for the sake of using them as a gap filler, His songs itself conveyed a story. Lets take the evergreen hit Avalukenna Azhagiya Mugam, this song beautifully showed people how a song was composed and lyrics were written and how the song was shot?
Though the film was not directed by KB, but the story was based on KB's drama
In this song you can see Vaalee writing the lyrics when the song was composed.
He conveyed the philosophy of life, lust, meaning of life through a drunken brother in the song Deivam thantha veedu in Aval Oru Thodarkathai
Beautifully penned by Kannadhasan.
Tamil diehard fan:
Only KB can create a situation in a film where a poem sung by hero and music hummed by heroine can romance each other rather than a typical hero-heroine romancing each other
Sippy Irukkudhu Muthum Irukkudhu from Varumayin Niram Sigappu
KB was one of the rarest director who gave us a clue that two lovers can have a healthy flirting while discussing and sharing a poem
Sangeetha Swarangal from Azhagan
This film is 1 of the best from the ace director, his love for Bharathidasan works and his usual female centric story lines are better expressed in this movie
This film also gave a wonderful musician to the tamil industry Maragsthamani he is called as Keeravani in Telugu indistry.
He can give the complete picture of the movie via 1 song, he also showed us how a modern theatre recording takes place and even said about Rajas punctuality
The song Kalyana malai from Puthu Puthu Arthangal is still a visual and audio treat to us.
The love between old couples itself conveys 1000 stories in single film,
Duet: Can anyone think a 75 year old man can take a such a film?
The speciality of the movie is most of the songs has 2 primary voices 1 = saxophone and another= SPB voice portraying the characters of SAX playing prabhu and singing Ramesh Aravind
I woukd rate Duet soundtrack and background score has one of the best of his career.
One can never forget, KB has introduced more than 100 artists in southern film industry. Kamal, Rajni, Vivek, Nagesh, Gemini, Prakashraj, A.R, Rahman (Roja was produced by KB) were all introduced by KB
Unlike other movie directors he never bashed any 1 particular religion or i particular caste or 1 particular community for the social evils, he utilized media both small screens and large screens to advocate women empowerment, derail male chauvinism and promote optimism.
Indian cinema has lost a visionary director, screenplay writer, producer and a noble human being.
24/December/2014
24/December/2014
Edit1: How did i miss this? Film produced under the banner of Kavithalaya used to have the 1st Thirukkural as its 1st frame. This showed his love towards tamil and rationalistic theist behaviour. His 1st film itself had an unconventional title caalled Neerkumuli.
He can be called as father of unconvedntional cinema
No comments:
Post a Comment