K. Balachander's movies stir old memories

There are many movies of K. Balachander's that I enjoyed watching back in India.  His distinct style of story-telling was refreshing from the usual run of movies.  There was a family friend who couldn't rave enough about "KB" movies, and she had all the reasons for it.  Not surprised at all, therefore, that KB is the latest recipient of the prestigious Dadhasaheb Phalke Award--the equivalent of "lifetime achievement" award here.  And the first Tamil movie guy to be thus honored.

A few song/dance clips from some of his movies:

This one, from "Edhir Neechal" ("swim against") fascinates me because one wouldn't typically expect Nagesh to feature in such a duet:


There aren't a whole lot of older KB movie clips in YouTube.  A favorite family story is about one of his movies, "Iru Kodugal."  There was only one movie theatre, "Amaravathi," in the town where we lived.  When "Iru Kodugal" was screened there, dad and mom wanted to watch it.  But, they didn't want to take the kids.  There was no question of hiring somebody as a babysitter either.  So, they decided to take a chance by going to a late night show, after putting the kids to sleep.  The theatre was a mere couple of minutes of a walk from home.  They get to the box office only to find that they had missed the movie by a day :)

As I started understanding movies, one of the KB movies that impressed me a lot was "Apoorva Raagangal." I was a pre-teen, as we would now refer to that phase.  The beginnings of an awareness of girls.  There was one girl whom I fancied all through those years, well into high school.  I wonder what she is up to now!  Thus, cinematic duets always had interesting aspects for me, in my imaginations.  Anyway, to me "Apoorva Raagangal" was the first real KB experience--quite an offbeat plot and narration.  A few years later on, I came to understand that the storyline was a take-off on an old Vikramadityan tale. 



KB launched many a acting careers.  My earliest memory of Kamal Hassan, Rajanikanth, and Sridevi--a trio who would go on to dominate the movies for years--is from "Moondru Mudichu."   This translates to "three knots" and it is not difficult to leap to an idea that it is a movie that is a love-triangle.  Probably the oldest drama plot anywhere in the world.  Incidentally, "Calcutta Viswanathan" who played a significant role in that movie recently passed away.  He was one heck of an intellectual/academic on his own, was the son-in-law of an intellectual heavyweight, and the brother-in-law of another.



"Ninaithale Inikkum" ("sweet when remembered" or "sweet memories") was a very different KB--not a serious movie by any means.  It was a movie more significant for the music by MS Viswanathan, who was fading out against the younger Ilayaraja, who quickly began to dominate the film world.



The more I got into the teenage years, the more I disliked the routine formulas in Indian movies.  Even KB's movies too didn't impress me that much anymore, and I went to very few movies later on ... The last KB movie that I watched was "Ek Dhuje Ke Liye." I would assume from the popularity of this movie that KB might have earned a gazillion.  It was formulaic, all right, but a well done formula.  A typical Indian movie storyline of boy meets girl of a different culture, parents protest, and the two commit suicide by jumping off a cliff into the sea.  I am not sure if recent movies have updated this storyline at all, but then it has been decades since I watched one!  Anyway, "Ek Djuje Ke Liye" had one awesome song after another; here is my favorite:



Thanks for the memories, KB.