Sunday, January 25, 2015

K Balachander - Unscalable Mountain



Many refer him as, "Iyakunar Sigaram", but he is known by many other names as well.. "A Discoverer of Talent", "Path breaker", Trend setter" and what not and he wears all these hats with aplomb.He has discovered 3 Super stars, namely Rajinikath, Kamal Hassan and Chiranjeevi, among around 67 others in the film industry.He discovered the actor in Nagesh (a close friend as well) and gave him some gem of movies like "Ethir Neechal", "Server Sundaram" etc, among innumerable other characters...

To recognize the "spark" in an actor a person needs to have good "eye" for talent. The story of how Rajinikanth got selected has been narrated many times before, so i will not go into that.My thought is, at a time, when actors had a "caricatured requirement" in terms of good height, great body, fair skinned, with chiseled features, how did KB Sir feel, that a dark skinned, non Tamil speaking, average body type guy like Rajinikanth (no offense guys, me a die hard fan) will make it really big in Tamil cinema ? Also he would have had a tough time convincing the producers and distributors as well, at that time,i guess. That's his foresight.

In 1950, he moved to Chennai and joined the Accountant General's office as an apprentice clerk.Due to his interest in Theater and drams he joined the "United Amateur Artists" and then a little later he formed his own drama troupe. During his drama days he was offered the job of writing dialogues for MGR's "Deiva Thaai" and slowly he ventured into feature films. His directorial debut was "Neerkumizhi" which was an adaptation of his own play. He had a repertoire of films starting from hard - hitting films like "Neerkumizhi","Server Sundaram","Thappu Thalangal" to  exploring relationships in Aboorva Ragangal", "Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal","Azhagan" to dabbling in comedy in "Bama Vijayam",Poova Thalaya", "Thillu Mullu", etc..

His movies were always far ahead of its times and he was a man renowned for not sticking to traditions and age old diktats of film making. At a time when everyone would give a hand or leg to work with MGR, he decided, that he would never go behind famous stars and wait for their dates, rather would make movies with newcomers and relied only on his script and characters and also to show strong female protagonists in his films. He sticked to these rules right until his death.Not many can boast of such a thing.He had an arrogance and his arrogance was to take Tamil cinema to Himalayan heights.

He also had the talent to identify something unique about an actor casually and then use that mannerism or characteristic of that actor in his films. Especially, he never wanted Rajinikanth to change his fast dialogue delivery, since it was unique, and used his natural walking style and cigarette flipping style as it is in his films, and improvised them into script, that's the genius of this man.

My personal favourite movies of his is "Varumayin Niram Sivappu", Thillu Mullu", "Puthu Puthu Arthangal" and "Sidhu Bairavi".In "Varumayin Niram..." he explored the unemployment and social unrest of the times and who can forget the "Apple" scene from the movie and Kamal's standout performance. In "Thillu Mullu", he discovered the natural comic timing of Rajini Sir and made a full length comedy film, which was far better than the original film ("Golmal" starring Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt). "Thengai" Srinivasan and Sowcar Janaki along with Superstar, brought the house down  with their amazing comic timings. Also no one can forget the brilliant cameo of Kamal Hassan as a advocate with a hundred juniors coming in defense of Superstar. He dazzled in that cameo. In "Puthu Puthu Arthangal" he explored marital infedility and live in relationships. One of my favourite songs "Kalyana Malai..." is from this movie. In "Sindhu Bairavi", he brings in a sympathy for all three characters of Sivakumar, his wife played by Suloksana and Sindhu, played beautifully by Suhasini. This movie had some great songs composed by Ilayaraja and performed by magnificent Yesudas Sir and Chitra.

He always had strong female protaganists in his movies, be it "Arangetram", Aval Oru Thodargathai", "Kalki", "Azhagan" "Sindhu Bairavi", etc. He might have altered his cast and crew at times, but a constant for him after MSV Sir, in music, was Ilayaraja. But due to a fallout between them, he (as a producer) bravely introduced AR Rahman after recommendation came from  the film's Director, Maniratnam for "Roja", a terrorism based subject, and the rest, as they say, is history. Maniratnam said in an interview that it was only because of KB Sir that he became a Director and my humble salute to KB Sir, for this, because Maniratnam is one of my most favourite Directors.

In a recent talk show, a confidant of KB Sir informed that KB Sir, had confided in him that he always knew Rajinikanth would make it big, but never in his widest imagination had he thought of Rajinikanth in his current status of Superstardom and that he felt proud of it. He also said to the same confidant, that Kamal, would always do way better and bring a whole new dimension to an already good scene. Many consider that there are two periods as far as Directorship is concerned, one, before KB and the other, after KB.Directors were recognized a lot more, because of him and he brought an immense respectability to the job. He changed the path of Tamil cinema and many are treading the path created by him right now.

KB Sir, there is no equal to you. Your life is a legacy and the numerous awards and accolades are mere cornerstone in the long list of achievements. Thank you for making many believe that one can achieve the desired results without compromising, if we had the courage to work hard and do our job with utmost honesty and conviction. Hats off and RIP Sir....

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

BAASHAA, 20 years young....





It has been 20 years (15th January 1995) since the iconic  BAASHAA  had released...When the movie released in 1995 it was unique and one of its kind movie...right from the titles,intercutting flashbacks with just a silhoutte of the Superstar,bgm that would send all Superstar fans like me, into a tizzy,the frameless glasses,stylish jackets,punch dialogues that echo in the background,etc...It redefined the done -to-death gangster films structure totally and also kick-started "Baashaa" like movies which paled in comparison to the original Superstar film....but none could even match its humungous appeal..

I had watched BAASHAH in a theatre in Madurai, when i had visited my cousin there...i would be around 11 years old then. Although i might not have understood much back then, i still remember being mesmerized by the whole movie...I had lost count of how many times i had watched the movie since then.Whenever they telecast the Superstar starrer in TV, i make it a point to watch it and i know many more BAASHAA fanatics like me would do the same, giving a deaf ear to all the family members who scold you on watching the same movie again and again..I do pity them, since they dont know what it feels like to relive the magic again and again...

Being a Superstar fan, i had bought the book "My Days With Baashaa" by the Director Suresh Krishna. It has very interesting anecdotes about the making of the movie, although not as much as i would have liked :( ...In the book the Director had mentioned how both Suresh as well as Superstar wanted to do an action movie, but since they did not have a story, Rajinikanth himself suggested just the title "Baashaa" and started on "Veera" movie instead.I read in a leading newspaper that the germ of the idea came long back  to the Superstar when he was working on "HUM" with Govinda and Amitabh Bachan..In the movie HUM, Bachan Sir, was a former gangster and now just a elder brother to his other two siblings, played by Govinda and Superstar himself..During one of the discussions between Superstar,Govinda and Bachan Sir, they had thought about a scene where Bachan Sir, will be influencing a person, with his previous gangster background,in order for Govinda to get a job and they had given the suggestion to the Director of the movie, but he rejected the idea informing them that it did not sit well with the script of the film...Years later Rajinikanth had suggested the same scene to Suresh Krishna and that is the now famous scene where Superstar goes to the Head of a college and speaks to him in a office room and finally gets a seat for his sister...This is how the script of "BASHAA" the movie was born.

Coming back to the movie itself, everything about the movie was pretty new at that time.It had such a talented star cast which included Raghuvaran,Vijaykumar,Devan,etc with fantastic music by DEVA, pulsating dialogues by BALAKUMARAN (NAYAGAN fame)...The "Naan Autkaaran.." song is still played today by autorickshaw drivers everywhere for Ayudha Poojai even now..The "Style.." song, the "Azhagu..." song, etc...There are so many memorable scenes right from the introduction of "Manik Baashah" in a cave to the "Ulle Po.." scene...to the "Oru thadava sonna nooru thadava sonna madiri" scene which gives me goosebumps even now when i see it..To the scene where he says, "Yen Per Manikkam, enakku innoru per irukku...." and the awesome background music takes over...The intercutting flashback scene, showing Baasha as a shadow,silhoutte..with the bgm (improved upon from TERMINATOR)..the innumerable social messages by way of punch dialogues, the confrontation of Baasha and Antony near the Fort, etc....i could just go on...

If BAASHAA needs to be shown as strong and powerful then he needed to have insurmountable odds stacked against him...That came in the form of the stupendous Antony...I still feel now, that there could be no other actor who could have played the character of ANTONY with so much panache and style like Raghuvaran.,,,He just imposed himself onto you, his barritone, height, stylish frames and jacket, made up for what he lacked in a good body...A handsome guy like him to play a villain is really tough, i would say :) ....

The movie has stood the test of time and many leading stars even now are willing to do a remake of the cult film...Actually Suresh Krishna had asked after the success of BAASHAA to Superstar, if they could make a sequel to the movie and the Superstar outrightly rejected the idea.. His reason was that the sequel should surpass the original film which is highly unlikely and so Suresh dropped the idea altogether..I feel movies like this should not be remade and never touched...Except the remake of yesteryear superhit "Billa" all other remakes had a very bad run..that shows the instinct of Rajinikanth..

I had watched LINGA recently and I felt the Superstar's magic has waned (sadly,feeling bad as i write it :( )...My personal wish would be that Superstar should act in strong character roles as in THE GODFATHER (Don Corleone), or Gene Hackman's role in (CRIMSON TIDE) or Jack Nicholson's role in (A Few Good Men)or Morgan Freeman's role (BRUCE ALMIGHTY) or retire completely..

I just want to end by quoting from a song from the movie itself, "there is only One Moon, One Sun, One BASHAA" and want to addOne and Only one SUPERSTAR...The BASHAA legacy still  lives on now.....Rajini Sir you will always be a BASHAA in our hearts,,,Live long and stay healthy...A humble tribute by a fan to irreplacebale BAASHAA....