Welcome to our weekend movies column.
Imagine a director who introduced Rajinikanth, gave Kamal Haasan sustained breaks when he was coming up the ranks and provided Sridevi the platform as a heroine for the first time. This is not all, his career CV include a staggering 100 movies, many of them milestones in high art in mainstream format. Most of them were commercial successes, too. He made films in four different languages --- Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada. A recipient of Dada Saheb Phalke award, and countless other film awards.
He made movies that had both the heft and heave to be relevant and popular from the 60s to till the late 90s.
Verily, he is among the top five directors India has ever seen across languages.
Folks, we are of course talking of K Balachander, whose 90th birth anniversary fell on July 9.
To celebrate the stellar career of a lion-hearted director, who made movies about and for the middle-class that the country abounds in, we have chosen 5 movies in three languages available on streaming platforms.
Go and watch KB (as he is called in Tamil Nadu) this weekend. You will feel enriched by the emotions and characters that he magically conjured up on the celluloid.
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Ek Duje Ke Liye
Synopsis: One of the most well-known love films that the 80s was so famous for, this movie --- a remake of K Balachander's own Telugu superhit Marocharithra --- was the launch vehicle of Kamal Haasan in Bollywood. The story of a Tamil man falling in love with a Hindi-speaking woman and the attendant complications was a rage all over the country. The songs, set to tune by the redoubtable Laxmikant Pyarelal, are still popular in the country. Well and truly, a pan Indian success this film was. And it showcased the skills of 'KB' to whole of India.
Language: Hindi
Platform: Amazon Prime.
Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu
Synopsis: K Balachander has made 36 movies (across languages) with Kamal Haasan. And by most reckoning, this is the best of the lot from them in tandem. This story of 3 unemployed youth in New Delhi also had a heart-warming love angle (between Kamal and Sridevi). But the film's highlight was the sparring between a conservative father and a woke son. The son walks out on his dad, virtually 'canceling' him over his political ideas. This KB-Kamal was ahead of their times, as it were. In the height of 80s, this Tamil film featured a full-fledged Hindi song. Not for nothing, KB was a pioneer.
Language: Tamil
Platform: Amazon Prime.
Neerkumuzhi
Synopsis: KB was known for not only creating outstanding screen characters, but he also had the strength of mind to cast as heroes and heroines people with 'unconventional' looks. At a time when the pock-marked face of Nagesh, this film's hero, precluded him from being cast in films even as a side-kick, KB had the courage of conviction to make him his film's hero. Mind you, this was KB's directorial debut in movies. The film is a poignant tale of a young man, who is admitted to a hospital with an undiagnosed illness. At the hospital, he is popular with his pranks and fun-loving ways. But later his illness is known to be terminal cancer. This 1965 movie was the inspirtaion for the Hindi classic Anand starring Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Debuts con't come better than this.
Language: Tamil
Platform: Sun NXT.
Rudra Veena
Synopsis: This is again a clash of a hidebound man and his forward-thinking son. The dad is a renowned singer, the son, his disciple, rebels against him and crates a social revolution in a small village. It is an inspirational tale, and marked the beginning of social-message movies that KB gravitated twowards late in his career. The highlight of the movie is the casting of Telugu matinee idol Chiranjeevi in a restrained middle-class character. Rudraveena's music, by the genius Ilaiyaraaja, won a ouple of national awards --- the film underscored KB's ability to consistently wangle out top-notch music from his music directors. The film was later remade in Tamil as Unnal Mudiyum Thambi.
Language: Telugu
Platform: YouTube.
Thillu Mullu
Synopsis: This is a remake of the hugely successful and the eternally popular Hindi comic hit Gol Maal from 1979. Dare one say, the remake was even better than the original, and that is again due to KB's handling and his genius casting of Rajinikanth in a comic caper role. Rajinikanth has never done a role similar to it before or after in his career. That's how unique was the film. To take a runaway-hit movie from anoter language and remake it with your own brand of humour and sentiments takes guts and gumption. KB had them aplenty.
Language: Tamil
Platform: YouTube
To be honest, KB's movies, like the many others made in the 60s, 70s and the 80s, were high on family sentiments and emotional drama. But even today, many of them are still watchable because of KB's ability to chisel out characters that were unique and interesting.
Happy weekend viewing!
