Balu Mahendra passes away

[MysteRy]

Balu Mahendra passes away

Ace director Balu Mahendra has passed away. The septuagenarian director was admitted in the Emergency care unit of Vijaya hospitals, Chennai owing to a sudden illness caused this morning. The master craftsman who gave us many poignant films like Moondram Pirai , Veedu and Sandhyaragam has breathed his last before a few moments as confirmed by sources close to his family,

Earlier, Balu Mahendra was paralyzed during the shoot of his film Adhu Oru Kanakkalam that had Dhanush and Priyamani playing the lead roles. However the man recovered and gave us the film Thalaimuraigal in which he donned the greasepaint for the first time. The film released several months ago, garnered much critical acclaim.

Apart from being a director who whose films like Moondram Pirai, Veedu and Sandhya Ragam have won National awards,  Balu Mahendra is also a popular Cinematographer and Editor. Most of the films directed by him have been pictured and edited by him. Many prominent directors like Bala, Vetrimaran, Ram and Meera Kadhiravan studied the art of  film making under Balu Mahendra and always consider him as a Father figure.
Balu Mahendra started his career as cinematographer in Malayalam films. He was also the Cinematographer of Mahendran directed Tamil classic film Mullum Malarum that had Superstar Rajnikanth playing the lead role. His first directorial venture, Kokila a Kannada film released in 1977. The film had  Ulaganayagan Kamalhassan playing the lead role. His first Tamil film as a director was Azhiyadha Kolangal.

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Balu Mahendra – A pathbreaker passes away

The veteran cameraman turned director Balu Mahendra (74) passed away today (Feb 13) morning at a Chennai hospital following a cardiac arrest. He was the doyen among cameraman and made cinematography as profession in the 70’s and 80’s a craze. A generation of new age cameramen like Santosh sivan, Ravi K Chandran and others were influenced by his school of camerawork.

Balu Mahendra was truly a pathbreaker as he brought natural lighting into focus. See his brilliant camera work in the Malayalam film Ramu Kariat’s Nellu shot in beautiful pristine locations of Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad forest area of Kerala. Nobody has shot Ooty so beautifully as Balu, watch his Kamal-Sridevi classic Moondram Pirai.

In Pics: Kollywood pay last respects to Balu Mahendra

Balu Mahendra was born in Sri Lanka, into a Tamil family and came to India to study at the Film Institute in Pune. He studied cinematography as he could not get admission in other courses and completed the course with a gold medal in 1969.

As a director Balu debuted in 1977 through the Kannada film Kokila, he went on to make over 20 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi. He created a new wave in Tamil cinema with films like Azhiyadha Kolangal, Moondram Pirai, Veedu Sathi Leelavathi and others. His last release was Thalaimuraigal where he debuted as an actor and the film got critical acclaim.

Balu Mahendra  had also a keen eye for spotting talent. Actors like Shoba, Archana and many others were discovered by him.  Today’s new generation directors like Bala, Seenu Ramasamy, Ram, Vetri Maaran, and a few others have worked as his assistants.

Balu Mahendra has won five National Film Awards—two for cinematography, three Filmfare Awards South and numerous state awards from the governments of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Strangely over the years he did not receive any awards from Tamil Nadu state government.

AR Rahman tweeted : “ Balu Mahendra Sir thank you for being an inspiring visual poet, for directing such life changing Tamil movies......You have certainly been an inspiring stepping stone of creativity for many others who came later... May God bless your soul!”

Ravi K Chandran said: “RIP Balu Mahendra sir . Remember meeting Balu Mahendra sir when he visited my home just after finishing FTI in 1971 with my brother (famous cameraman Ramachandra Babu) I have grown up watching his films ,learning cinematography , interacting with him .It is a great loss for our cinematography fraternity.”

Santosh Sivan: He was quite interesting. I remember some of the films he shot in the hill station which he was fond off:-) And the films he directed were quite interesting , I met him last when he was preparing to turn actor.

Noted director Selvaraghavan said : “After watching Kaadhal Konden he called me to his office and we had a great time talking about cinema. Since then he's always been a mentor. We'll never see someone like you again”

[MysteRy]

Balu-Raja endearing collaboration ends!

The legendary cameraman turned director Balu Mahendra passed away yesterday in Chennai. His collaboration with another legend - music director Isaignani Ilayaraja is one of the most long standing accosiations in Tamil/Indian movie industry.

Balu Mahendra who used to work with music director Salil Chowdhury initially started to work with Ilayaraja from Moodupani in 1980. That collaboration lasted till Dir Balu Mahendra’s last movie Thalaimuraigal which released in December 2013.

Some of their best works include Moondram Pirai, Neengal Kettavai, Rettai Vaal Kuruvi, Marupadiyum etc. Apart from Tamil, they also worked in Malayalam and Hindi.

While several other directors switched to latest musical sensations over the years, Director Balu Mahendra was particular about working only with Ilayaraja till his last movie. An endearing and legendary collaboration indeed!

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Kamal's close ties with Balu Mahendra

Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Haasan and director Balu Mahendra shared a long standing and beautiful friendship over the years. In fact, it was Kamal who played the lead role in Balu Mahendra's first movie as a director, Kokila in Kannada.

Moondram Pirai for which Kamal won his first national award as a lead actor is certainly a milestone movie in their careers. Later, it was remade in Hindi as Sadma and still remains one of the memorable movies of Kamal in Hindi for many movie lovers.

Kamal, writing an obituary in a newspaper recalled, "When he narrated the story of Moondram Pirai to me for the very first time, I listened to him for 20 minutes and then told him I was on board. But I added that we need to work on the climax. We pushed the idea of the broken-hearted man to its extreme. We got my character crawling on the ground and soaking in the rain, which became quite the iconic image."

1995's comedy super hit Sathi Leelavathi was the last movie in which they worked together. Since they loved world cinema, they often discussed about international cinema and tried to bring in some of the elements to their movies.

Kamal will certainly miss a good personal and professional friend – "Balu" as he affectionately called him.