Balumahendra : Icon of Indian cinema

Balumahendra is a complete film maker who directed, cinematographed and edited his films.

His work was a game changer for nearly two eras of South Indian cinema.

Born on 20 May 1939 in Sri Lanka, Balu was a cinephile from a young age.  when he witnessed the shooting of 1957’s The Bridge on the River Kwai in Sri Lanka…that drew his life towards Cinema, He went on to study cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. He graduated the top of his class and caught the eye of Malayalam filmmaker Ramu Karyat, who asked Balu to assist him on the 1974 film Nellu.

Balu Mahendra worked as a cinematographer for many award-winning South Indian directors, such as Menon, Sethumadhavan, Bharathan, Mahendran, K Viswanath and Bapu, and shot Sankarabharanam (1980), which is one of the trend setters and an icon of South Indian cinema. He made his debut as director in 1977 with the Kannada film Kokila, which starred Kamal Hassan, for which he won a National Award.

His backlight usage, window source lighting and L shape composition are trademark visual gems.

Moondram Pirai“, which he later directed in Hindi as “Sadma” with Kamal Haasan and Sridevi. His other Hindi directorial was “Aur Ek Prem Kahani“.

He directed one film each in Kannada and Telugu “Kokila” and “Nireekshana”, respectively.

His Malayalam directorial films include “Olangal”, which was later adapted to Hindi as “Masoom” by Shekharkapur“Oomakkuyil” and “Yathra”.

As a director, Balu Mahendra won three National Awards. Balu Mahendra was one of the finest cinematographers of Indian cinema. Many years ago, Subrata Mitra, cinematographer of Satyajit Ray’s films, presented a viewfinder to Balu Mahendra for his talent.

Balu Mahendra’s last Tamil directorial “Thalaimuraigal” was a befitting farewell to his illustrious career.

He shot digitally by using Dslr camera and also acted in a lead role.

The film was not a box office winner but was lauded by critics. Balu Mahendra’s unfulfilled wish was the archiving of Tamil films.

Balu Mahendra did art cinema like Sandhya Raagam, Veedu.

Also he tried commercial films like Neegal kettavai and Un kanil neer vazhinthal.

His mainstream films where high in order like Moondram pirai, Azhiyatha Kolangal, Marupadiyum.

Balu Mahendra liked his film shot in 1:1.66 aspect ratio a wide screen presentation in classic 35 mm format.

Balumahendra breathed last during February 13th 2014.

His iconic images will continue to inspire generation to come.

CJ Rajkumar

Author/ Cinematographer