Veteran Director Balu
Mahendra Passes Away
Nandini Raja
Being one of the most influencial
cinematographer for more than 4 decades, Balu Mahendra was a technician who
embraced change and moved on with technology. Born in 20th May 1939,
he belongs to those early FTI graduates who literally revolutionized Indian
film making, be it in terms of technology or with storytelling.
Started his career as a cinematographer in
Malayalam with the move Panimudakku,
he made his debut direction with the Kannada movie Kokila for which he won The National Award for Best Cinematography
and with Nireekshana in Telugu. Moondram Pirai in Tamil and Sadma
in Hindi, are the most critically acclaimed movie of Balu Mahendra. The movie
is made after the trauma from the suicide of his wife, actress Shobha; an
unexpected loss of love.
His first film in eight
years, after 2005’s ‘Athu Oru Kanaa
Kalam,’ with ‘Thalairmuraigal’, Mr.
Mahendra has, for the first time in his career, tried out the digital camera,
more specifically a Canon 5D DSLR, to shoot the film.
It took 74 years for
him to realize that he is matured enough to be in front of the camera, when he
decided to play the role of a religious fanatic grandfather - Subbu in the
movie “Thalaimuraigal”. The first & last on-screen presence of the
legend.
RIP Balu Mahendra.
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