One of Tamil cinema’s most celebrated filmmaking legends is “Veenai” S Balachander who is known as an Ashtavadhani or master of all crafts.  In a career spanning  30 years and 26 films he has served as an actor, writer, director, music composer, singer, Veena player, dancer, poet, photographer and editor.

Sundaram Balachander is known for using new techniques not only in filmmaking process but also the screenplay.  His most famous film ‘Andha Naal’ has Sivaji Ganesan as a traitor who gets shot and killed in the opening scene and from then on the investigation begins with the screenplay showing the point of view of the suspects.  It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema,and the screenplay is inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’ but the director had a completely fresh script which does not resemble the Japanese film even one bit.  This a huge lesson for young filmmakers that being inspired by a work is not wrong but making a carbon copy of it, is. 

Director Mani Ratnam has been inspired by S. Balachander and has stated in interviews that being friends with the legends son, he had learnt the ropes of filmmaking just by talking to him.  Karthick Subbaraj the new age director has also gushed that he is amazed by the work and vision of the legend whose films are far ahead of his time. We take great pride in remembering and sharing about one of Tamil cinema’s architects.