'''Balu Mahendra (b. 1946)'''


Tamil cameraman and director, born in Sri
Lanka as Benjamin Mahendra. Son of a college
professor. Voracious film viewer; developed an
early interest in photography. Graduated from
London University and from the FTII (1969) as
cinematographer, going on to shoot Nellu
(1974) for Kariat. Pioneered innovative camera
style for colour in South India. Worked mainly
in the Malayalam avant-garde shooting films for
Sethumadhavan and P.N. Menon, Telugu
directors Bapu and K. Vishwanath and Tamil
director J. Mahendran. Made his first film in
Kannada (Kokila); later work mainly in
Malayalam and Tamil. Regards his Malayalam
films, made with greater freedom in a less
demanding economic system, as his personal
work. Pioneered a new brand of Tamil art
cinema with Veedu and Sandhya Ragam.
Films have a strong literary base but rely on
sharply defined visuals (often using natural
light) sparse dialogue and few characters. The
greater emphasis on cinematicism, making
dialogue secondary to visual, cleared the way
for Mani Rathnam’s films. Shot Rathnam’s
debut Pallavi Anupallavi. His moral tales are
often concerned with the status of women
(Kokila), the aged (Sandhya Ragam), sexual
violence (his most famous film, Moondram
Pirai) or bureaucracy (Veedu). Although he
claims an affiliation with the realism of De Sica
and Satyajit Ray, film-maker and critic K.
Hariharan points to similarities with the French
New Wave’s fascination with the American
cinema from which Mahendra borrowed
themes and stylistic devices: Moodupani was
based on Psycho (1960); Olangal borrows from
Dick Richards’ Man, Woman and Child (1982);
Irattaival Kuruvi is based partly on Blake
Edwards’s Micki and Maude (1984) and
Azhiyada Kolangal borrows from Summer of
’42 (1971). The emphasis on psychological
realism at times combines with popular
elements such as calendar art and novelettes
(e.g. the climactic scene of Moondram Pirai).
Writes, edits and shoots own films as well as
closely controlling make-up, costumes, etc.


'''FILMOGRAPHY:''' 1977: Kokila; 1979:
Azhiyada Kolangal; 1980: Moodupani; Manju
Moodal Manju; 1982: Moondram Pirai;
Nireekshana; Olangal; 1983: Sadma;
Oomakuyil; 1984: Neengal Kettavai; 1985: Un
Kannil Neer Vazhindal; Yathra; 1987: Rendu
Thokala Titta; Irattaival Kuruvi; Veedu; 1989:
Sandhya Ragam; 1991: Vanna Vanna
Pookkal; Chakravyuham; 1993:
Marupadiyam; 1995: Sati Leelavathi.

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