Honouring glorious era of Tamil cinema

The New Indian Express First Published : 01 May 2011 10:39:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 01 May 2011 11:42:42 PM IST
It may be true that only veterans of the tinsel town qualify for the prestigious Dadasaheb Palke Award. But the selection of K Balachander for the national honour acknowledges a bygone golden era of Tamil cinema that saw meaningful and thought-provoking films setting screens ablaze. Though KB remains in the limelight, dabbling in television serials, not much of his repertoire of cinematic work that earned him the latest recognition is known to the modern generation, for whom Tamil cinema is more about swashbuckling superstars, hip-shaking sirens, exotic locales and computer-aided special effects.
During his halcyon days as a dream merchant, KB churned out earthy films that were refreshingly new in their bold themes and extraordinary storylines. KB stood out as an avant garde filmmaker endearing himself to aficionados even when formula films with celebrity star cast alone made the box office sizzle. He paved the way for the ushering in of a trend that saw directors likes of Bhartiraja, Mahendran and Balu Mahendra capturing the imagination of film-goers with a slew of remarkable films.
With most of those directors paling into oblivion after commercialism staged a stunning comeback in Tamil cinema, taking along the thinking man’s actors of the time in its tide, that glorious period that fell the cusp of the black and white and multi-colour eras was consigned to history. Not many of those films are now available for downloads as the cyber world has little space for them.
So as those times seemingly faded out of the collective memory completely, the latest recognition of the auteur at the national level brings back memories of the forgotten epoch, besides earning due recognition for the glorious past in which he was the vanguard.