Chennai: It was an event to trace the five-decade-old journey of director K. Balachander, who turned 80 on Friday. The film fraternity hailed his contribution to Tamil cinema and theatre and his penchant for perfection.

Actor Sivakumar extolled the director’s eye for detail. He recalled the instance when he had to grapple with high tides when he sat on the rocks at the Visakhapatnam beach during the shoot for ‘Sindhu Bhairavi.’ “Nothing would deter KB [Balachander] from extracting the best out of the actors. He would ask us to get ready for a retake even if he finds a slightest slip in our performance.”

Repeating some of his dialogues from ‘Sindhu Bhairavi’ and ‘Agni Sakshi,’ Sivakumar said Balachander was a taskmaster and would not rest until he made the actor memorise the dialogues. “The auditoriums will be full if KB is staging a play,” he said.

Scriptwriter ‘Crazy’ Mohan said he gained an entry into the film industry only through the director, who made Mohan’s play ‘Marriage made in saloon’ into a feature film (‘Poi Kal Kudhirai’). “Most celebrated actors of today found a foothold in the cinema through KB. I was inspired by his film ‘Edhir Neechal,’ which is loved even now by the youngsters.”

On Balachander’s contribution to the Tamil film industry, lyricist Vaali said his 50-odd years of experience in the industry had made him a stalwart and his television serials received as much recognition as his films. “The film industry in recent times is not growing in a healthy way. Directors like Mr. Balachander are ardent fans of cinema. Only those who love cinema can bring out the best of it,” he said.

Calling Balachander a ‘drill master,’ journalist and political commentator Cho Ramaswamy said: “He is a very good actor himself. That is how he tapped the talent of even average actors.”

He created myriad characters through his works in film and television, which are a wealth of creativity for the industry.

On his film and television career, Balachander said he was fortunate to work with stalwarts from different fields. Hard work, dedication and devotion are very important for anyone who wishes to succeed in the film industry, he said.

“I’m a bundle of emotions. And so I tend to make films that are rich with emotions. That is why people did not appreciate a humour film like ‘Poi Kal Kudhirai’ as they were so used to KB’s poignant movies.” The biggest challenge for any creator is to live up to the expectation of the audience. “It was stressful but a gratifying experience,” he said.

The event, organised by Swathi Soft Solutions, also marked the release of DVDs of four of his popular serials — ‘Pournami,’ ‘Ramani Vs. Ramani,’ ‘Rayil Sneham’ and ‘Oru Koodai Paasam.’ Creative director S.B. Khanthan and Swathi Soft Solutions CEO K.S.Sudhakar spoke.
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“Pramanam” a unique audio-CD having 12 songs of the Trinity was brought out by R. Vedavalli. N. Murali, Senior Managing Director, Kasturi and Sons, and president, Music Academy, released the CD, the first copy of which was received by Umayalpuram Sivaraman. Vedavalli, T.M Krishna and D.R. Santhanam, Senior Member, the Music Academy, were also present on this occasion. K.S. Sudhakar of Swathi Soft Solutions welcomed the invitees and said that it was a great honour to be associated with a project that was invaluable to the community of musicians.

Calling Vedavalli a matchless vidushi, Mr. Murali said she was holding aloft a tradition of unwavering adherence to sampradaya. Umayalpuram Sivaraman mentioned that “Pramanam” meant taking an oath of allegiance and Vedavalli was an authority on many aspects of music. He also appreciated her boldness and was all praise for the way Vedavalli had prepared her disciples to make them render these kritis in its pristine form.

Krishna wished that this disc had seen the light of the day some 30 years ago and cautioned against the loose manner in which the word Sampradaya was being used, in discussing issues.

He called the album an authentic document, which should be listened to frequently to gain familiarity. He requested Vedavalli to continue to release such CDs for the benefit of both musicians and rasikas. In response, Vedavalli said that the CD was an attempt to preserve a 150-year old tradition and that she was not compelling anyone to follow the bhani.

Mala Mohan of Swathy Soft Solutions and Sumathi Krishnan, a senior disciple of Vedavalli also narrated the pleasant learning experiences they underwent while getting this CD to its present form. Smt. Pankajavalli read out a “Vazhthuppaa” as a tribute to Vedavalli. There was a soulful rendering of some of the kritis by Sumithra Vasudev, Malini and Sumathi Krishnan to the accompaniment of Ram on the mridangam, prior to the commencement of the function.

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