A Social Provocateur | Madurai Bala | Anniversary
Anniversary | Madurai Bala | A Social Provocateur
56 years ago today, on 11th July, 1966 an eccentric, quintessential of Madurai's men was born.
Sole purpose of some filmmakers is to make original films of people existing in the margins of society, who are otherwise unknown and deprived.
Bala, son of soil of Madurai, is one among them.
Very few film makers of Tamil cinema have created characters with depth and story line made around the characters. Pithamagan is one such authentic characterization. The graveyard sequences were only made filmy in other films. But this song and the movie broke the wall and exhibited the reality. Not all film makers can conceptualise such demanding scenes as they will have to experience them. Observation and imagination have its own limitations. Experiential learning makes the difference. Indie director Bala deserves credit. The early morning has started with the song about the place where Sivan resides.
Director Rajiv Menon said " Bala is one truly original voice." I'd say he is one truly original voice of southern tamilnadu esp Madurai. No other can deal with the most important and inevitable aspect of life "DEATH". The virtue of being born or brought up in typical Madurai makes one to become versatile and cope up with any challenge because its unpredictable nature of life and death. What he shows in his films is a way of life of this region, but happens in isolated places and ignored by the fortunate ones but experienced, observed and exhibited by unfortunate creators like Bala, who went on to receive national accolades. Even this scene from Pithamgan holds true to my statement and had been recognized with national award for Vikram.
You don't like us, we don't like you either. We don't belong to your world. We are no saint, we are just humans. What we value the most is Self - Esteem, yet we are considered inferior.
Arguably, the only "Original" filmmaker in Tamil cinema is Bala. Must emphasize " Original ". Each element cast, music, dialogues, screenplay,everything is based on real life characters. Can anyone ever match his expertise?
Avan Ivan climax justifies the fact he is possibly the best ever!
It is only Bala who has been portraying " real life - not familiar - not largely seen or heard" characters in his films in Tamil movies. This could be the reason the so called " urban - centric" audience (confused creatures) could not appreciate his motives. This song and the following sequence explicitly show what happens when a mentally unstable person explodes and its consequences.
Director Bala's movies are seen as extreme, eccentric and violent but they are ground realities of gruesome incidents happening in Tamilnadu. Such crimes are published on 16, 17th..pages on regional newspapers and often go unnoticed. Seldom justice is delivered. Exceptional people appreciate his work and the so called " Urban - Youth" class denies him. However, justice is inevitable and being delivered in one way or another. Even this scene from Nandha is an epitome of such judgement based on emotions and instincts and not reason.
Madurai Bala is indeed a "Chithan", and not a human!
Psychotic, ruthless, selfish are some of the attributes being used to describe filmmaker " Madurai Bala" by the film fraternity. When his works made money the same fraternity didn't speak volume of the problems caused by him. But when his works turned to be a debacle, a psychological and biological evaluation of him is expedited and consequently he is declared insane.
People must remember that he is not the regular kind of eccentric they are used to. Because the industry had some before. He is quintessentially the real "Madurai", which existed before 2000. (The beginning of the 21st century saw "Madurai" sold to the idea of "Chennai", which does not sound masculine) He belongs to the kind of people of "Madurai", who cannot distinguish between a human and an animal under a certain degree of dose. He was never supposed to have become a filmmaker. Somehow, circumstances had taken him to Madras. Of course, it could have been difficult for himself, had he brought the characters from the environment you are used to but he derived the characters from himself and his existence in Madurai. Why do you expect him to be a regular human? It's your mistake to expect him to be what you all are - "Civilised"? Of course, we are not!
Interestingly enough, when he was the sole reason for your transformation you were happy him being disrespectful, but when you have grown you are not happy about him being disrespectful to not only you but others.
Remember, had he not chosen filmmaking he would not be around as what he was in "Madurai" would have taken him to his eventuality long back. I regret that he became a filmmaker because unless you are from that particular period of "Madurai", you cannot recognize what we are composed of.
In reality, " Bala" is no stranger to his characters. Not only him. I belong to that time period either. And, there are several.
Authored by Balaji Thangapandian aka #BT - a spacefarer, who is also curious about film-making, connectivity technologies and military history.
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