Akshaya

A New League in Indian Cinema

Tamil cinema

#Balachander

#Manirathnam

Monthly issue

Art Cinema.....

Editor’s Choice 18- 23 Manirathanam & Art Cinema Kannathil Muthamittal

EXCLUSIVE 10 - 13 Art Cinema

From the 70’s14- 17 K. Balachander Sindhu Bhairavi

C o n t e n t s

Art Cinema.....

Letter from

Through his first film Pather Panchali (1955) Satyajit Ray became the pioneer of a genre of filmslatter known as the ‘Indian Parallel Cinema’. Eventhough Ritwik Ghatak made his first film Nagarik in 1952, he became well known by his film Ajantrik(1958) and became a strong presence in parallel cinema.

When it comes to Tamil cinema, it has a quite a low Art Films . But we Should surely agree the fact that atleast it has got few.Balachander and Manirathnam are know for Art Cinema .

THE Editor

The Editor

For the past five years , we have come acrossed many art cinema From Tamil Film Indusrty. We should be happy about this . With the Directors like Bala, Myskkin, Vetrimaran,Prabhu solo-mon and many more. Directors

I would say the Tamil Cinema is going on a right Pace. I wish many more Art Cinema are made and the movies are not made only for money .

Wishing all the Art Cinema

Art Cinema.....

Art Cinema.....

India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as Bollywood. In addition to commer-cial cinema, there is also Indian art cinema, known to film critics as “New Indian Cinema” or some-times “the Indian New Wave”. Many people in In-dia plainly call such films as “art films” as opposed to mainstream commercial cinema. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the art film or the parallel cine-ma was usually government-aided cinema. Such di-rectors could get federal or state government grants to produce non-commercial films on Indian themes. Their films were showcased at state film festivals and on the government-run TV. These films also had limited runs in art house theatres in India and overseas.

The directors of the art cinema owed much more to foreign influences, such as Italian Neo-Realism or French New Wave, than they did to the genre con-ventions of commercial Indian cinema. The best known New Cinema directors were Bimal Roy, Rit-wik Ghatak, and Satyajit Ray. The best known films of this genre are the Apu Trilogy (Bengali) by Sa-tyajit Ray and Do Bigha Zameen (Hindi) by Bimal Roy. Satyajit Ray was the most flourishing of the “art cinema” directors. His films played primarily to art-house audiences in the larger Indian cities, or to film buffs on the international circuit.

Art Cinema.....

In South India, art cinema or the parallel cinema was well-supported in the state of Kerala. Malay-alam movie makers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, and M. T. Vasudevan Nair were quite successful. Starting the 1970s, Kannada film-makers from Karnataka state produced a string of serious, low-budget films. But virtually only one director from that period continues to make off-beat films -- Girish Kasaravalli. In other markets of south India, like Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu, stars and popular cinema rule the box office. Still, a few directors, such as Balachander, Bharathiraja, Balu Mahendra, Bapu, Puttanna, Sid-dalingaiah, Dr.K.Vishwanath, and Mani Ratnam have achieved fair amount of success at the box-office while balancing elements of art and popular cinema together.

Art Cinema.....

Kailasam Balachander (9 July 1930 – 23 December 2014) was an Indian di-rector, producer, writer, actor, playwright, stage conductor, and comedi-an who worked mainly in the Tamil film indus-try. He was well known for his distinct film-making style, and the Indi-an film industry knew him as a master of un-conventional themes and hard-hitting subject matters of contemporary time. Balachander’s films are well known for their portrayal of women as bold personalities and central char-acters. Popularly referred to as Iyakkunar Sigaram.

BALACHANDER

SINDHU BHAIRAVI

Review........sindhu Bhairavi is a 1985 In-dian Tamil language drama film directed and produced by K. Balachander starring Sivakumar, Suhasini, Sulakshana, Delhi Ga-nesh and Janagaraj.The film’s score and soundtrack are com-posed by Ilaiyaraaja. An Excellent movie. ILLAYARAJA and K.B’s excellent work and music fetched them 100’s of awards. The movie was selected as the Best movie of the year. One must not for-get excellent acting by support-ing actors like ‘DELHI’ Ganesh ‘Mridangam’ Gurumurthy” who used to play “MIRUDANGAM” and “JANAKARAJ” (Gajapathy) who used to play ‘SITAR’ with Shiva Kumar. It was amazing to see the acting of all these three guys sitting on stage and just do-ing ‘ACTING’. They impressed me. Also Sulakshana who did an excellent acting as an innocent house wife. Everything and ev-eryone were good.

The songs in the film were sung by K. J. Yesudas and K. S. Chithra. The film was a blockbuster and won three National Awards for Best Actress, Best Music Direction and Best Female Playback Singer.

Art Cinema.....

In Tamil movie industry any movie not that is not related to Love subject needs lots and lots of talent to make the movie. Especially the mov-ies related to Art subject like Music, Dance needs real real Talent. The only reason is the number of audience who re-ally know music or dance are really less in number when compared to the audience who love to watch a Masala Movie and kill their time.

But only few directors can make a movie like “SIN-DU BHARAVI” which is a Hardcore MUSIC Sub-ject but still make the other “MASALA Crowd” to watch. I am talking about our “Directing Legend” K.BALACHANDER. Hats off to his “Sindhu Bhairavi”.

Art Cinema.....

M A N I

R A T H N

A MGopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956) commonly known as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film di-rector, screenwriter and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, based in Chennai. Widely regarded as one of the leading directors in Indian cinema, he made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi in 1983.Despite a commercial failure the film earned critical acclaim and fetched an award for the screenplay at the Karnataka State Film Awards. Rat-nam’s following efforts were the Ma-layalam film Unaru (1984), and two Tamil films—Pagal Nilavu and Idhaya Kovil—both in 1985

He came into prominence after Mouna Ragam, a story that dealt with the friction between a new-ly–wed couple. He followed that with the Godfatheresque Nayagan (1987) that went on to gain national acclaim. The film was among the three Indian films to be named by Time magazine’s list of All-Time 100 Greatest Movies.Ratnam made his only straight Telugu film to date, Geethanjali in 1989. Anjali re-leased in 1990, depicting the story of a mentally disabled child. The film was submitted by India for the Academy Award consideration in the category of Best Foreign Lan-guage Film. He is well known for his “terrorismtrilogy” consisting of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se.. (1998). Ratnam is widely credited with having revolutionised the Tamil film industry and altering the profile of Indian cinema.

Ratnam is married to actress Suhasini. In 2002 he was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award given by the Government of India. Ratnam has won several film awards, including six National Film Awards. In addition to these, he is a recipient of a number of awards at various interna-tional film festivals.

Art Cinema.....

K A N N A T H I L M U T H A M I T T A L

Kannathil Muthamittal (English: A Peck on the Cheek) is a 2002 Tamil-drama film directed and produced by Mani Ratnam. It features P. S. Keerthana, Madhavan and Simran in the leading roles with Nandita Das, J. D. Chakravarthy, Prakash Raj and Pasupathy portraying other pivotal characters. The film’s score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi K. Chan-dran handled the cinematography. Mani Ratnam presents the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, who de-sires to meet her biological mother in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War.The film premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, It also received a strong reception when screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2003. The film received high critical acclaim upon release and went on to win six National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards South and Best Film awards at six international film festivals.

R E V I E W

Art Cinema.....

Mani Ratnam’s forte is to make films on burning issues. This time, too, with the seething Sri Lankan problem as backdrop, he presents a sensitive story about a delicate flower caught in a storm. Though the issue has been tackled in a couple of recent Tamil films, Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal is way

An honestly told tale without frills, the film starts with a wedding taking place in the Tamil parts of Sri Lanka. As the husband (Chakravarty) leaves for the rebellion, the pregnant wife (Nandita Das) is forced to go to India, risking the armies of both countries. She survives many hazards in the journey, captured brilliantly by cinematographer Ravi K Chandran.

A still from Kannathil Muthamittal -- Keerthana Midway, she learns that her husband is wounded and wants to return. After she gives birth in the refugee camp, she leaves for her native land and her husband --- but without her daugh-ter. The girl (Keerthana, daughter of Parthipan and Seetha) grows up in a foster home --- in the Madhavan-Simran household, with two younger brothers for company. She simply is a heart-stealer. Whether it is being peeved with her parents or while bullying her brothers, Keerthana is a wonderful performer.

A R Rahman, dialogue writer Sujata and lyricist Vairamuthu lend ample support to this offering, with Sabu Cyril design-ing the fantastic sets, es-pecially the Sri Lankan portions. Mani Ratnam seems to have drawn out the best from Simran, who has been shying away

She also leaves you bewildered --- you don’t know whether to marvel at her prow-ess or empathise with the young child getting to know her roots. She brilliantly portrays tur-moil when she comes to know that she is in a foster home, that her grandfather, parents and her brothers are not her blood.

Art Cinema.....

Art Cinema.....