Musical Anecdotes about Artists—29.
29.Sundaram Balachander ( 1927 – 1990)
Balachander was born in Madras and was a self-taught Veena player. He was an accomplished film maker ; producer, director, music director, actor, singer and dancer. His family hailed from Srivaajiyam village in Tanjore . He was born to V. Sundaram Iyer and Parvathi. His father bought a house in Mylapore in 1924 where stalwarts like Ariyakudi,Madura Mani, Papanasam Sivan have performed . It was Sundaram Iyer who took Papanasam Sivan under his fold when Sivan relocated to Madras from Trivandrum to earn a livelihood.
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His elder brother S.Rajam is a well-known singer and teacher, and a gifted artist as well. His elder sister S.Jayalakshmi acted with MKT in Sivakavi. Saraswathi was his younger sister, followed by the twins S. Karpagam and S. Gopalaswami.
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From the age of five he showed an interest in classical music and his first musical attempt was with the Kanjira. Within a year he was accompanying his brother and other musicians on the kanjira . He also learnt to play tabla, mridangam,harmonium, bulbul tarang and shehnai.
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Balachander was a fully fledged solo concert artist on the Sitar by the time he was twelve and he performed South Indian Carnatic music on that instrument. From age fifteen to eighteen he served as an artist on the staff of A I R , Madras, playing many instruments accompanying other artists and composing and conducting pieces of his own.
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He fell in love with the Veena and gave it his undivided attention . Without a tutor or master to guide him, within two years he was an established concert veena player. He felt that "by the grace of god" he was able to evolve a new trend, a new style and a new school of veena-playing.He went on to become an accomplished vainika, boldly changing the grammar of instrumental music, and contemporarising the veena. He created the Balachander Bani. As the maestro himself would say, "Veena is Balachander, Balachander is Veena."
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Balachander also possessed a substantial knowledge of North Indian Hindustani classical music and a keen appreciation of Western classical music. He travelled all over the world, and won international fame as an instrumentalist of rare repute. The famous electric bassist Mark Egan cites Balachander as a major influence on his music. At one time, Balachander held the record for cutting the highest number of records (21 in India, and 6 outside India).
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He is also reknowned for his work in cinema, his writing and his polemics. Balachander was awarded the Padma Bhushan and the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani by The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai. He was also given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award .
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He began his film career as a child artist in V.Shantaram's Tamil film Seetha Kalyanam in 1934 as a child musician in Ravana's court. This was followed by Rishyasringar and Manuneethi Chozhan. He composed music for films and directed a number of Tamil films.
His Andha Naal which had a very superior cinematography is a classic in B&W. Here Sivaji Ganesan played the main role. SB was just 27 years old then! It was a slick murder mystery with no songs and dances. This created history of sorts. The film bagged several awards. The famous latter-day film directors such as K.Balachander, Mani Ratnam and Ameer have gone on record to say that "Andha Naal" was one of the ten best Tamil movies ever to have been made. It won the President's Award for Best Feature Film. In the 1960s, he formed his own production company called S .B. Creations for which he made 3 movies-- producing, directing and composing music .
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He got involved in a big controversy with Semmangudi who had had written a book on Maharaja Swathi Thirunal . Balachander claimed that Semmangudi was trying to ascribe his own compositions to the King, and argued that the Maharaja did not compose a note and even tried to prove that the King had never existed. The allegation that Maharaja had never existed has been proved absolutely wrong . Latest research on the subject published in Madras Music Academy Journal and Sruthi Magazine expose the allegations of Balachander as highly prejudiced and contrary to facts.
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Balachander's student Jayanthi Kumaresh, said 'SB Mama. would decide which kriti to teach on a particular day. He would pick up a book and open the page at random. The kriti on that page would become the lesson for the day…"S B had this habit of putting down his thoughts on paper and so, every day of his colourful life has been recorded complete with paper clippings, drawings and comments, into eight albums of 1000 pages."
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He was a brilliant chess player who defeated many stalwarts from across the world . He was a devoted family man who adored his son and would write unusual letters to him filled with puzzles and quizzes. He once picked up more than 50 pairs of Kolhapuri chappals at a shop because he liked them!
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The young SB sang some memorable songs . One song was "En arumai maaney, unnudaney naaney, vilayaaduveyney, ingu wa wa, ingu wa wa". Another was "Idhuvum en punyamey". SB was selective with regard to films. He acted with a string of famous heroines such as Vyjayantimala, Madhuri Devi and Anjali Devi.
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SB's devotion to veena was actually an obsession, addiction and even worship. So worshipful of veena that SB was that even his signature was in the shape of a veena. See below.
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He died suddenly on 15 April 1990, in Bhilai, where he had gone on a concert tour. The strain of court cases and the ill will he had earned in the process, left him a broken man, when he passed away at 63. He is survived by his wife Shantha and his advocate son Raman.
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