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Dark horse

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Balachandra Menon. Click for bigger pic!

Balachandra Menon has never been shy of starring in his own films. No matter, since most of them were hits anyway. But he never took his job before the camera so seriously that he expected to get an award for it.

Well, he did this year, sharing it with Suresh Gopi, much to his surprise.

"My first love was always direction, I had worked hard as a film-maker but not as an actor," said Menon who won the award for his role as a railway station master in his film Samantharangal (Parallels).

He says he saw acting as he did any other department of a film which he handled as the situation demanded. In fact, he was forced to take up the role since veteran Thilakan, who had agreed to do it, could not provide time for the films because he had other films to work on.

Menon, who had been nursing the idea for the past eight years, decided to go ahead with the film. The producer and his fellow artistes were sceptical, though, about his ability to play an old man. With Thilakan as his model, he was already at a disadvantage. And when the producer backed out, he decided to produce the film himself.

One advantage Menon had was that he had an intimate knowledge of life at a railway station since he himself was a station master's son.

"It was not easy to handle both the direction and setting. There were several limitations. I had to be my own master on several occasions..."

But when the film was finished, Menon sensed he had something different at hand. And he didn't think twice before he sent the film up to the national awards jury. This is the first time he has ventured to do it.

Though Menon thought the film would not be well received by the jury, he had no inkling that he would win an award for his acting.

Balachandra Menon in Samantharangal. Click for bigger pic!

"This was the last thing I expected though I had tried to be a very disciplined actor in this film," he says. Menon, never given to exuberance, didn't show any excitement over the award; he just said he was happy the film made its mark.

He also pointed out that those in charge of the International Film Festival of Kerala had not even found it worthy of inclusion in the seven Malayalam films they selected for screening during their third festival which concluded in Thiruvananthapuram recently.

The award has made Menon rethink his priorities.

"Though direction remains my first love, I will certainly be a bit more serious about acting. I have no hesitation in taking up more acting assignments if good roles come," he said, adding that the award will help him get more roles.

Unfortunately, the award has made people dub Samantharangal an art film, not meant for the common public. Nevertheless, Menon says henceforth he would attempt more such serious films. "I will find a way to make the ordinary viewers see the film," he says.

He says he thought Samantharangal was a good family film which everybody could enjoy and identify with. He also feels the days of spicy films tinged with cheap humour are over. The viewers have exhausted their patience with such films, he says.

Balachandra Menon entered films in the early eighties after he failed to get an admission to the Madras film institute. He was an instant success with a series of entertainers with catchy titles and compelling themes. But his first film was the successful Uthrada Rathri, a dark melodrama. Over time, the way he handled the story, script, acting, direction, editing and even composing it earned him the sobriquet, "the one-man entertainment team in Malayalam cinema."

As a student of the Fatima Matha College, Kollam, and, later, at University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Menon proved his talent as a speaker, actor, mimic and singer. He followed it up at the University college, Thiruvanathapuram but strayed into politics, even holding the post of university union chairman.

Balachandra Menon in Samantharangal. Click for bigger pic!

On the advice of his teachers, Menon later joined a journalism course conducted by the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club and became a film journalist in Madras. That was also where he learnt his first lessons in film-making. But when he failed to get admission into an institute, he entered direction with a vengeance.

He has made 37 films so far, most of them having stories he himself has conceived and which are based on his experiences in college and society. The stories are infused with wit and a rustic -- some say even reactionary -- sense of humour. The result being that most of them were hits.

"I don't believe in taking a film that won't run. My basic mission as an artist is to communicate with people. Therefore, I am conscious I have to make films that people can digest," he says. He claimed that though Samantharangal is set in a different mould, the film can communicate with the people.

It is the story of Ismail, a conscientious railway station master and his family. Though Ismail is a righteous man, his eldest son joins a fanatic group while his daughter finds happiness with drugs. Frequent squabbles become the order of the day in the family. Finally, the disappointed Ismail ends his life before a running train.

Samantharangal is also a statement about India, marked by discords and strife, says Menon, who feels the film is a true tribute to India in its 50^th year of Independence.

And, though he doesn't mention it, to himself too.