Bharthiraja passes on

On Thursday, through my Facebook feed, I found out that Bharthiraja had passed away aged 84.

I don’t know him personally and have never met him. But he was a legendary Tamil movie director who burst onto the scene in 1977 with his first movie 16 Vayathinilae. He completely changed the tamil film industry by focusing on rural outdoor shooting and portraying the people as they were in real life in the rural areas, the way they talked and dressed and behaved.

I will always remember Sigappu Rogakkal, which I watched with my parents at the Naval Base cinema when it came out sometime in 1978. Such a well done and scary movie.

The other 2 that I will always remember are Kilakae Poogum Rail and Mudhal Mariyadai. He, of course, had many more movies to his name.

He became famous at the same time as Illayaraja and Gangai Amaran, All around the 1976 and 1977. Out of the blue. They were all friends growing up in their village, playing music and singing to audiences, with visions of making it big in Tamil cinema. With no formal education or training.

They all came to Madras in 1967 and struggled to find work. They worked hard and learnt their craft and all 3 of them became successful in their own different ways.

Most of Bharthiraja’s movies featured the amazing music of Illayaraja. Theirs was an amazing combination during that period and it is now slowly reaching the end of an era.