The many faces of actor-auteur Bhagyaraj

This is an property successful which multi-faceted Malayalam movie directors are besides doubling up arsenic actors, beryllium it being the leader oregon arsenic a subordinate of the supporting cast. Basil Joseph, Dileesh Pothan, Jeo Baby, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Khalid Rahman, and Jude Antony, to sanction a few, person each stood down the camera, and besides successful beforehand of it with aplomb.

Decades agone successful the Madras of the 1980s, K. Bhagyaraj did the aforesaid with panache. He wrote the story, screenplay, dialogues, and directed films successful which helium played the hero. A versatile bouquet that adjacent T. Rajendar offered to immoderate extent. A disciple of Bharathiraja, Bhagyaraj assisted his mentor successful the iconic 16 Vayathinile, the 1977 agrarian masterpiece that catapulted Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, and Sridevi into the large league.

Man of humour

It was conscionable a substance of clip earlier Bhagyaraj carved his ain way done films that dealt with the communal man, household issues, and societal pressures. And each these were strung unneurotic successful a choky screenplay with humour being the base. Man-woman equations were analysed, and adjacent a rootlike similar drumstick got its infinitesimal nether the sun.

Recently, Bhagyaraj’s 50 years successful celluloid was celebrated with a batch of fanfare. While helium has moved onto conscionable acting astatine times, determination is nary mistaking the aura helium had successful his peak. Bespectacled and playing the antheral adjacent door, helium carved a niche among the women audience. The issues helium dealt with were the benignant that middle-class households dealt with, and it was astir the aforesaid template that Visu followed, but Bhagyaraj toned down the melodrama, preferring humour and conscionable a hint of pathos to thrust location his point.

While the Devi and Abhirami complexes gave ample clip to tentpole films starring Rajini and Kamal, these screens besides offered abstraction for Bhagyaraj. His Andha Yezhu Naatkal is considered 1 of the finest screenplays successful Tamil movie history, a information reiterated by Mani Ratnam.

“Ek gaon mein ek kissan raghu thatha,” the dialog from his 1981 flick Indru Poi Naalai Vaa, is portion of Tamil popular culture. It is simply a hat-tip to the Tamil-Hindi duopoly and the attendant linguistic debates, without causing immoderate heartburn. Having delivered blockbusters similar Mundhanai Mudichu, helium besides directed Amitabh Bachchan successful Aakhri Raasta, a remake of Bharathiraja’s Oru Kaidhiyin Diary.

Often with self-deprecatory humour, Bhagyaraj would notation to the mode helium struggled with his breached English and awkward Hindi portion instructing Bachchan. Terrific with his anecdotes, Bhagyaraj inactive offers a glimpse into the mode the Tamil movie manufacture functioned successful the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. His histrion woman Poornima, histrion lad Shanthnu, and his friends from Kodambakkam, support his originative fires burning, portion the respect astir him remains intact.