One of my favorite directors of Tamil cinema, K.Balachandar had come to my cousin's wedding. Ofcourse, to whom he is related to is totally irrelevant. I went upto him and said that I'm a fan of his movies and I liked "pudhu pudhu arththangaL" a lot. He just nodded and smiled. I admire the simplicity of this man who introduced stalwarts like Rajni and Kamal.
My favorite black and white movie is "edhir neechal". A perfect movie with a superb cast. The character of Maadippadi Maadhu is a classic. The hilarious screen play, especially the scenes when the entire household thinks that Maadhu is a rich fellow and shower him with goodies, Nagesh's expressions and the body language of every character in the movie etc etc. Only a genius like Balachandar can make such a nice movie.
"Unnal Mudiyum Thambi" is another gem of a movie. The concept fits in so perfectly with my beliefs. I would have seen this movie atleast 25 times but I never get bored of it.
"Punnagai Mannan" is a tragic love story but well narrated. Who can forget the scene when Kamal and Rekha jump from the huge rock to commit suicide while Kamal gets struck by the branches of the tree? The emotions, the cryings, the music, the beats - that one particular scene has it all.
My favorite movie of KB is "Pudhu Pudhu ArthangaL". The possessiveness of a wife towards her husband and how his career gets spoilt because of her character is the crux of the story. Illayaraja's songs has captured the emotions in a superb way. The hero is a singer who sings for movies. How would it be if he sings a song all for himself? A musical treat it is - the song "KeLadi Kanmani", especially the lines "Enakkaaga naan paadum mudhal paadal thaan".
There are other superb movies as well - Sindu Bhairavi, Duet, Thillu mullu. I dream of having a entire collection of KB's well etched movies. Let's see when I'm able to achieve it.