RIP K Balachander: Sridevi tweets condolences to the man who changed the course of her historic career

Rajnikant, Kamal Haasan and Sridevi in the Tamil blockbuster Moondru Mudichu

On Christmas eve, Sridevi posted the following as news broke that legendary director K Balachander passed away. 

The film director died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 84. The actress, who got her break as a leading lady in Tamil cinema with Balachander's Moondru Mudichu, wrote on Twitter:

SRIDEVI BONEY KAPOOR @SrideviBKapoor  ·  Dec 24

Tamil Cinema & all people involved in it including me have grown in his shadow. Condolences to his family. He shall always live in our heart

0 replies 141 retweets 151 favorites

SRIDEVI BONEY KAPOOR @SrideviBKapoor  ·  Dec 24

His films were bold & so were his decisions. One day he decided to cast a child artist as a heroine.MOONDRU MUDICHU changed my life forever.

0 replies 194 retweets 215 favorites

SRIDEVI BONEY KAPOOR @SrideviBKapoor  ·  Dec 24

Balachander sir passes away, the legend lives in hearts of millions of filmgoers. Artists whose lives he enriched by casting & mentoring us.


See earlier post when K Balachander spoke about working with young Sridevi here. 

From Live Mint, below quote:

In a 1976 film, Moondru Mudichu (three knots, traditionally tied during a marriage on a turmeric yellow mangalsutra or thread), Balachander gave a 13-year-old actor named Srideviher first adult film role. She was the woman caught between two men (Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth). The man she loves, Haasan, dies in a boating accident, engineered by the other, Rajinikanth. She is pursued and cornered by Rajinikanth, who believes his wealth and power will make her marry him. What does Sridevi do? She turns the tables on the man who lusts after her by marrying his father. As a stepmother, she is owed respect and has the power over her scheming “son". It is this facile use of specific cultural touchstones that gave Balachander’s movies their potency. Chennai audiences could relate to arranged marriages, even ones arranged by the woman in question. They could imagine a poor girl like Sridevi marrying an older man as a marriage of convenience. To watch her arrive as Rajinikanth’s stepmother was the ultimate slap in the face from both a traditional and feminist point of view. Marrying these two effects was Balachander’s forte.