Crediting cues

The name Sundaram Balachander fails to ring a bell with the likes of me, but as I ponder the name out loud, my grandmother’s face lights up! “The kind of films we had those days!” she reminisces nostalgically. If you have heard or have watched ‘Andha Naal’, a landmark film in the history of Tamil Cinema that I went on to be successful despite having no song, dance or stunt sequences, half my work is done here! Apart from directing and producing awe inspiring movies, the man was an accomplished singer, dancer, music director and actor. Talk about versatility! Bommai is a movie that is one such feather to his cap that must have looked like giant’s birds nest! :P

The movie, inspired from Hitchhock’s ‘Sabotage’ was differrent to the Tamil audience for many reasons. The story line- a bombing attempt by a group of friends through an innocent looking bommai (doll) gone wrong and the misadventures that ensue!

The movie also starred many veteran legends like V.S Raghavan, N.S Lakshmi, K.J Yesudas, L.R Eswari, P Susheela and film historian Anandan.

Another interesting aspect of the movie was the way S introduced the entire cast and crew of the film towards the end of the movie, just like it would be in a theatrical! This might not seem like a big deal now but I wonder if it was the precedent to today’s cast cards in the beginning of many tv series! But we do have to keep in mind that the 2 hour long or so movie had ran a 5 minute long introduction. So of course, in our short films it might be impractical to introduce every member of the crew, but perhaps a group photograph would do the job in the limited time that we’ve got!

Again, this is a suggestion to duly credit every member who has played a part in shaping your film and is absolutely optional!

Happy filming! ☺