Sunday Times 2
Writer, actor and dramatist: Remembering K.S. Balachandran
View(s):As a tribute to K. S. Balachandran, the well-known Tamil writer, actor, dramatist who passed away recently in Canada, the Indian Cultural Centre is organising an event titled “Remembering K.S. Balachandran”, on Sunday, March 30 at 5.30 p.m. at Colombo Tamil Sangam, No. 7, 57th Lane, Colombo 6. Several writers and colleagues of Balachandran will be remembering and acknowledging his cultural contributions at the event.
K.S. Balachandran
K. S. Balachandran’s career as a Tamil actor, writer, director and producer for plays and films spanned more than 40 years, during which he wrote, directed and acted in films, plays and television serials. Though he left for Canada during the ’90s, his filmmaking continued there, and he also acted in many local films and plays often tackling critical cultural and community issues. He hosted a television talk-show, The Wonderful YT Lingam Show where he satirized current news and events.
He acted initially in the monthly comedy programmes in Tamil produced in front of a live audience at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. From 1970, he was in the actors’ pool of the Tamil National Service of SLBC and became very popular with the listeners through the radio plays broadcast every Wednesday and Saturday. He played the main role “Somu” in the famous radio serial “Thaniyatha Thagam”. This play, written by famous poet and writer Sillaiyoor Selvarajan, was sponsored by People’s Bank and broadcast for more than two years. He acted in many other serial plays such as “Kiramathu Kanaugal”, “Vizuthugal” and in a comedy serial titled “Vaaththiyar Veeddil”.
He wrote many comedy skits for “Kathambam”, “Maththappu”, “Kuthukalam” programmes recorded with live audience at Studio 6 at the SLBC. The popular serial play titled “Kiramathu Kanavukal” was written by him for the Commercial Service. Another comedy serial written by him, “Vaththiar Veedil” was broadcast for more than two years and its audio cassettes were sold in many countries.
His short stories were published in national dailies like “Thinakaran” and Veerakesari. He wrote scripts for television plays like “Thiruppankal” and documentaries for Rupavahini in SriLanka. In Canada he wrote and directed more than 20 stage plays. His novel titled “Karaiyai Thedum Kaddumarangal”, won him the Amuthan Adikal literary award for 2009 in South India. He produced and presented “Kalai Kolam”, a popular magazine programme with reviews of movies, stage plays, books and dance recitals broadcast by SLBC.
All are welcome. Admission is free.
For further details contact the Indian Cultural Centre on telephone no: 2684698 or Email: iccrcolombo@gmail.com.