A versatile actor’s story

Ashokamitran

T.S. Baliah – Centenary Bio­graphy by T. Santhana­krishnan (Nizhal Publications).

Nizhal, a quarterly journal dedicated to publishing well-researched articles, also publishes books and, periodically, holds film workshops and competitions for short film makers. The journal is not a fan magazine but for those who try to go beyond the images. But for Nizhal, a critical edition of Sadat Hassan Mun­to may have taken a long time to reach Tamil readers. (Sadat Has­san Munto, like Premchand tried his hand working with Bombay producers to create a better class of films.)

Tiruninravur Santhana­krish­nan is an avid collector of film memorabilia. Nizhal and Santhanakrishnan have made possible an authoritative biography of T.S. Baliah on the occasion of his centenary.

T.S. Baliah was a versatile actor, and, in the early years, it was difficult to classify him as a leading player, a villain or a comedian. I first saw him in Aryamala back in 1941 and he, physically no match for P.U. Chinnappa, made up for it by his agility and ferocity. Those were World War II years and the ‘big’ companies were ‘expected’ to do their bit for the war effort and Modern Theatres of Salem made two films where the baddies were Japanese and T.S. Baliah played in both of them as a suave, stylish foil. When his age and girth grew, he made a gentle switch to comedy. The two films, Kathalikka Neramillai and Bama Vijayam were sheer joy because of Baliah. When the latter was made in Hindi, Prithviraj Kapoor did his best to match Baliah and ended as a worthy second.

Santhanakrishnan’s book sticks to facts and has a chronological list of all of Baliah’s films. The book is a worthy addition to the growing body of studies of Indian cinema.

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