It's been some time but we are back with the Bala series. This time we talk about the 2001 film, Bala's sophomore feature Nandha starring Suriya, Laila, Rajkiran, Saravanan, Karunas.

This felt like a more assured Bala, more confident in his approach and expanding the definition of mainstream. We have the same team to talk about the film. Hari and Anantha join Aditya.

Participants:

Aditya

Hari

Anantha

Edited by Anantha

A new Director Series at The Other Banana

We have long debated a series on director Bala. You could say that Bala is not Bala anymore and his films are increasingly becoming difficult to meaningfully engage with but, the Bala 1999-2010 was something else.

A new voice broke out in Tamil cinema in 1999 with Sethu. One of the several assistants of Balu Mahendra who will go on to make a mark in the following years, Bala ushered in an auterist sensibility with unique technique, point of view, characters and settings. The Bala universe was instantly recognizable.

In the first of the series, we begin with his debut in 1999 which not only kickstarted his career but also redeemed Vikram's career and pushed him into stardom. With one film, a new star actor as well as a star director were born. Listen on.

Participants

Aditya

Anantha

Hari

Edited by Anantha

We are returning after a while but with a biggie! Director and cinematographer C Prem Kumar joins us to talk about his latest film Meiyazhagan starring Karthi, Arvind Swamy, Sri Divya and others.

The film has been warmly received by the audiences and is a breath of fresh air for Tamil cinema. Films with strong writing, a slice-of-life genre with male characters written as gentle and vulnerable have become rare. There is such a homogeneity of genre dominated by action, masala and violence that a Meiyazhagan deserves to be celebrated not just for how good it is but also for the mere fact that it exists.

Prem Kumar joins Aditya and Subha Rao to talk about the writing decisions, what was cut from the opening scene, music and lyrics, the characters of Arul and Mei, the trimming decisions by distributors and the importance of the small and mid budget film, and more. Listen on.

Edited by Deepauk.