With the blessings of Mahaswami

``THIS FILM is not made for praise or profit. I have followed the doctrine of total surrender'', says director V. Balakrishnan about ``The sage of Kanchi''.

The assignment came to Balakrishnan, an ardent devotee of Periyaval, in 1993.

The last film he had made was the Bharatiya Natya Sastra for the Doordarshan National Network, based on (sister) Padma Subrahmanyan's research on dance underlining the cultural unity of the country from ancient times.

Inspired by his father, the well-known director and nationalist, K. Subrahmanyam, Balakrishnan has been involved in making films from the Fifties. First as assistant to his father and then on his own.

Among the feature films he helped direct were ``Kaccha Devyani'' and ``Pandi Thevan''.

Later, he began concentrating on short films and has directed 35- 40 documentaries for the Government on a range of subjects - irrigation, power, agriculture, industry, education, architecture, temples and festivals.

``It was at a time when I had decided to retire that I got a call from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asking me whether I would undertake a film on the Paramacharya for the Government of India. Mahaswami himself blessed me when I went to Kanchipuram and I felt I should take up the project.''

The script took Balakrishnan a year and a half to write. ``It was subject to change according to the archival material found and had to be modified several times. Finding photographs and visuals was not easy.''

``Periyaval shunned publicity and did not like to be filmed. But through various sources, we managed to obtain the material. We got a 16mm reversal film that was so old that my son Kannan (assistant director) and I had to clean every piece before we copied it on 35mm,'' he says.

The script was seen by a panel of advisors among whom were Dr. N. Veezhinathan, (Chief Consultant) Mudikondan Vanchinatha Iyer, S. V. Narasimhan, Shyamala Balakrishnan, Padma Subrahmanyam, V. Jayaraman and K. Murali.

``Vanchinatha Iyer's guidance was invaluable as he had spent 55 years with Periyaval. We decided at the outset that an actor would not play Periyaval's role and that we would use only his photographs - you can't bring out the divinity of the Mahaswami by having someone acting as him.''

Did not the casting of Balakrishnan's family members in roles relating to the sage's childhood affect the texture of these early portions?

``It was Sri Vijayendra Saraswati Swamigal (Bala Periyaval) who said that Kannan should play the role of Periyaval's father and that Kannan's wife, Gayathri, Shri Mahalakshmi Ammal. Though Kannan was reluctant, we couldn't argue with Bala Periyaval,'' replies Balakrishnan.

``Throughout the film, we were advised by Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swami and Sri Vijayendra Saraswati Swami. In fact, Sri Jayendra Saraswati deputed Bala Periyaval to guide us during the filming especially in the segment relating to Periyaval's initiation into Sanyasa and the track of vedic hymns in the background.''

The film took six years to make including the time spent on the script, ``The Film Divisions said that they were happy with it. But they had no intention of releasing the film!''

Fortunately, Sri Shankar of the South Indian Educational Society (SIES) saw the doucmentary and said he would bear the entire production cost.

``We returned the amount the Government had given us.''

Appropriately, the film was first screened last December at the Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai which has been renamed the Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Hall.

On January 14, ``The Sage of Kanchi'' was screened at the Narada Gana Sabha Hall auditorium in Chennai. Swami Dayananda Saraswati was the chief guest.

``The former President, Mr. R. Venkataraman, feels that it should be seen by every student and that it should also be dubbed in various languages and shown all over the country,`` says Mr. Balakrishnan.

K.S.

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