THE ART & MUSIC JOURNAL

  Bharathiraja  (born 23 August 1942) is an Indian film director who works mainly in the  Tamil film industry . Making his debut in 1977 with  16 Vayathinile , he is known for realistic and sensitive portrayals of rural life in his films. As of 2017, he has won six  National Film Awards , four  Filmfare Awards South , two  Tamil Nadu State Film Awards  and a  Nandi Award . He has also directed films in  Telugu and  Hindi . The  Government of India  honoured him with the  Padma Shri  award, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2004 for his contribution to the film industry. Film career Bharathiraja started his film career as an assistant to Kannada filmmaker  Puttanna Kanagal . [3]  Later, he assisted  P. Pullaiah ,  M. Krishnan Nair , [4]  Avinasi Mani and  A. Jagannathan . His first film  16 Vayathinile , for which he wrote the script, broke the then existing convention t...

J. Alexander   (25 July 1939 – 2 April 2019), known professionally as   Mahendran , was an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work in the   Tamil film industry . Mahendran is regarded as one of the greatest film makers of Tamil cinema and has influenced several filmmakers of the generations followed. [3] Mahendran entered the film industry as a screenwriter, writing scripts for nearly 26 films. He made an immediate impact with his first directional venture  Mullum Malarum (1978). Mahendran's next film  Uthiripookkal , based on a short story written by  Pudumaipithan , firmly established him as an important filmmaker in Tamil cinema. His  Nenjathai Killathe  won three  National Film Awards  including the  award for the best regional film . He has also acted in films during the latter part of his film career, including  Kamaraj (2004),  Theri  (2016),  Mersal  Nimir  (2018) and...