Malayalam actor and lensman Balakrishnan, 72, died late on Thursday night at the Medical College Hospital here. He was ailing for long.
His role as a birdwatcher Isaac from Pattanapravesham is one enduring memory. People remember N.L Balakrishnan for his frame, and the way he used it for myriad roles, but a more important contribution of his was through the photographs he framed, which provide us a visual history of an era in Malayalam cinema.
He landed in films by chance, to shoot stills for P. Bhaskaran’s Kallichellamma . For a time, he did news photography for a Malayalam daily too.
Shooting the stills for Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s debut Swayamvaram perhaps was the turning point. He became the trusted still photographer for film-makers like Aravindan John Abraham, Padmarajan and P.A. Backer.