Balachandra Menon started his professional career in 1975 as a film journalist and in the year 1977 he began his film career with his film ‘UTHRADARATHRI’ and when 2017 dawns, it is the 40th year of his solo journey in Malayalam Cinema.

We, Roses The Family Club went deep into the filmography of Sri. Balachandra Menon our Founder and came up a few prestigious and starling revelations hitherto unknown and unexposed…

In all his 36 films, one can find the dedication of the director to stick to family sentiments with out yielding to the bad influence of commercial cinema thereby diluting the content. In the case of other directors who also wrote, directed and acted in their films at the same time, this commitment was somewhere missing. They made all sorts of films that the market wanted.  This attitude makes Balachandra Menon different from others.

Changing commercial trends in Cinema never affected his thinking. His films never centered on the so-called superstars. He went ahead with his own concept of movies and he cast actors who suited the character. Because of this attitude to Cinema, he could introduce many new faces to Malayalam Cinema including artists and technicians. It requires special mention that many of the leading heroines in Malayalam from 1980’s onwards like Shobhana, Karthika, Parvathy, Lissy, Nandini, Annie, Usha, Meera, Dakshina to name a few were all his finds and valuable contribution to Malayalam Cinema.

Balachandra Menon came to the National front in 1997 with his film Samaantharangal produced under his banner V& V. The character of 'Ismail', a railway stationmaster made him the Best Actor of the year in India. As he is always acknowledged as the Family filmmaker, it was a fitting tribute when this film bagged the National Award for the best Feature Film on Family Welfare (Both as Produce and Director too). It requires special mention that Mr. Menon handled 10 departments of film making for this film namely STORY, SCREENPLAY, DIALOGUE, DIRECTION, ACTING, EDITING, MUSIC DIRECTION, BACKGROUND MUSIC, PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION as shown in the title credits. This makes Balachandra Menon a unique personality in Indian Cinema. On further research, we came to the conclusion that he is the only filmmaker in the world who has handled 10 departments for a film and got a National recognition of the Country for the same.

This inspired the committee to assess the status of Balachandra Menon against the global map of Cinema. We zeroed down to a group of filmmakers living like him who have directed films based on their own scripts and enacted a role in that film. This consists the credits for Screenplay, Direction and Acting. The committee considered all deserving and notable filmmakers of other countries such as JAPAN, ITALY, USA, FRANCE, GERMANY, SPAIN, RUSSIA, UK, KOREA, IRAN, MEXICO, SWEDEN, CANADA and CHINA. This led to the fact hitherto unknown to the world at large that Balachandra Menon, born in Kollam, Kerala and belonging to India, stands FIRST in the world in this group. Perhaps something that can be called ‘Rarest of the Rare’.

Please find attached as addendum, the summary of information from our investigation that includes the details in that category from Balachandra Menon, his profile and the profile of the top contending artists who have written, directed and appeared as artists in ones own feature films only (telefilms, short films, etc not taken into account. In case of scripts, remakes not considered). To narrow down to this information, we conducted an in-depth analysis of all resources such as Wikipedia, International Movie Database (IMDB), Multiple Movie related websites, Film Journals and also contacted reliable sources that keep such movie records. Please feel free to conduct an official review or scrutiny of the same and if required to reach out to us for any additional information, in this regard.

We feel that his achievement, dedication and impact in the last 4 decades within the Film Industry, is not just the pride of Malayalam Cinema but an honor to Indian Cinema itself in the forefront of International Film Industry.

-ROSES THE FAMILY CLUB

29 Feature Films of Balachandra Menon that constitutes to this achievement

(Script, Direction and Acting by Balachandra Menon)

1. Uthradarathri
2. Maniyanpilla Adhava Maniyanpilla
3. Premageethangal
4. Thaaratu
5. Kelkkatha Shabdam
6. Kilukilukam
7. Ithiri Neram Othiri Karyam
8. Chiriyo Chiri
9. Karyam Nissaram
10. Shesham Kazhchayil
11. Presenam Gurutharam
12. April 18
13. Aarantey Mulla Kochu Mulla
14. Oru Painkili Katha
15. Manichepu Thurannapol
16. Entey Ammu, Nintey Thulasi, Avarudey Chakki
17. Vivahithare Ithile
18. Vilambaram
19. Achuvetantey Veedu
20. Kandathum Kethathum
21. Njangaludey Kochu Doctor
22. Kurupintey Kanakku Pusthakam
23. Ammayane Sathyam
24. Sukham Sukhakaram
25. April 19
26. Samaantharangal
27. Krishna Gopalakrishna
28. Dei Engottu Nokiye
29. Njan Samvidhanam Cheyyum

Top 3 Contenders for this record from around the World

FIlmmakers living who have directed, scripted and acted in their movies

The list of NOTABLE film makers living who has acted, directed and scripted at least IN 9 or more RELEASED feature films, that were looked into as a part of research