Bharathiraja, the master filmmaker: How the ‘Iyakkunar Imayam’ captured the soul of Tamil Nadu for posterity

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FILE: Bharathiraja | Photo Credit: Stills Ravi / The Hindu Archives

Dark clouds have converged over Tamil cinema, but the air holds no petrichor anymore. Tamil cinema on Wednesday (June 10, 2026) lost its revered Iyakkunar Imayam, as auteur filmmaker Bharathiraja breathed his last in Chennai. He was 84.

Widely considered one of the all-time greats of the industry, the director was best known for his nuanced portrayal of life in rural Tamil Nadu. At a time when films were mostly set around urban centres, Bharathiraja ushered in a new era in which frames evoked ‘manvasanai’ (the scent of the soil) in theatre halls.

In a career spanning over five decades, the auteur cemented an unshakable legacy as one of the most important Tamil filmmakers of all time — his was a filmmaking voice that not only shook Tamil cinema from the confines of studios, but also made scathing remarks about casteism, gender inequality, female foeticide, urban unemployment, and social norms surrounding gender and age.

FILE: Actor and director Bharathiraja. | Photo Credit: SRINIVASAN L

Here are some of Bharathiraja’s most instrumental Tamil films:

This is a film that will live in the collective memory of Tamil cinema audiences for posterity. Widely regarded as the film that released Tamil cinema from age-old studio-bound filmmaking sensibilities, 16 Vayathinile signalled the arrival of a new wave of Tamil cinema, one that dared to portray truth with reinforced realism. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations that a 16-year-old named Mayil (played by the ever-radiant Sri Devi) faces in her village. The characters Mayil, Chappani (Kamal Haasan), an outcast who watches over Mayil after her grandmother’s death, and Parattai (Rajinikanth), a village ruffian, continue to be fondly remembered by cinephiles.

16 Vayathinile captured with bewitching clarity the stark reality of life in rural Tamil Nadu. Notably, this was also the film that kick-started Ilaiyaraaja’s long professional association with Bhara