Sundaram Balachander was a famous player of which instrument?

Explanation

Sundaram Balachander (1927-1990), usually known as S. Balachander, was one of the most famous veena players of the 20th century. He was also an actor, film director and producer in Tamil cinema.

• Balachander was born in Chennai and was largely self-taught in music. As a child, he learnt to play several instruments, such as the kanjira, the tabla and the sitar, before devoting himself to the veena. Although he did not have a single formal guru, he developed a highly individual and powerful style of veena playing, known for its emotional depth and its use of long, sustained notes. He became one of the most popular veena players of his time, and he performed in India and around the world. He was known for his strong opinions on music and was not afraid of controversy. Besides music, he had a successful career in Tamil cinema. He acted in and directed several films, the most famous of which is "Andha Naal" (1954), a murder mystery with no songs, which was unusual for Indian films of that time. It is regarded as one of the classics of Tamil cinema. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1977) and the Padma Bhushan (1982). Jayanthi Kumaresh is one of the veena players who learnt from him.

The Saraswati veena is the traditional stringed instrument of Carnatic music. It has a large wooden body, 24 fixed frets, four main strings and three side strings. It is associated with the goddess Saraswati. Other famous veena players include Emani Sankara Sastry, Chitti Babu, E. Gayathri and Jayanthi Kumaresh.

Why not the other options?

Violin is linked with Carnatic players such as Lalgudi Jayaraman and L. Subramaniam.

Mridangam is linked with players such as Palghat Mani Iyer and Umayalpuram Sivaraman.

Nadaswaram is linked with players such as T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai and Sheik Chinna Moulana.