Five decades in the Indian film industry and still counting.
Kamal Haasan is unquestionably a living legend, a matchless phenomenon, an erudite artist Indian cinema has ever produced. The toughest method actor this land has ever witnessed and who breathes the air his characters do. He has always traversed the road less travelled or sometimes he has left his footmarks on paths never explored. A ferocious advocate of experimentation and futurism. Mediocrity has never been in his dictionary. A master of masquerades. An extraordinary linguist who mastered different slangs of Tamil effortlessly on screen and left us awestruck. Madras Tamil ,Coimbatore Tamil, Madurai Tamil, Palakad tamil and what not. Yes, Padma Bhushan Dr. Kamal Haasan has seen it all, as an actor, director, screenwriter, producer, dialogue writer, choreographer, make-up artist, singer, lyricist , philanthropist, orator. And, he is a good human being too.
Some lesser known facts
- Featured in Tamil cinema’s first sequel
- First Indian movie (Hey Ram) to have background score done overseas by Budapest Orchestra (Hungary)
- Raaj kamal Productions, his production house was one of the very few to first implement the scheduling of film both forward and backward scheduling
- His production house is the first in Indian Cinema to digitize a script, a practice followed followed in Hollywood
- Only actor in the Indian Film Industry to have sung for maximum number of music composers like MSV, Shankar Ganesh, Ilayaraja, Gangai Amaran, Chandrabose, AR Rahman, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Vishal Bharadwaj, Vidhyasagar, Bharadwaj, Deva, Yuvan, Karthik raja, Himesh Reshammiya, Devi Sri Prasad etc.
- First actor to convert fan clubs into Welfare associations which inspired many actors follow the same and involved in social activities
And, he has myriad number of ‘firsts‘ to his credit.
A village bumpkin,ventriloquist, classical dancer, woman, dwarf, amnesiac, psychopathic killer, mentally challenged, underworld don – he has played it all. He’s long-known for breaking the benchmarks he already set. Apoorva Sagodharargal marked the golden combo of Tamil cinema with Kamal Haasan and Crazy Mohan joining hands for the first time. Priyadarshan –Mohanlal combo is one of the celebrated combinations for classic comedies and this pair is nonetheless! Kamal’s sheer transformation of energy through his multi-layered performanceshas always been commendable. Not many know his dexterity as a make-up artist, who is trained by none other than the great Westmore family (Michael Westmore). But his love for makeup was very evident in all his films.
Mohammaed Yusuf Khan – The miracle that never happened/is yet to happen :
“The bravest and ablest of all the native soldiers that ever served the English in India” – Sir John Malcolm
Kamal Haasan has been relentlessly trying to revive Marudhanayagam for more than fifteen years now, but in vain. His commitment is unparalleled and it would not be an exaggeration to state that every true fan of Indian cinema dreams of watching the film on screen and they deserve it. “Marudhanayagam will be revived anytime,”said Kamal Haasan in an interview to The Hindu few months back and the amount of frenzy it created online among fans and film fraternity is beyond measure. Indian cinema has come a long way from 1997. The economics have changed and corporate houses have channelized skilful, smart production strategies like never before with social media being the pinnacle of promotions. At a time when glossy Bollywood potboilers rake in billions at box-office, budget constraint as a reason to shelve an epic like Marudhanayagam would be a sin.
Read our exhaustive special series on Marudhanayagam here.
Kamal Haasan has spoken about the film in today’s interview to Deccan Chronicle:
“I don’t believe in daydreaming. Marudhanayagam remains one of my dreams. It’s not my ultimate dream. Why should it be that, unless I plan to commit hara kiri soon afterwards? Marudhanayagam has become a favorite child by virtue of its handicap. Now, I can get most of the finance in India, but only if my next few films do well. Luckily, portions where I’m supposed to look younger have all been shot so that my growing older in person would become a part of the narrative.”
This gives us hope.
Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
The Quintessential Kamal Haasan
- He has always chosen the real happenings in the nook and corner of our country and transformed them on screen with such a brilliant foresightedness. Hey Ram!, Mahanadhi, Thevar Magan, Virumaandi to name a few. Timeless classics
- There’s a scene in Nala Damayanthi where he makes a guest appearance in the climax. He delights you with Palakkad Tamil, Malayalam and Srilankan Tamil spontaneously in less than a minute with such perfection. And, that’s what you call as “Guest Appearance”. And also in Pancha Thanthiram climax, he talks simultaneously in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and English, which proves his linguistic proficiency
- Karan Thapar from CNN-IBN, very famous for his interviewing style in Devil’s Advocate show has either made his guests exasperating or stage a walk out. Narendra Modi, Arun jaitley, Ram Jethmalani and Amitabh Bachchan fall under the latter category. But to this date, very few handled him like the way Tamilians did. One among them is Kamal Haasan who handled him as non-chalantly as possible with candid, forthright replies. Others include Jayalalitha and AR Rahman
- Apart from the awards he won for his films, there are also many lesser known ones like CNN-IBN Indian of the year(2010), Abraham Kovoor National Award for his humanist activities, FICCI’s FICCI Living Legend, Special Achievement Award by UPA (2010). “In fact, he may be the most awarded person in the country”, told Ambika Soni during Kamal’s retrospective in a film festial in 2010
- Holds the respectable position in FICCI as The Chairman, Entertainment sector. Conducted a Screenwriting Workshop,first of its kind in SouthIndia in IIT Chennai 2 years back co-headed by Anjum Rajabali, Hariharan and Atul Tiwari(all are FTII brains)
- With just 3 films to his credit as a Director, A retrospective of his films under “Director in focus” category was featured in Rotterdam International Film Festival 7 years before
One of our favourite poems written by him Eezham –Mounathin Vali :
காக்க ஒரு கனக (AK) 47
நோக்கவும் தாக்கவும் ஒரு நொடி நேரம்
தோற்கவும் அதே கண நேரம்தான்
ஈயம் துளைத்துக் கசிந்து சிவந்த
காயம் தொட்டுக் கையை நனைத்து
விண்ணே தெரிய மண்ணில் சாய்ந்தேன்
முன் காக்க மறந்த அமைதியைக் காத்து.
மாட்டுத் தோலில் தாய்மண் அறைபட
பூட்ஸுக் கால்களால் கடந்தனர் பகைவர்.
விட்ட இடத்தில் கதையைத் துவங்கச்
சட்டென இன்னொரு குழந்தை பிறக்கும்
அதுவரை பொறுத்திரு தாயே, தமிழே
உதிரம் வடியும் கவிதை படித்து…
Undoubtedly, there’s none to match his personality in contemporary Indian cinema.
”Don’t try to be Kamal Haasan. Because, it is not possible”, Mohanlal told in his 50 yrs function.
And, we stand by it.
Only Kollywood wishes Kamal Haasan a happy 60th birthday and all the best for Uttama Villain, Papanasam and Vishwaroopam 2 and all his future endeavors.