Usually, the announcement for Kamal’s next movie comes towards the end of shooting of the present movie. Dasavatharam is drawing to a close, but we haven’t heard anything concrete yet. The one planned with Saran got dropped and then it was P Vasu. But there have been other rumours too. The latest one is that Kamal is doing a movie in Telugu, that too producing it himself. Other additions to the rumour mill are Ameer and Lohitadas (Malayalam director often linked to Meera Jasmine). As usual, we await official word with bated breath.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

“Anaiyaa Neruppu” (Unextinguished / Unextinguishable Fire) is a short story — or is it a fable? — that appeared in Ananda Vikatan more than a year ago. Thanks to HAL2211 again for reminding me about it. UniversalHeroKamal.com has the Tamil original while Chenthil Nathan has a very good English translation, interestingly titled “The Day I Lost My Chastity”. Kamal’s creativity, thinking and knowledge are on display. Enjoy, if you haven’t already!

There have been murmurs for some time now that Dasavatharam may be further delayed, with the release pushed out to Pongal (January 14). Somehow, songs still remaining to shot seems unbelievable. While we await confirmation, let’s continue with the rumours and teasers.

Kamal spoke to NDTV recently. Watch the video, where he cryptically confirms few of the rumours doing the rounds. He promises that the movie will go beyond the “gimmick” of him playing 10 roles.

Meanwhile, the rumours seem to have hit a peak — Behindwoods talks about employing atomic bomb explosions under the sea for the tsunami said to be featured in the movie!

[With input from HAL2211]

As expected, the Dasavatharam story case was dismissed today (in Tamil), yet again. Here’s hoping that:

• the people behind this case don’t go to any higher court and waste everyone’s time.
• this is the last of the troubles for Dasavatharam and it gets released on November 8 as announced.

[With input from HAL2211]

Just as the Internet itself can be pushed to either extreme — good or bad, Orkut, a small part of it, too can be used in both ways. Kamal fans, of course, are using it the right way. Through the Dr. Kamal Haasan community on Orkut and UniversalHeroKamal.com, first, they distributed specially-made Dasavatharam T-shirts. Then, they organised local meets. The Bangalore one got national coverage on Rediff.com! Check out what the fans had to say…..

[With input from HAL2211]

Kamal launched the audio of Vegam, which in turn launches Ashwin, the son of actor SV Shekher.

During the function, there was a minor clash with Silambarasan (in Tamil). That reminded one of SV Shekher criticising Kamal on earlier occasions. At the end of it all, it was heartening to see Kamal being present to encourage the younger generation.

Check out more photos on Behindwoods.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Vaettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu was earlier to be dubbed as ‘Magadheera’ in Telugu. After playing more hide and seek than the Tamil version, Raghavan is finally releasing, around a year later than the former. Let’s await the response to a different masala movie from Teluguland.

Poster courtesy: http://www.vettaiyaaduvilaiyaadu.com

Dasavatharam is in the post-production phase, specifically into dubbing. IndiaGlitz reports that one character speaks Telugu in the movie and for that, Kamal has approached Vennelakanti to dub for that role!

I checked with WB on Vennelakanti. Vennelakanti is a Telugu writer (also lyricist?), like Vaali. He usually helps Kamal with dubbing all his movies from Tamil to Telugu, and in rare occassions from Telugu to Tamil.

With interesting tidbits still coming up, we all hope that Dasavatharam will be revealed for Diwali.

On the occasion of India’s 60th Independence Day, I chanced upon some of Kamal’s thoughts on the Indian flag and patriotism in general.

Every year I hoist my National Flag in my terrace and sing my National Anthem. This habit was to let my children enjoy the same naive patriotism that I enjoyed as a child. It has become a habit.

The flag solicits a certain emotion like the insurance company symbol or the medical symbol or the Red Cross. No symbol is worth the cloth it is printed on if it empowers dictators or facilitates division. I, by mindset, would like to stretch borders. I think patriotism as per lore is quite ridiculous and impractical. I am a dreamer who dreams of a war free silk route. When that happens we can proudly and legitimately call America as nephew Sam. We will then be the big uncles by any global standards.

Read more on the site of Flag Foundation of India, established by Naveen Jindal.

The power of Internet has been used to exploit the curiosity around Dasavatharam. The most visible aspect of it are the images claiming to be Kamal’s ‘avatars’ cropping up. Behindwoods chose to round it off nicely. First, they published a set of real and fake images. Then, they invited readers to produce their own fake ones, using their imagination. Some of them were quite good, while it quickly descended into mediocrity. Take a look nevertheless and have fun till the real ones turn up.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]