Here’s a blast from the past, yet again from Shiva Kumar, who’s not new to this blog. In a 9-year old article where he talks about the bias of Hindi movie stars against their South Indian counterparts, he uses Kamal as the prime example. Along with some analysis, we also get some interesting anecdotes mainly from the 80s. Here are the highlights:

Kamalahasan is sending shivers down our spines, as Jeetendra put it

…one day, Om (Puri) points to a poster of Sagara Sangamam and gushes, ”That boy has tremendous potential.“…He`s surprised when you tell him that Kamal has already acted in more number of films than Om probably ever will. Om`s ignorance is genuine since he`s seen only Ek duje ke liye.

Only the previous day Smita was telling you that she may do a couple of films with that amazing actor, Kamal and Nana is cross that Kamal has already used a few mannerisms he was planning to.

There`s Anupam Kher who acknowledges that Kamal is a great actor but adds, he`s getting ”gimmicky.“ This comes from an actor whose idea of versatility is wearing weird wigs. You repeat Anupam`s quote to Mani Ratnam who retorts, ”If he`s talking about Apoorva Sahodharargal dare that man to do one shot as appu the dwarf.“

Then there`s this respected critic of a national daily whose making his debut as a director and was a die-hard fan of Kamal. The actor probably didn`t take a call from him so now critic feels that at this point of time Govinda is a better actor than Kamal. Surely this is like going to the circus and saying that the clown was better than the trapeze artiste!

One of the unfathomable mysteries for the discerning few in Bombay is the failure of Kamalahasan. Other than being a blessing in disguise it was not at all a surprise for fans here. The simple reason is that Kamal is not one of those robots who keep repeating themselves in film after film…Totally contrary to the situation here where Kamal has to do something different to succeed. In Bombay, Kamal would have had to evolve an image for himself, something akin to angry young man or tragedy king, but chose to do a gamut of roles and failed.

Read the whole article, which originally appeared in the Deccan Herald.

This year, Kamal’s birthday received more coverage than earlier years, possibly as a result of the post-Dasavathaaram hype.

Express Buzz carried a piece with messages from a few actresses he has starred with — Sneha, Shobhana and Devayani. A sample from the first one:

He’s a pure genius when it comes to acting. But imagine the humility it takes to actually come to a new, young actress, and ask her not to get intimidated by other big actors in the scene!

The same Web-site also carried another tribute.

Sify.com published a slideshow of his performances which deserved the National Award but didn’t make it, along with his filmography.

Rediff.com featured Kamal’s birthday as part of entertainment history. Yahoo! India and Indiaglitz published birthday messages, heaping praise on Kamal. Behindwoods carried a slideshow of his phases over the years.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Though all of us know that Kamal was into drama (plays) before re-entering movies as a teenager, not much is known of his life at that time. We get occasional anecdotes from Kamal himself. But here’s some insight from a colleague of those days. This comes to us through his son-in-law, who blogs under the name of Ravisha on Therinjukko.

This happened around 1968 when Kamal was about 14 years old. He was crazy about acting in plays. Being from a well-to-do family of lawyers, he would commute by car with his one of his brothers. Chandrahaasan, the younger one, used to tell Kamal’s co-actors to advise him to concentrate on studies, which he had discontinued. But if anyone did attempt to, Kamal would ignore them. Once when our narrator, who himself had a steady job and was acting part-time, tried to convince Kamal, he declared, “You folks are making fun of me now. But one day, I will become the all-India famous Kamal Haasan and you will realise then”. Such was his confidence and determination at that age and time!

If you know Tamil, enjoy the whole post. Thanks, Ravisha!

Here is some stuff that came up during the release time of Dasavathaaram, which have been waiting for a long time to be posted.

Let’s start with 2 videos from IBN. The first one is a pre-release interview by Kamal while the other one is more interesting. It compares Rajni and Kamal, particularly with respect to the frenzy experienced for Sivaji and Dasavathaaram.

Reporting during the release time had reached such a frenzy that we even had photos of film boxes reaching USA, like the one below.

There was also a piece of news at that time that the DVD would be officially released in about 50 days’ time!

As part of the publicity, Aascar Ravichandran was interviewed and he declared Kamal to be the “mother of the movie”. Here are a couple of the many interviews of Kamal: Businessworld | News Today.

Kamal had stated that he took the help of Shruti, his daughter for the American accents.

Rediff.com published interviews with Suresh Krissna and Ramesh Arvind. The former traces his association from the days of Ek Duuje Ke Liye. Here are some snippets:

Once the whole shoot was over, Kamalji would come to the hotel where all the assistants and cameramen were living, and play cards and have fun. It was pure entertainment and tremendous camaraderie. He never gave the impression that he was a star and we never felt we were working with one. Kamalji loved that unit as he was always close to Balachander Sir.

Kamalji watched me to grow from being a fifth assistant to Balachander Sir to becoming associate director of Punnagai Mannan…When I was ready to branch out as director, he asked me if I was interested in directing a film he was producing as well as acting. What more can anyone ask for? So I said fine. The film was Sathya.

Kamalji loves singing. I remember we all used to sit together and sing songs from old films and even play Antakshari [in Tamil].

Ramesh talks about the varied dimensions of Kamal he has experienced.

He always insists on international quality in every aspect. He loves novelty in scripts and narration. You can see him avoiding all kinds of cliches. He detests stupidity and does not want anything in the film to look illogical.

Acting with him is a bonus because he constantly advises you on how you can enhance your performance in the film.

He is a great friend who respects your space, guides you the right way without mincing words.

Behindwoods carried a long article in praise of Kamal.

And finally, here’s some humour (in Tamil) related to Dasavathaaram.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

For the past 10 years or so, Bharathiraja has been frustrated by his failures — both his directorial ventures and his attempts to establish his son Manoj as a hero. I feel he has tried to gain publicity by getting involved in politics of the movie world and also giving vent to his frustrations. Also, I guess it has got to do with him ageing. But it was shocking to see that last week, Kamal became his target. Kamal had participated in functions along with Bharathiraja even as recent as June, where both of them displayed fondness and mutual respect for each other.

While his feedback on Dasavathaaram will be appreciated by Kamal, there was no need to launch a scathing attack in public, while also claiming that he had the guts to convey it to Kamal directly. When the movie in question, though a commercial entertainer, stands way above the regular trash dished out by the industry, why single it out? Because it’s fashionable to attack Kamal and Dasavathaaram? He has also criticised Kamal’s writing skills, while forgetting the great scripts that Kamal has come up with in the past.

While Bharathiraja will be forever remembered for providing some wonderful movies with Kamal, he just fell a few notches down in the eyes of Kamal fans, if not the general public.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Sudhish Kamath, for The Hindu, interviewed Gautami, Kamal’s present companion. She provides some interesting insights into their relationship and also a level-headed look at Dasavathaaram. Take a look at the highlights before reading the whole article.

“He was Kamal Sir to me. He still is, but in a different way. He was one person I looked up to and thought the world of. With every level that I’ve gotten to know him, from the audience to star to his co-star to… He’s an immensely strong person, very, very compassionate. These are things that are never seen or heard because he never speaks of himself and people who know him don’t speak much. It is about sharing little joys, every moment, every day, it’s about the 24 hours… I think both of us felt that and it grew to the next stage.”

I have learnt perseverance from him. I have seen him go through all kinds of issues. He’s never ever come home with work tension. The kids will be all over him, the dogs will be over him and he’ll be playing with them. He would’ve probably left behind something of great magnitude back at office… He knows to compartmentalise.

I have never ever thought of telling him what he should be doing… he’s the master craftsman. I think that’s the root of this admiration.

“…I got married, I figured out how relationships work. I had a daughter, lost my parents. I understood that a relationship has to be participated with mutual respect and equal effort from both parties; if not, it’s not something I would like to spend my life on. So, I went about shaping my life with something I am happy with and with people I am comfortable with. Then, I fought cancer and I came out of that and did Dasavathaaram.”

“…My daughter needs to grow in an environment that is loving, wholesome, where there is no stress, where there is no kind of pressure of any kind…”

When it was finally ready, as he was watching it and being critical of himself, I was in complete awe. He’s done something that will, years later, give people encouragement.

K Balachander was delighted by Dasavathaaram and we already heard about it. But here are his exact thoughts.

I liked the film immensely for the wonderful dialogues and the way it has been mounted. I saw the film again. Being a student of cinema I’ll watch it a third time because he’s achieved so many things in one film. I have a few things to learn.

I have a lot to learn from him as far as technique is concerned. He’s outgrown everyone in Indian cinema.

He’s a man who revels in freshness. The effort he puts in is phenomenal. Others are only making money. This man has taken two years to complete this film. He could have amassed four times the wealth if he’d worked in more films.

…Kamal teaches everyone and fine tunes every other artiste’s performance on the set. He’s selfish to the extent that he wants the product to be good.

I told him I didn’t know what to make after watching the film and he said, “You made me.” I was touched.

This interview is brought to you by S Shivakumar in The Hindu. Regular readers of this blog would have seen other stuff from him earlier — Vishnuvardhan on Kamal and interview with Kamal. As seen in the above article, Shivakumar himself has not made up his mind about the movie. Here goes his review, reproduced with his permission.

The opening scene is riveting. Set in the 12th century it shows a lone Vaishnavite taking on the Shaivite ruler attempting to replace Vishnu with Shiva in a temple. His resistance and eventual submergence in the sea tied to the idol of his lord is brilliantly shot. Cut to the present where an Indian scientist is being honoured for saving the country from a biological weapon he’s developed. Rewind to the recent past. Our scientist helps in developing a weapon of in a vial which has the potential for mass destruction. He gets wind of the fact that his boss is trying to sell it off. The vial is mistakenly shipped to India and now scientist and an ex-CIA agent turned mercenary are in hot pursuit of it for different reasons.

A simple enough story but Kamal decides to pack in his beliefs, thoughts and philosophy about life into the three hours. The film talks about the chaos theory, the butterfly effect, atheism, the ecological imbalance that the mindless sand mafia is wreaking and the fact that ultimately nature is the greatest leveler. What sets Kamal apart as a filmmaker and actor is that he doesn’t believe in mindless entertainment. He tries to make people think though he doesn’t thrust his radical views on the paying public. With the failure of masterpieces like ‘Mahanadhi’ and ‘Anbe Sivam’ he tries to pack in humour, action and the sizzling Mallika Sherawat. So does the film work? Only in parts.

The fact is that Kamal has nothing to prove as an actor. He’s undeniably the most gifted actor on-screen. His body of work is unparalleled and is the only actor who’s got success on his terms. So the essaying of ten roles is only of academic interest. The discordant note is that some of the characters he plays have nothing to do with the plot. Mainly the seven foot tall Muslim and the Sardarji pop superstar. The plot thankfully does away with lengthy fights, duets and romance. Kamal the script writer, you feel has bitten off more than he can chew. He’s a gifted screenplay writer with classics like ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Mahanadhi’ and that cult classic, ‘Micheal Madana Kamarajan’. Here he fails to sew the scenes seamlessly. The narration is jerky in the pursuit of giving importance to all the characters. The ten characters jostle for screen space.

Surprisingly the film is technically tacky. The computer graphics leaves a lot to be desired and the ruthless fury of the tsunami leaves you cold. The photography is brilliant though, especially a chase shot in the night.

Kamal’s acting is flawless. The prosthetics is over done but the way he changes his body language, voice and accent to suit the various characters is breath taking. There’s a brief shot of the Japanese Kung Fu master walking in silhouette. His gait in that brief shot encapsulates his dedication as an actor. Asin’s incessant chatter even in the face of adversity is irritating.

Don’t miss ‘Dashavatharam’. Kamal’s failure as a script writer is more than made up for by Kamal the master of masquerade.

S.Shiva Kumar

Producer: Aaskar Ravichandran

Director: KS Ravi Kumar

Photography: Ravi Varman

Music: Himesh Reshamiya

Cast: Kamalhassan Asin

Rating****

Here are photos from the preview of Dasavathaaram, held for some Kamal’s colleagues, at Four Frames theatre in Chennai.

The attendees included Rajnikanth, K Balachander, Nagesh, Manorama, Prabhu, Radhika, Sathyaraj, Sarathkumar, Surya, Bharath and few directors.

Check out the updates on MSN, IndiaGlitz, Chennai 365 and Adhikaalai.com.

More photos are at Behindwoods.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Have Dasavathaaram ticket in hand? If you’ve come here to get the last pieces of news before watching the much-awaited movie, here you go, with all that was left out till now and the latest.

• A widely reported rumour was that US President George W Bush might be watching the movie! Finally, it has been quashed by The Times of India, which reports that it was the handiwork of US distributors and also about a new rumour involving Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Another involved UN delegates!
• There is talk of a car chase sequence featuring 5 characters played by Kamal and Vincent Poovaragan (Tirunelveli Dalit character) providing comic relief.
• There were rumours that certain portions of the “Ka…karuppanakkum” song featuring Mallika Sherawat had some cuts. That’s not too bad considering the movie received a ‘U’ certificate.
• Ayngaran distributes the movie in UK, Europe, Gulf countries and Singapore. The Hindi version is delayed by 2 weeks apparently due to deals not being finalised.
• It is said that rates (distribution / ticket?) have been slashed in ‘C’ centres to enable more people to watch the movie.
• Aascar (note the name change) Ravichandran handed over a print of the movie to Kamal a while ago.
• Web-sites like Sify.com and IndiaGlitz have been running news items daily to whet the appetite of readers. Here are a couple from the latter, talking about the Tsunami sequence, how Kamal has achieved authenticity for the 12th century portion, the action sequences and finally proclaiming the movie a magnum opus even before release. Sify.com threw light on the excitement and expectation among Kamal’s colleagues and provided other updates.
• There was a reported clash with an animated Hindi movie named Dashavatar. Not sure what’s happening with that.
• KollywoodToday.com put up a list of movies featuring the same actor in many roles.
• We had news of how Dasavathaaram is being insured.
• Finally, let’s check out some interviews: Kamal in The Hindu, NDTV and News Today | Asin in Rediff.com | KS Ravikumar in Sify.com | Brian Jennings (visual effects supervisor) in Rediff.com.

[With inputs from Ananth & A1]

The Dasavathaaram release is less than a day away in most places whereas some lucky folks in Muscat (and other Arab countries?) have already watched the movie! They are gushing with excitement obviously.

Anyway, before all that, it was the the turn of VIPs. First, it was Tamil Nadu Chief M. Karunanidhi. The man, who has a soft spot for Kamal, was all praise. It was said that ex-CM Jayalalithaa too would get a screening; but that does not seem to be happening.

Kamal’s colleagues in the movie industry, including Rajnikanth, got a special screening. The Hindu carries some wonderful photographs. Check out reactions and reports at Behindwoods and Sify.com (1 | 2).