Editor’s Note:
New series (yes, after ages!) and a new author, Shankar ‘Ulagam’! Please enjoy, please welcome…We plan to feature one song every two days. Hope to continue for a very long time.

Kamal Haasan, as we know, is versatility on his own credit — whatever the role or genre, he excels to our great delight. Comedy is a hallmark of Kamal and he proves that apart from drama and action, he can be a superb comedian. Mumbai Xpress is a great example of his innovative talent. Although the film has relatively sunk into obscurity, since it box-office-bombed back in 2005, it is nevertheless a hilarious movie. If you feel that the storyline is a bit incoherent, it is still worthwhile viewing, since our star is in the leading role.

Mumbai Xpress starts off with a master plan conceived by three amateur criminals, who plan to kidnap a wealthy man’s son for ransom. However, one of the thieves falls seriously ill, and it is left to the rest to scout for a replacement. That replacement comes in the form of a deaf stuntman named Avinasi aka “Mumbai Xpress”, played by Kamal Haasan. The master plan that was ingenious in its nature turns horribly wrong when two of the criminals get injured, and a third person (an insurance agent), is roped into the crime by a unfortunate accident. When the thieves capture the wrong boy, it is left to Avinasi to rescue him from his accomplices and restore him to his mother, played by Manisha Koirala. What happens next is what forms the rest of the story, with many twists and turns occurring here and there, that makes the story all the more complicated and comical.

A few examples of where the plan goes terribly wrong are very original and brilliant — when one of the criminals tries to explain to Avinasi the master plan, it seems like he has listened to the entire discourse, only for all to find out later on that he forgot to put on his hearing aid, and also when the gang-leader endeavours to show Avinasi the car gear mechanism, he accidently switches to ‘drive’ immediately and the vehicle speeds up and hits an insurance agent! Mix-ups and goof-ups like these make the film an absolute entertainer, and it’s a pity that the film didn’t do well at the box-Office, when such films like Rajnikanth’s Chandramukhi and Vikram’s Anniyan were garnering the limelight. Mumbai Xpress definitely goes on the shelf as one of the great comedies that Kamal has ever done, and one should seriously view the film on its own merits.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Virumaandi (Pothuraju in Telugu) is remembered as a movie that bridged art and commerce successfully. Of course, that’s apart from the ‘Sandiyar’ name controversy. Here, we look at a few blasts from the past related to it.

ChennaiOnline had a long article revealing several behind-the-scenes details including apects like the bull-fight (jallikkattu) scene, art direction, editing, stunts and editing. Have a patient read and get to know some of the information that you may not know.

Kamal is always at the forefront of the movie medium and also possesses great foresight. Here’s an article where he talks about DVDs and distribution.

Virumaandi famously won an award at the PiFan film festival in Korea. After that, he expressed his happiness to The Hindu. Kamal also talked about a retrospective at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier. Here are some excerpts:

“I see it as a kind of peer acceptance and that makes the award even more invaluable to me…”

“The whole thing came as a surprise to me. I had gone to the fest as an invitee. `Virumaandi’ was not an entry at the competition level and I had no inkling of the honour. There I was seated in the audience, waiting to put my hands together for the winner when my name was announced. I was confused because I was not on the stage with the other nominees … caught unawares, I did not even have a prepared text to thank the jury for the recognition,” laughs Kamal.

It (the citation) describes the film as one “that successfully manages to combine social and political drama, romance, humour, musical and spectacular action in one story of epic proportions…all the more impressive is the fact that it has been written, produced and directed by one man who also plays the lead role…”

“…When others tell me that I would have won international acclaim if I had been in the West, I turn around and tell them, this is my place and I should win world renown from here … with my kind of cinema.” And Kamal Hassan is doing just that.

The movie was also featured at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Take a look at the write-up!

Ah, nostalgia! Time to check out the movie once more?

It’s quite some time since we looked back at an old interview of Kamal. This one from Screen was done around 1995, when Kurudhippunal was out. The interview covers a wide range of topics, from direction to Hindi movies and from Sarika (his then-wife) to penning an autobiography. As usual, it is full of straight-talking.

As a rule, all interviews are meant for effect. That’s the way it should be. Celebrities should preserve a side to them that is not for public.Over the years, I have mastered the golden blend where I don’t lie, but don’t tell the complete truth either.

I cannot be accused of showing off in Nayakan and definitely not in Mahanadi. Maybe this has to do with the phase an actor goes through. I had a lot at stake during EDKL and I didn’t want to go unnoticed. I think the effort showed. Once the actor is assured of the applause, he settles down. So critics who say that Kamal Haasan is narcissistic are those who’re not updated on Kamal Haasan. I take my critics seriously. And if I’ve to take my cues from them, they had better be constructive and intelligent.

I gave up Hindi films too easily. I compared it to South cinema and became disillusioned.

I do a retake only when I can convince the director that what I have in the offing is better than the original. Mind you, I’m not always right.

I wanted to be the master. I wanted to dictate, not be dictated. I wanted to pursue films as a dream, not as a nine-to-five job.

I’m never self-conscious about anybody. My problem with Sarika working behind the scenes was of a different kind. Sarika and I are too independent in our thinking and therefore often tend to disagree. She’s an excellent worker, she’s highly dedicated and disciplined and once on the sets does not indulge in playing Kamal Haasan’s wife.

I’d have preferred it if there was more output. Somehow, a lot of time gets lost in floundering…The ideal situation would be to have at least four releases a year.

…Mahanadi is my all-time favourite, so is Kurudhipunal, but the credit for Kurudhipunal should go more to the producer, than the actor. Amongst my old films, I think I’m competent in Sagar Sangamam…I’d say that Nayakan and Thevar Magan are complete films.

…I should have directed a film 10 years ago. According to my friends I’m overdue by almost 20 years.

…To write an autobiography I’ll have to lie and the kind of truths I know will hurt too many people. Exposing so many people is vanity. I might do it some time later, but not now. I’m not ready for it as yet.

Though I pretend to be organised, I am not. Like most successful men, I have all the trappings of punctuality but it is restricted to checking the wristwatch for an appointment.

For certain films, it’s a waste of time to go into an indeph character study. These are roles that don’t demand energy.

The film is inspired from Govind Nihalani’s Drohkaal. The initial agreement was that we’d dub the film in Hindi after it was released down South. The director however had second thoughts. He said that the distributors were asking for refund from territories where Drohkaal hadn’t fared well.

I’m not the happy kind. I’ll never settle down for happiness.

Read Part I and Part II of the whole interview.

Kamal has never openly talked about how the dwarf character of Appu in Apoorva Sagodharargal (Apoorva Sahodarulu / Appu Raja) was done. But now, Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao, the director, has revealed most of the ’secrets’, almost after 20 years.

Rao mentions special shoes, using a trench, masking technique and also artifical legs. He also throws light on the efforts put in by Kamal. Read the whole report from The Hindu.

Still, we await the short video on the making which Kamal had promised to release.

Post-release, Kamal visited Hyderabad and Kochi to meet the press and promote Dasavathaaram. Accompanied by KS Ravikumar at both locations, Kamal provided interesting insights.

IndiaGlitz reported in text and video formats on the Hyderabad event. Watch the long video to enjoy Kamal’s answers to several questions from the media. Chennai 365 covered the meet, wonderfully capturing an array of his expressions in the form of photos. Rediff.com, Sify.com, TeluguCinema.com and Behindwoods carried some of the highlights of the Q&A. Sitting in the Taj Krishna hotel, Kamal declared that Dasavathaaram had received the biggest opening in his career.

At Kochi, Kamal revealed that the incident in MGR’s life was an inspiration for Avtaar Singh getting cancerous cells removed by a bullet shot in Dasavathaaram. Read reports from The Hindu, The New Indian Express and IndiaGlitz.

[With inputs form Ananth]

First, let’s get my disclaimer out. I do not think I can do justice to a review of Dasavathaaram without watching it 2-3 times. Anyway, I decided to put out my thoughts, bowing to reader requests and to counter the slew of negative feedback that has been flowing all over the information superhighway.

The movie moves at break-neck speed most of the time. This is the fastest I’ve ever seen in any movie — in any language, from any country. While I was bit disappointed to not catch everything in one viewing, I was immersed in the entertainment value. (I’m amazed by some of the analyses by fans around the world — maybe, they watched it more than once.)

The really impressive aspect of the movie for me was the screenplay, the same role that Kamal himself admitted to have enjoyed the most. As a person learning screen-writing, I see what a great job it is to beautifully blend so many complex concepts like Chaos Theory and atheism into the script. For an audience wanting pure entertainment, it doesn’t burden them with any sermons that they don’t want to hear. From the days of Michael Madana Kama Rajan, I always believed that Kamal was one of the masters of screenplay in India and this movie probably put him right at the top. Sadly, Kamal has always been viewed as an actor and hence underrated in such areas. (Another digression: it’s amusing to hear people heap Bhagyaraj with such praise, just for making successful and never-boring movies.)

Yes, a couple of characters were probably not required for the story. But with the movie being called what it is, why would we assume that it’s not about the actor? Here, conveniently, some people look beyond the actor. When you go to see a man perform 10 roles in a movie, don’t you need to appreciate his effort in that aspect first? I agree that some of the make-up was overdone and prevented facial expressions. But what about body language and voice-acting? Wasn’t it terrific? Even as the protagonist Govind, did we notice Kamal drop his usual mannerisms?

Special effects were suprisingly tacky in some key scenes. As Brian Jennings admitted, they probably ran out of time and money. Nevertheless, the many scenes involving multiple Kamal characters were wonderfully done.

Rangaraja Nambi showed some difference, Vincent Poovaragan was amazing, Fletcher was uber-cool, Avtaar was goody-goody, Kalifullah was amusing and endearing, Balaram Naidu had us in splits, Krishnaveni Paatti was amusing, George Bush was caricaturish fun and Narahashi quietly made a mark. The supporting cast was adequate, with Asin topping effortlessly as Andaal.

The comedy was mostly refreshing, but fell flat in a couple of places where Kamal attempted slapstick and wordplay like his long-time associate Crazy Mohan.

Songs were quite average, maybe even below that — something we knew several weeks ago. But the screenplay hardly halted for them. The background score was strictly okay; atleast, it wasn’t jarring.

Finally, I am really disappointed with people who claim to be real Kamal fans and compare Dasavathaaram to Nayagan or Mahanadhi or Anbe Sivam. What were they expecting with Aascar Ravichandran as producer and KS Ravikumar as director? Let me clarify that I’m not shifting the blame to these two individuals even one bit. As Kamal fans, we should have understood what we were in for. We should be happy that Kamal was able to put forth great ideas in a commercial format, something which has potential to become a big success, instead of making a movie like Hey Ram (which I worship, by the way) that made its way out of theatres and into university curriculum in no time.

I will write more after watching the movie more times and in other languages. I would love to hear from you in the Comments section.