Here are some more articles on Kamal and Dasavathaaram that appeared on Rediff.com.

The first one is an interview with Thota Tharani, one of the three art directors. He shares his experiences along with some drawings, including scenes in the Oval Office and involving the Tsunami. Below are a couple of his thoughts on Kamal. Enjoy the whole article!

I have done more than eight films with Kamal, and between us, we have won 5-6 major awards including national awards for Nayagan and Indian. We also won the state awards for Raja Parvai and Sagara Sangamam.

Kamal is unlike any other artiste I have seen. That is why I was asked to create a story board for Dasavathaaram. Though I am not a story board artiste, Kamal and I sat together and did this story board on the tsunami.

Then, we have an interview with yet another Kamal fan, Malayalam actor Jayasurya. One would remember that he did a small but effective role in Vasool Raja MBBS. Highlights:

He is, without a doubt one of the greatest actors we have in Indian cinema as well as the world.

He has born to be an actor, no doubt about that. He takes only seconds to become the character. He improvises the mannerisms and dialogues as the shots are being canned. In fact, I did ask him about this and was surprised when he said that it was one trait he learnt from Malayalam cinema.

Movies are important to him like the air we breathe. His passion for the medium is truly commendable, and perhaps that gives him the strength to try out new experiments. He has set a different standard for himself and is a league apart from almost every other actor in the business.

Finally, Rediff.com came up with a slideshow on Kamal’s interesting ‘avatars’, which though slipshod, is worth looking at.

[With inputs from A1]

Click for larger image

Okay, this is a bit late. But Dasavathaaram hasn’t yet released; so, it isn’t too late. Clever and patient folks have managed to ‘decode’ the 10 roles of Kamal from the trailer. The trailer did seem like a puzzle. Now it has been solved by fellow fans Directhit and Madhan.

Click for larger image

In this age of Internet and associated tools, it’s a surprise that the makers decided to embed all the 10 roles in the trailer and not leave it for the audience to discover it on the big screen.

With Dasavathaaram pretty much set to release on June 6, publicity is everywhere. Above we have a ‘making’ video designed for the Hindi version, Dashavtar.

Vodafone (formerly Hutch) has got exclusive rights for delivering content over mobile phones.

As mentioned earlier, national Web-sites have stepped up on news related to the movie. The latest is an interview of Ravivarman, the cinematographer, on Rediff.com. Let’s look at the highlights:

I will summarise the two years of working on Dasavathaaram as going to study in the world’s best university.

Kamal Sir in ten characters! How was I going to match his talent? That was my worry. Then I started planning. I planned every minute detail about each character. I prepared a story board for the entire film.

…there were many foreigners working for the film. And when they started appreciating our work, I realised that what we are doing was as good as Hollywood.

For that one shot we spent Rs 1,50,000! And for that one song we spent Rs 20 lakhs. Throughout all this, the producer never once questioned me about the expenses.

The first day of shooting was inside a cave at the MGM amusement park in Chennai. Except for a small lamp, there was no other source of light inside the cave.

Kamal Sir would get up at 3.30 in the morning for make-up and by the time he was ready, it would be 7.30. We generally started shooting by 8.30am. By then I’d have the set ready with the correct lighting needed for that day’s make-up.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Sify.com published a write-up on Dasavathaaram, which seemed to have been written by Kamal himself. It talks about make-up, screenplay, music, etc. Excerpts:

We started with just 25 days for the first schedule of the film, which had no shooting, no acting. It was just for the make-up tests. 25 days in the US. 20 days, 12 hours a day, and then 5 days of taking photographs. When we came back with the photographs, people believed more in Dasavatharam, including the producer, the director and myself. Till date nobody outside of the unit has seen any of these photographs.

Synthetic bio-weapons, research and analysis wing, Kulothunga II’s distaste for Vedanta and the Chaos theory!

Yes. Said in one sentence the above sounds pedantic and pompous. But embedded into a screenplay it makes for a racy read.

…about the chaos theory and how we are all connected as a world. None of your acts or mine will go without an effect.

It’s like as if one act, collides with another. It’s almost like particle physics if you look at it. One object crashing onto another producing something else which could tell the story of how all things came to be.

I think, basically I am a cinema fan. And I have given you what I would like to see as a sensible cinema fan. So, I think your intelligence will not be insulted, your time will not be wasted, and you will really enjoy this film. And why you should watch the film, because we worked so hard for you, that’s one good reason why.

KS Ravikumar reveals some details in an interview to The New Indian Express.

The movie is complete but for the frames of the tsunami, which are being done in Hong Kong. “But the music that was out a week ago is doing very good. My pick is Ulaga Naayagane”, Ravikumar reveals.

“But for Kamal Haasan, the hardest role, I think, would be the role of Fletcher that he plays in the movie. Shooting the grandmother role and the tall man’s role was most challenging for me”, he adds.

“If I do movies as big as this, I can only do four Dasavathaarams for the rest of my life”, he jokingly states. And not all producers would be open to doing big budget movies as this”, he reasons.

Here’s a short interview of Kamal in The Times of India. Highlights:

I used to spend five hours only in makeup. What was interesting is that I have started respecting women more after that.

I know Dasavatharam is going to be a hit. I can’t say how big. I know I sound pompous by saying that, but we have got a U certificate for the film, which will be enjoyed by all age groups.

I feel film promotion has become extremely important and I don’t think it’s new. That has always been the trend. The loudest seller in a bazaar attracts attention. I have always felt that the loudest crying child gets the milk.

Let’s look at another article in The Times of India. It mentions that Kamal has won 175 awards till date! Here’s a quote:

The actor, who is a fan of Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers, says the strength of his performances lies in his ability to do his job “very honestly”. “I’m a true Gandhian in that respect; I believe that if you are honest to whatever you do, name, fame and accolades will automatically find you,” he says seriously.

Ravivarman, the cinematographer, too had things to say to The Hindu.

“List 10 of the best action films of Hollywood, and ‘Dasavathaaram’ would easily match them in quality,” says Ravivarman.

“I don’t think I can work on such a mammoth project again. I could go into depression or have my pressure levels touch dangerous levels,” laughs Ravivarman.

There was this car chase which included a helicopter, with Kamal Haasan at the helm of the sequence. It was shot at night in Florida. “Ideally, the entire city ought to have been lighted up for it. But as it couldn’t be done, I went ahead with the available lighting. It was all dark when I looked through the lens. But experience told me we would get the required effect. They were anxious moments, because if the effort had gone awry re-shooting the portion would have been impossible,” recalls Ravi.

Another piece of news that has been doing the rounds is the names of the 10 characters. Here is the list from IndiaGlitz, Galatta.com and Adhikaalai.com.

IndiaGlitz also came up with a ‘preview’.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Kamal joined fellow industrymen for a fast for the Cauvery-Hogenakkal issue. Among rhetoric and angry speeches, Kamal shone with his restrained and sensible approach. Thatstamil has full details. IndiaGlitz has a report featuring audio of Kamal’s speech and as usual, a wide array of photos. There is a video of the full speech too; but you need to have patience to wade through a lot of preceding trash. The Hindu too carried a report.

Kamal arrived a little late, possibly from out of town. The earlier report that he came from USA seems to be a rumour.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Balakumaran is another literary personality with whom Kamal has colloborated. Though not as much as Sujatha, Balakumaran too has made significant contributions. The most notable among them is Nayakan. Then, there is Guna, where his spiritual / religious inclination would have come into play.

In Balakumaran Pesukirar, a blog dedicated to him, there was a piece recently on his impressions of his work in movies. He specifically talks about Rajnikanth, Kamal and Ajith. He starts off on Kamal with:

Kamal Haasan is a wonderful artiste. Any person who sees him at close quarters for 10 minutes will certainly be astonished.

He goes onto to narrate an experience during the making of Guna. He talks about how Kamal continued a story discussion of the previous day, right from the moment he arrived (stepping out of his car), to illustrate how engrossed Kamal is in his work.

It is about creativity every moment. It is about movies every moment. That’s how Mr. Kamal Haasan thinks. Working with him is a pleasurable thing to do.

He ends saying that Kamal has high expectations of people working with him. Kamal himself admitted that he gets angry at times when he is disappointed with co-workers.

I am not an angry person. I am just fast.

Speaking about Ajith, he describes an incident when he explained a scene and Ajith refused to do it that way, saying that it was reminiscent of Kamal.

Enjoy the full post (if you can read Tamil).

[Via Ananth]

It’s difficult to write about something that has been analysed, written and talked about so much, even on this blog. But when the point of discussion is Hey Ram, there is always something new to say. In that belief, here goes my DVD-commentary-like post, best consumed alongside a repeat viewing of the classic. [Now, that’s a good excuse for not properly structuring this post!]

The movie begins with a dedication to Kamal’s mentor, Ananthu: “Thank you for directing me towards this direction”. Their relationship began while both worked under K Balachander, with Ananthu exposing Kamal to things like world cinema. Also, Hey Ram was supposed to be Kamal’s formal foray into direction, which was not to be. Anyway, we can consider it as the first movie Kamal wanted to put his stamp officially on.

In the Hindi version of the movie, notice the name of the movie appear in English last, after Hindi and Urdu. Kamal defies convention as always, while also granting importance to India’s own languages.

As I have mentioned a few times before, Kamal is to be treated as a creator whose chosen medium happens to be film. This is yet again symbolised in the title song. Kamal gives vent to his own agony and raises his (own) voice for sanity and peace, aptly in his own words (in Tamil). That pretty much summarises the objective of the movie.

In addition to donning the new hat of lyricist (to two of the songs), Kamal handles various usual departments including choreography. While his skill at screenplay has been proven in many other movies, this one features the Page-o-Minute technique — one minute on screen being written on exactly one page. Ironically, the script didn’t hold the attention of most movie-goers, with its multilingual dialogues.

Further on the technical side, this was the movie that brought back sync sound (dialogues recorded on the spot instead of being dubbed later). Of course, the voices for a few actors were dubbed. But you would notice that most actors remained unchanged for both languages of the movie. They were meticulously chosen for their background and also their ability to speak in either language.

Shah Rukh Khan was a big draw in the movie. Kamal openly admitted that: “Ask the distributors in North India what Shah Rukh means”. Among the movies I have watched, I’d rate this performance of his next only to Swades. Kudos for his effort in speaking Tamil too (unlike the recent buffoonery in Om Shanti Om).

Another person who had a great outing was Saurabh Shukla. More known for his dialogue-writing skills till then, he touched everyone’s hearts here.

A few gems in the screenplay are on display during the Kamal-Rani scenes:

• Aparna uses a pistol with no bullets to protect herself from potential intruders. Saket first makes fun of it, but it comes to his use later when he is held captive by the Muslim gang.
• While getting up from the bed, Aparna asks Saket to not disturb the mark-sheets. “Okay teacher”, he says. This is just one of the few references to her profession, without actually having a scene to establish it.
• After he ties the thaali (mangalsutra), he asks for some symbol for himself. She takes one of her toe-rings (metti) and gives it to him to use as a ring. Much later, when he goes to see Mythili and she touches his feet, he raises his hands to bless her and notices that ring, bringing back memories of his first wife.

Bollywood’s most-loved villain, Amjad Khan (also the name of Shah Rukh’s character) had a connection with this movie. His son, Shadab memorably played Altaf, the tailor in Calcutta who is responsible for Aparna’s rape and murder. Amjad Khan featured in Kamal’s Vikram one and half decades earlier.

Speaking of Altaf, Saket the common man very slowly realises the level of Hindu-Muslim tension in the country, culminating in the brutal end of his wife. Saket’s struggle is played out superbly with Rani Mukherjee’s continous screaming in the background.

Rani was at that time very new to the movies, with just the hits of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Ghulam behind her. Kamal the director extracted a very mature performance, which she is now known to be capable of, as the reigning queen of Bollywood.

While the director dwarfs Kamal the actor in Hey Ram, the latter’s performance is nevertheless not to be ignored. One image that stands out it is during the night of Saket’s wedding with Mythili — he shivers after pouring water on himself, as he struggles to bury the demons of his past.

Back to the director, a portion of “Nee paartha paarvaikku…” is simply brilliant. As Saket reminisces about Aparna fondly, a sequence of shots shows them both at various places in Calcutta doing a variety of things. It is structured as a few shots, but the camera moving from left to right combined with perfect editing lends to effective screenplay. Every place where Saket sees while roaming has a memory of Aparna.

Breaking the flow again, we need to get to Atul Kulkarni. He was a wonderful ‘discovery’ of Hey Ram. Kamal the actor lets him dominate in the scenes they share together, as per the needs of the script. Kulkarni rightly went onto win the National Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Just as the first twist in the movie, that of Saket’s peaceful life being shattered, the second one too comes up slowly. We are made aware of the Maharaja’s conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi bit by bit, starting from the air-port and ending at a secret location on the occasion of Dussehra. The last portion with Saket in inebriated state is filmed beautifully, with hardly any dialogues. All along, we also figure out the personal motives of the Raja and Abhyankar behind their plot to eliminate Gandhi.

The graphics is possibly a tad overdone overall, though it serves the purpose of projecting Saket’s thoughts.

The usage of Tamil (Saket’s mother-tongue) is effortless even in the Hindi version — be it “Balcony kadhava saathu, Aparna!” when he anxiously shouts out to protect her from the intruders or Hindu hymns in the Chennai episode. Kamal’s knowledge of Hindu and Brahmin traditions are pretty complete. It peaks with his rendition of “Brahmanandam…” when Saket renounces all relations before moving to Delhi.

The story is primarily the journey of one man. But it also travels to all corners of India and even to Pakistan. At every place, the rich cultural diversity of India is masterfully blended into the screenplay.

Though being a ‘period’ subject, the contemporariness is unmistakeable. After the decade of Babri Masjid demolition and Mumbai riots, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had just secured power in India. Warning bells ring in the movie with a reference to Savarkar, the Nazi Swastika morphing into a lotus (BJP’s election symbol). Kamal speaks through his characters at one point: “Religion and politics”, like “sex and violence” is a “pucca commercial combination”! Later in the movie, as a sign of things to come in the future of India, we witness corruption at Gandhi’s place itself.

Back to the movie, it thrives on sutblety and metaphors. One example is the Raja putting the mad / useless horse to death, with the rest of the horses in the stable being blind-folded. The man is ruthless in pursuing his objective and getting rid of useless items on his way. At the same time, he is careful to keep his other subjects unaware of his nature. At another juncture, when Abhyankar asks Saket to promise that he will perform the assigned task unmindful of his relations, he just turns to the left with sad eyes, the director merely indicating to us that his heart is hesitant to give up Mythili.

The protagonist of the movie is ordinary like any of us. As much as he tries to hide it from himself, he remains a confused man. Even in the end, when he argues with Amjad, he cries and convinces himself that Gandhi is the root cause, even as he struggles to maintain that belief. At the same time, the character also has a lot of the real-life Kamal. He himself said in an interview, sometime ago, that the movie was born out of the question “What would have I done had I been there?”.

The hotel in Delhi where Saket stays is the very place where Nathuram Godse stayed. There is a small reference to it in the movie too. Another interesting tidbit is that Kamal stayed in the same hotel while writing the script, to help him get into the head of Gandhi’s assassin.

The final part of the movie features an interesting character, Govardhan, played by Gollapudi Maruthi Rao. He had a memorable role in Kamal’s Swathi Muthyam (Sipikkul Muthu) too.

Naseer’s role as Gandhi was probably a dream-come-true for him. He was one of the actors who unsuccessfully screen-tested for the lead role in the 1982 biopic by Richard Attenborough.

Throughout the movie, Kamal effectively uses small facts to make his point — Jinnah’s daughter staying back in India, Rama coming through Khyber Pass (reference to Aryan theory), Mountbatten announcing that Gandhi was killed by a Hindu and so on.

As much as I try to detach myself from my sixth viewing of the movie, I get drawn in and forget to note down points for this post. Ultimately, the movie will remain to me, more than anything else, a textbook in film-making.

[Image courtesy: Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa]

Editor’s Note:

Here we have yet another new author, Zero. Please welcome!

On the Kamal A2Z series, we have ‘G’ this fortnight. If anyone wants to reminisce about Guru or Geraftaar, e-mail your entries! The next fortnight, we’ll move onto ‘H’ for Hey Ram; but let’s not forget Hare Radha Hare Krishna too.

A 2-minute long tracking shot takes us through a lower-end brothel in Hyderabad and ends showing Guna on the terrace (shot from below with ‘godly’ respect), standing on one leg. It is a Pournami (full moon day) and Guna is awaiting the arrival of Abhirami. He sees a bride going through the Jaanavaasa ceremony and mistakes her for Abhirami.

So starts Guna, one of the best films to have come out of Tamil Cinema in the last decade. This was the first of the twin efforts (the other being the great Mahanadhi) of Kamal Haasan with his friend Santhana Bharathi wielding the megaphone. Kamal packs in a superb team (Venu for cinematography, Balakumaran for dialogues, and of course Raaja). Yes, it is not a flawless film. But, it is the kind of film that stays on in your mind.

The film looks at this man Guna, with unconditional sympathy; how he is doomed in this big bad world; and in that sense, it is a cynical film. Guna is a madman (an obsessional psychoneurotic) who is told, by a fellow asylum-inmate (Ananthu), that Abhirami (the Goddess) will marry him on a full moon day and will take him out of all his miseries. There is this sense of godliness attributed to him in the movie — he can unlock anything like cars, safes etc. and help his uncle in his thefts. He wants to be cleansed (in the famous scene Guna explaining to the doctor about how Abhirami would ‘cleanse’ him). He unconditionally believes that he is God, and that only Abhirami can cleanse him. He believes in uniting with Abhirami, the Goddess (an imaginatory sequence shows the formation of the Lingam). So he kidnaps her; takes her along with him to a deserted church on top of a hill and explains his love for her, and their destiny.

The screenplay of the film – written by Saab John, a Kamal Haasan associate who also wrote Chanakyan and played the role of Narasimhan is Kuruthippunal) is of the highest standards as far as Tamil Cinema goes. It’s expertly woven, richly textured, and is subtle and doesn’t scream for our attention. Not to forget the insightful and yet realistic dialogues by Balakumaran. Ilaiyaraaja gives a great background score (most of the BGM pieces during chase sequences are liberally borrowed from Kamal Haasan’s two earlier flicks Aboorva Sagodharargal and MMKR). Kamal Haasan comes up with a truly wonderful performance, with the rest of the cast chipping in accordingly.

What is striking is that the film doesn’t melodramatize the state of Guna. It doesn’t put him in fake glory. It looks at him with a detached sympathy. Guna is after all, a madman and it never bats an eyelid to put forth the fact to us. He says he is in love with Abhirami and that she can never go leaving him behind. But, he still ties her giving a new reason each time.

Apart from this, the movie also works as a traditional thriller with an (albeit heavily stereo-typed) villain, CBI in chase, and lots of money at stake. As in every other KH film, the subtle humour is unmissable.

Looking at the mythological connections of the story, the key point in the film is how the usual assumed gender roles are reversed here. The mythology has this story of Parvathi, the Goddess, who takes human form because of a curse and eventually re-unites with Lord Shiva. We also have other examples like Meera and Aandaal. In Guna, the roles are reversed. It’s Guna who has taken an earthly form and yearning to unite with Abhirami. This is apparent in many scenes like the following:

1. Guna tying the thaali around his neck.
2. Guna looking reverently at ‘his’ thaali after Abhirami walks out of the car hanging at the edge of a mountain.
3. Guna waiting for Abhirami to complete her meal.
4. Or when Abhirami kisses Guna.

The story also owes the main thread of obsession towards the Goddess to the story of Abhirama Bhattar, who wrote Abhirami Anthathi. In a beautiful sequence, Rohini and Guna playfully pretend to be bees and buzz around in air (ending with the bees ‘kissing’ each other), and Abhirami asks Guna to tie the thaali (mangalsutra), Guna says they have to wait till Pournami. But, she says, “Nila aagasuthalaiya irukku? Manasula irukku. Manasu thaan nila. Neranja naal” (”Is the moon in the sky? It’s in the heart. The heart is the moon. Filled (?) day”)! Apart from serving as the point of culmination of their love, it also directly refers to the mythology itself. In the story of Abhirama Bhattar, Abhirami turns an Amavasai (new moon day) into a Pournami by throwing her ear-ring into the sky. Guna recollects the mythological incident, and says, “Aamaam! Abhirami sonna Pournami thaan” (”Yes! If Abhiram says, it is a full moon day”)!

And when the movie ends (with that divine and strangely soothing theme playing in the background), we see the deserted church in the bird’s eye view and the glowing moon behind it. It is the next Pournami (thus completing the cycle) and Guna has joined hands with his Abhirami. Or has he?

[Original post]

It is a known fact that Kamal has a lot of friends in the literary circles. He has used many of them in his movies from Mahanadhi to Marudhanayagam. Recently, he took the time to felicitate one such person, Puviarasu the poet, for winning the Sahitya Akademi award.

During his speech, he spoke of his association with Puviarsu and various others. He also read out one of his poems, which is reproduced below, thanks to Behindwoods.

They have more photos and so does CineFundas.com. IndiaGlitz as usual has several photos and a long video featuring Kamal’s speech. IBNLive has a short news clip, featured below. The event received extensive coverage in the vernacular press too.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Ellam Inba Mayam, made in 1981 (story, dialogues and lyrics: Panju Arunachalam) was in many ways a precursor to Kamal’s later movies. He dons a multi-character role, speaks different dialects and above all, explores a full-fledged light-hearted comedy for probably the first time. G. Rangarajan, the director, would go on to make another comedy Meendum Kokila with Kamal the same year and Maharasan a decade later. The setting and spirit of “Solla solla..” song (a perfect spoof of ‘disco’ songs of the period, resurrected on YouTube) was taken further in the evergreen “Ilamai itho itho…” in Sakalakala Vallavan, a year later.

The movie follows a hackneyed script but the Kamal takes the situational comedy to a level where we can forget the mindlessness of it all. In fact, the movie seems to have been made with the singular objective of showcasing Kamal’s acting talents with no regard to logic. His scenes with YG Mahendran are some of the best of the period, in terms of comic timing. Two examples: Kamal and YGM have just arrived at Madras, and are visiting the Gandhi statue at the Marina beach. As they remove their slippers and move to the statue, YGM remarks “Aasirvaadham vangippom. Yengayo avasarama poraru pola irukku..” (Let’s get his blessings. He seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere.). Later, when a prospective employer inquires about their competency, Mahendran explains, “Nalla saapiduvom“. The man then demands, “Appuram?”, to which Kamal replies without batting an eyelid, “Kai kazhuviduvom…” (the beauty will be lost in translation) – proving again what it takes to transform an ordinary script into an engaging act.

The Charlie Chaplin influence on Kamal is seen in this one too – probably for the first time on screen. The scene where Kamal and YGM dine at a local restaurant Chaplinesque to the core, especially the sequence where Kamal cannot stop his hiccups. The way he walks in the Basavappa character is again reminiscent of Chaplin’s films.

There are many elements of the village bumpkin character which Kamal seems to have retained in Kameshwaran of MMKR. The naivety, the walk, the awkwardness are all trademark Kameshwaran. Also of note is that for a typical masala movie, with villain and fights intact, there is no gore or even a single murder, much like Michael Madana Kama Rajan. Incidentally, both movies were produced by Panju Arunachalam’s P. A. Arts. Ellam Inba Mayam may not be one of Kamal’s best; but looking back, I am sure it has influenced his career path and his disposition to full-fledged comedies.

Editor’s Note: We’ll continue with ‘E’ for a fortnight as usual. But the next letter is ‘F’, which unfortunately has no movies. So, let’s catch up on what was left out from ‘A’ to ‘E’ during that time. Send in your entries!