Such little information is available on this movie that I’m just going to put down whatever I know and found out. I tried in vain to rent the DVD too. [But it’s not available here in the Bay Area. Maybe, I’d have had better luck in Bangalore.]

Benkiyalli Aralida Hoovu (the flower that bloomed in fire) still remains one of Kamal’s popular ventures into Kannada cinema. It is the remake of Aval Oru Thodarkathai starring Sujatha, which had Kamal in a supporting role. He acted in the Bengali remake Kabita too.

This 1983 Kannada movie had his real-world niece Suhasini in the lead role, being the only movie in which they acted together. Kamal plays the role of a bus conductor, not the same part he played in the Tamil original. The “Mundhe Banni…” song (with playback by SPB) is still an old favourite.

Anyone knows more? Give us all some details in the Comments section.

Editor’s Note:
Unfortunately, this seems to be the only movie for ‘B’. Or does anyone know some other movie Kamal was atleast associated with and not necessarily acted in? Otherwise, let’s continue with more movies starting with ‘A’ for this fortnight. Send in your entries!

Apoorva Raagangal (more commonly pronounced as ‘Aboorva Raagangal’) was part of the second innings of K Balachander, one among the ’shock-and-shake-up-the-audience’ series of movies (the others being Arangetram, Aval Oru Thodarkathai and Avargal). Kamal featured in all of those, but got possibly his first opportunity as leading man in Tamil with this movie released in 1975.

Barely in his twenties, he stuns the audience with his fearless and mature performance. When one thinks back now, it seems like Balachander actually tapped the rebellious streak and raw energy in Kamal for the role of Prasanna. The intelligence, interest in arts and indifference to societal rules all seem to match with his real-life self. In that sense, Balachander and Kamal were working off each other.

This movie is also known for the debut of Rajnikanth. In the few scenes they have together, Kamal and Rajni are in a way pitted against each other, both being interested in the same woman. Again looking back, the slowly maturing relationship between the two seems to reflect their personal equation in the future superstar era.

But the image of the movie really is from the popular “Adhisaya raagam…” song — Kamal singing away and Srividya looking at him in wonder. Yesudas’s classical voice and Kannadasan’s simple yet meaning-laden lyrics add beauty.

Get more details about the movie from the entries on IMDb and Wikipedia. Kamal reprised this role 9 years later in the Hindi remake, Ek Nai Paheli, with Hema Malini and Raaj Kumar.

Natural performance. An expression that is used at the drop of a hat by our critics, that it ought to be taken out of the English language for servicing. Anyway it is a curious expression to use with regard to the art of acting. As a sage once put it, “from the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type (of all art)“.

Child actors, one would naturally suppose, are the best candidates for such performances. Such a supposer would have obviously not been acquainted with Tamil film children, particularly those of the yesteryears. These little pieces of heaven can be spotted swaying their head from side-to-side during song sequences and talking lengthy dialogues with righteousness oozing from their ears. All this of course if they are not tugging at the heartstrings with polio stricken legs or polishing boots to support their co-orphan younger brothers. Unless of course, the child in question happens to be Kamal Haasan.

After a National Award winning debut in KaLathoor KannammA and a dual role in PaarthAl Pasi Theerum, Kamal played the role of the heroine’s kid brother in the MGR-Devika starrer Ananda Jothi. The movie is as routine as it gets: a dispossessed rich man MGR, an epitome of simplicity and rectitude, goes about righting wrongs and finally living happily ever after. Notable here is the performance of the child Kamal Haasan. For anyone who may think this is just some retroactive praise, the movie is highly recommended, and a feeble description of a scene is attempted below.

MGR is an upright teacher Anandan, in a school run by Devika’s family and has an image of not bowing to authority. What Devika doesn’t know is that MGR is also writes poems (don’t even ask!) by the name Maniyarasan, whom she adores. Devika’s brother Kamal, studies in the school and can’t stop admiring his teacher.

In an ensuing exchange where she passes messages through Kamal that his teacher is an idiot while Maniyarasar is a genius. The message itself is triggered by a comment from Kamal: “unga maNiyarasar periya ivarO?” (roughly translates to a sarcastic: “your Maniyarasar is a great chap, eh?”). The twang and intonation are to be heard to be believed.

MGR translates the English word ‘idiot’ for Kamal. The child is outraged that his sister could have chosen such a word to describe his teacher and is angrier still that he was made to carry the message. His reaction is spontaneous and enchanting. He carries back MGR’s barb to his sister and closes the sequence with a witty smile: “pEchchu vittA pEchchu vaangikka vENdiyadhu thAn” (if you dish it out, be prepared to take them too!). And all this, with impressive expression and intonation. Natural talent, is what comes to mind, just that it isn’t compliment enough.

Of course this cannot be compared with Kalathur Kannamma. He literally drove the second half of that movie, performing with unbelievable ease. Ananda Jothi on the other hand, is yet another case of Kamal showing his mettle in an ordinary film. He would do it for a while later too.

Editor’s Note:

Prabhu Ram has picked a not-so-familiar movie and given a good start to the series. Readers, you are encouraged to send in your entries — immediately for the letter ‘A’ and not so urgently for other letters. ‘A’ itself has a whole lot of movies — Arangetram, Apoorva Sagodharargal and Avvai Shanmughi to name a few. Or can you enlighten readers about ‘B’ for Benkiyalli Aralida Hoovu, next fortnight? All your entries, with the subject-line as “Kamal A2Z Submission”, are awaited at randramble AT gmail DOT com. An even simpler way to contribute is to just comment on such posts, adding more info and thoughts about the movie covered. More info on the series is here.

On hearing Nagesh glorify Kamal recently, thoughts went back to MGR. Kamal and he are believed to shared a great rapport spanning several years. It started from Anandha Jothi in the early 60s and lasted till Kamal’s peak with Nayagan in 1987, shortly after which MGR passed away. In a piece (in Tamil) by ‘AVM’ Saravanan (who himself has a long association with Kamal), he recollects MGR’s thoughts about Kamal in the early 80s.

MGR had inquired about Kamal’s ‘market’. He praised Kamal saying that he was the greatest actor in India after Sivaji Ganesan. He lamented that Kamal had not yet achieved a place commensurate with his talent and wished that he reach greater heights. Kamal, of course, shares a passion with MGR — that of maintaining one’s body. In fact, the latter is an inspiration. Read more.

Back to Nagesh in The Hindu:

Who does he rate as the best actor? He raises his finger solemnly and exclaims, “There’s only one artiste in the whole Universe (!). It’s Kamal Hassan. Without him there’s no cinema. Have you watched ‘Anbe Sivam’?” Nagesh will next be seen in ‘Dasavatharam’ with Kamal. The admiration is mutual. Kamal never misses a chance to use Nagesh in his projects.

Completing the line-up for this post is Kovai Sarala. Though she can’t be compared with the above two stalwarts, she memorably paired with Kamal in Sathi Leelavathi. She had this to say:

Acting alongside Kamal Haasan in “Sathileelavathi” was an unforgettable experience. I was jittery on the sets before Kamal put me at ease. He is gifted artist with a wonderful sense of timing.

Today, they are remaking and recycling material of yesteryear. Look at films like “Nan Avanillai” and “Billa”. I wonder for a moment who would play the lead role if “Thillana Mohanambal” were to be remade. I cannot think of anyone else but Kamal Haasan in the role of Sivaji Ganesan.

Fellow blogger Bharath recently dug up an old article by Sujatha on Kamal. Dating back to 1976, it was probably the time when Sujatha and Kamal got acquainted. Without more ado, let me (not too badly) translate some key portions of the article.

There was nothing really luxurious in his room, save the air-conditioner…I spotted books on American film history and sound in cinema…He is very casual when explaining the funny things on his job. He knows of European directors like Polanski and Goddard. I’m able to enthusiastically analyse a shot from Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy with him for ten minutes. “Looks like Malayalam movies are not bad these days”, I said. “That was then. Now, Malayalam movies are going backwards”, he says. “Malayalam movie!”, he adds, pointing to his pink shirt.

“While picturising a song, it is convenient for the heroine to leave her hair loose. If she forgets the lip-sync, she can just hide behind her hair!”

In the loud-speaking and ‘loud-acting’ Tamil film world, I expect a new wave from the gentle, imaginative and believable Kamal Haasan.

Kamal was not even 22 at this time and was possibly on the verge of becoming a star. No more words from me. If you know Tamil, enjoy the whole piece.

Madan Bob is an actor who has featured in many a Kamal movie starting from Thevar Magan. He was memorable in Tenali more recently. Kamal came out of hiding to participate in a function to felicitate the actor-musician. Check out the report from The Hindu.

L Vaidyanathan, the man who scored the memorable background score for the movie which had no dialogues, passed away on Saturday. Readers will recollect that we recently reminisced about him on this site. He was the eldest of the violin trio which included L Subramaniam (who initially scored the music for Hey Ram) and L Shankar.

Some time ago, Dinathanthi (leading Tamil newspaper) published some pieces of information about Dasavatharam. Not all of it seems to be true. In any case, it talks about things like 8 hours of make-up versus 1 hour of shooting each day and has Oscar Ravichandran, the producer, raving about the movie.

Behindwoods reported that a “mammoth database of stills” are waiting to be released before the movie itself. This article also talks of Dasavatharam being dubbed in many languages — Bengali seems far-fetched while Kannada is simply impossible due to the ban on dubbing movies into that language.

Another piece of news that came up was that Prime Focus, a Chennai-based special effects company, has bagged Dasavatharam.

Meanwhile, Vannathirai (Tamil magazine) went ga-ga over Kamal on the occasion of his Living Legend award.

A delightful interview of Kamal given to a Malaysian TV channel is doing the rounds on the Net. Kamal appears more relaxed than usual. Also, the show is different since it is a live programme with audience and phone-in viewers too. Some highlights:

• Kamal is very frank about the necessity of fans for a star.
• He mentions the usual suspects — his mother, Balachander and Sivaji Ganesan — and even MGR. He later talks about his experiences with MGR — the days when he was dance assistant, the fitness tips he received and the appreciation he got.
• Kamal says that he doesn’t really live a role. He says that the performance is based on lot of preparation. He also later admits that he only does roles that suits him. He even extrapolates that people like Sivaji Ganesan, Sean Penn and Ed Norton did or do the same.
• He fondly recollects his association with Mani Ratnam. Also, he reveals that, for Nayagan, he did the make-up for himself.
• He talks about working with Nasser repeatedly, when questioned by the audience. He says that Nasser is a good friend, good actor, good human being, movie-lover and Tamil-lover. He goes as far as saying that Nasser’s presence improves the quality of his movies overall.
• About Hey Ram’s failure, he says that it’s also his fault that he didn’t prepare the audience sufficiently for it.
• For the cliched question of how did he act as the dwarf Appu in Apoorva Sagodharargal, this time, he says that he’s planning a TV series.
• Finally, he says that the movie industry doesn’t provide essential services and that we have to be aware of that.

Pushpak — Silence is Golden!

The premise is pretty simple — Kamal is an unemployed young man who dreams big. He one day bumps into a beautiful girl (Amala) accidentally giving her the impression that he is rich. That night, he stumbles upon a drunkard (Sameer Kakkad), lying in stupor next to a luxury hotel, and is carrying a key to one of the suites (was it 1247?) in the hotel. Kamal carries the drunk to his poor bachelor’s pad, ties him up and locks him in. Then, he moves to the hotel, pretending to be the rich guy and starts wooing Amala — hoodwinking her parents — who are staying in the same hotel.

Love blossoms and the young couple enjoys every moment of their togetherness, yearning for more. Eventually, Kamal realizes the bitter reality behind his distasteful charade and moves back into his previous life, and returns Sameer back to the roadside gutter where he was first found. Kamal also writes a confession letter to Amala.

At the end, Amala sees Kamal again and writes him a note — from the car she is riding in — wraps the note around a flower (symbolism) and throws it to Kamal. Kamal picks up the flower first, and the note gets blown away by the wind.

This closure is indeed a homage — a subliminal salute — to Chaplin, the master of the tragic comedies during the silent era.

A screwball sub-plot involves an extramarital affair between the Sameer’s wife and his friend. The friend (Prathap Pothan) brings in a hired killer (Tinnu Anand) to kill Sameer who is supposedly occupant of the suite 1247. The killer makes multiple attempts at Kamal with his “ice daggers” (water is frozen in a dagger shaped tin container a la kulfi to produce sharp ice weapons — outrageously hilarious!), and Sameer gets to escape his death — thanks to Kamal who has locked him up at his bachelor’s pad — and later — thanks to Kamal’s discovery of facts - Sameer wins his wife again.

Highlights: The black humor in the scene where Kamal and Amala walk through the funeral queues, handholding, pretending to pay respects to a dead person — the amazing BGMs during the scene where Kamal follows Tinnu Anand back to Pratap Pothan’s house — the stark human sense of belongingness in the scene where Kamal goes back to his flat for the aural ambience of the loud movie theater next door — the enema aftermath — the voluptuous maid and the dirty old man — the crow and the stones story in the background of Kamal’s morning tea — the innovative way of washing the shirt using minimum soap… it is a simple story with well-etched characterization and emotive innovation beautifully embroidered and festooned with a sensible background score.

Singeetham with his own story, screenplay, and direction — Kamal, with his impeccable Chaplinesque acting — L Vaidyanathan, the real voice of the movie — where does one end and the other begin? This is one movie that is one standing example for the word: TEAMWORK.

This experiment hit the screens unannounced and enthralled the audience with its sheer intelligence. This movie will always stand out to be one of its kinds in its genre, in its class and maturity.

Apoorva Sagodharargal

Comedy of errors — the usual twins theme — with a revenge twist.

One of the two brothers is a midget, Appu, working as a clown in a circus, who decides to give it back to the four baddies who killed his dad (Kamal’s excellent portrayal of Sethupathy) and poisoned his mom (late Srividya). Appu with his ingenious planning and his circus accoutrement devises devious ways to dispose off the villiains. Suspected by the law however is Raja, the other brother, an innocent mechanic. Janakaraj (the cop) and Shivaji (as his sychopant assistant) are the people assigned to investigate these killings. A few cinematic licenses — Raja falling in love with one of the bad guys’ daughter, and Raja being in the wrong places at the the wrong times — are sought by the writer-director combination.

Kamal’s portrayal as Appu — his mastery in facial expressions while showing his ecstatic joy and the subsequent emotional play in the marriage registration scene — the sheer physical pain of playing a pint-sized person without using any graphics (which were almost unheard of in the Tamil movie land at that time). Tamil viewers were astonished by Kamal’s metamorphosis into a midget. Kamal and Singeetham, till date, have insisted on keeping the methods employed a close secret.

Ilaiyaraaja’s sensational music — every number a chart buster — eclectic Raaja Kaiya Vecha, haunting Unnai Nenachen, and the most extraordinary composition Puthu Mappillaikku, which intentionally runs along the lines of “Naan Paarthathiley, Aval Oruthiyaithaaan” — one of the evergreen songs from the MGR hit, Anbey Vaa.

Crazy Mohan — the name says it all. The most funniest writer of one-liners that Tamil cinema has ever seen. His dialogues for this film ensured repeat audience. Lines between the lines, double entendres (in the positive sense), in your face punch-lines — he packed them all in one script for this movie - every line is a cracker and every other line is a repartee. The Tamil audience, desperately searching for the long-forgotten “clean” comedy, were in love with his words heads over heels! And Kamal and Singeetham found their compatriot in their journey to comic cosmos.

For Mohan, this was just the beginning of a really long relationship with these creators — Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Magalir Mattum, Chinna Vathiyar, Madam, Kadhala Kadhala, Indran Chandran, Sathi Leelavathi, Avvai Shanmughi, Thenali, Pammal K Sambandam, Panchathantiram, Vasool Raja MBBS, Dasavatharam — he wrote them all.

Michael Madhana Kama Rajan

Bheem bhai Bheem bhai, antha locker lendhu aaru latchathai eduthu indha Avinashi naai moonjiyil vitteri — Just wait a nimit for five nimits — I mean what I mean, but they can’t be so mean — these lines are unforgettable — ask any Tamil movie fan!

The movie starts off with a bioscope man, inviting kids to listen to a story — that’s Singeetham singing in Ilaiyaraaja’s voice and even dancing — and the whole story is seen through the eyes of a kid who pays him to take a peek through the bioscope.

Michael (a counterfeiter), Madan (a rich heir), Kameshwaran (a Palakkad brahmin cook), and Raju (fireman and drama enthusiast) are four brothers, quadruplets at that, separated at birth. Madan recruits Raju to impersonate him; Michael decides to kidnap Madan and step into his shoes for the money; Kameshwaran gets hired to replace Madan during Madan’s absence by a crooked accountant at his office for, again, the money.

With four characters pretending to be the same character (played by the same actor) and a script that gets as screwball as they come (Crazy Mohan at his best), this must’ve been a logistical nightmare to the director and the team. Singeetham again managed to to deliver the impossible and the movie, though a moderate success, is still a cult favorite.

Consider this for a moment to be able to appreciate the smarts of this movie. Every frame in the movie involves at least four characters, sometimes more than one Kamal Haasan, positioned strategically. In this case, where the climax of the movie has all the characters present in the frame — patched inserts of close ups, head shots, and medium shots — for most of the times, the way the master shot is matched up with these individual inserts, without the usual jarring that always gives away the reality (fakeness) of the scenes, showcases the careful detail that the director has paid attention to, when handling the camera and scissors.

Links to the original posts by WB on PassionForCinema: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

[May be continued…]

Part I