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.

Recently, Madan (cartoonist-cum-writer who is also a film critic) threw some light on Kokila, an old Kannada movie featuring Kamal and Shobha. Madan, as we know, is part of Kamal’s circle of friends. Back to the movie, it happens to be the directorial debut of Balu Mahendra, with whom Kamal later colloborated in many movies including the famous Moondram Pirai (Sadma). Madan categorises the movie as a must-watch. Let me add a couple of tidbits:

• Years after Kokila, Kamal worked in a movie co-starring Sridevi and Deepa. Reminiscing his earlier work with Balu Mahendra, it was titled Meendum Kokila (Back to Kokila). Of course, the title suited the story too.
• Kokila was also the debut of another star who made a name for himself in the Tamil movies of the 80s. He is Mohan — yes, the “man with the mike”! In Kannada moviedom, he is still referred to as “Kokila Mohan”!

Have any of you watched the movie? We would love to hear from you in the Comments section.

[Updated 20 Mar 2008: Meendum Kokila did not involve Balu Mahendra]

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]

Last week, The Hindu carried a couple of articles featuring Nasser and Gautham Menon.

Nasser talks about his first break, Nayakan and how Kamal contributed to his career. To quote him:

Kamal Haasan came as a godsend. He cast me in a variety of roles and here I am.

Read the whole piece.

Gautham talks about Nayakan and Thevar Magan. The former inspired him to become a director! Some excerpts from the article:

Yes, they did say that it was inspired by The Godfather, especially, the killing of the rival gang leaders when the funeral is taking place. I have seen The Godfather also, but I think this was a brilliant film in all departments.

When I went for the first day, first show and saw that the story and screenplay was by Kamal Haasan it was a surprise. It totally moved me the way it was made and put together.

Here’s a very old piece from Rediff.com — a chat Kamal had with readers around the time of Hey Ram. Here goes Kamal, “at his wittiest best”:

…Have you ever considered making English movies? What would be your dream role?
Marudanaayagam.

Did you fear about the future when you are waiting for a breakthrough in filmdom during your adoloscence? And what would you have been now if had not been that lucky?
I never fear the unknown, if I hadn’t been that lucky I would have been a film buff.

Kamalji, how did you feel when you lost the address slip from Amala in Pushpak (last scene)?
That was not Amala’s address, don’t worry I know her address

How long do you think you can act in movies? Acting in one movie in a year, how many movies (like Hey! Ram) do you think you can give in your lifetime? Have you ever thought about this kind of planning ?
Yes, when you can think about it, you bet on your computer I would have thought about it a thousand times.

After Hey! Ram, what characters do you look forward to playing or enjoy acting?
One that gets the most applause:-)

How I wished you, the Indian/Hindustani/Bharatheeyudu, were there at KANDAHAR on IC 814, to ploy that martial art, one twist of the hijackers’ nerves, and they would have dropped dead!….No?
You are watching too many movies. NO?

Kamal, why do you make a point of having kissing scenes in your films lately??
You don’t ask that of songs? Do you like music so much? Or is it that you hate sucking face?

How I cried, watching you in Saagara Sangamam, especially when you sob holding Jaya Prada’s hand for getting a chance to perform at a cultural festival. What is it in you that makes viewers cry?
I hope it’s not my bad acting;-)

You had told that you had the habit of going through Karl Marx’s Das Capital every night before going to bed. What is the speciality of that book that attracted you?
Assured sound sleep within a few pages, I’m yet to complete it. I’m sure I’ll have company in many modern communists.

Thanks, I enjoyed it, but if I yawn, you’ll think I didn’t:-) I am because I got up at 5 and have to do that again tomorrow. *yawn* I loved it. Thank you *yawn* sorry all. Goodnight*yawn* Will be back sometime when I’m not this sleepy good *yawn* sorry night.

Enjoy the whole chat.

Pushpaka Vimana aka Pushpak aka Pesum Padam is a movie that still remains in our memories, even after about 20 years. The Economic Times carried an article on it recently. [Don’t ask me what is the connection between such a newspaper and this movie!] The piece hailed the movie as a classic, but had some criticism for Kamal outside it. Highlights:

It was a bizarrely appropriate coda for one of Indian cinema’s daring and brilliant experiments. At a time when only very self consciously art house films eschewed songs, Pushpak went a step further and did away with dialogue as well, creating one of the most sincere silent films ever made.

The primary narrative pays tribute to Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights.

The humour is pitch black at times, in a very politically incorrect sequence, Hassan and Amla take several pheras around the corpse of the owner of Pushpak, while apparently paying their last respects to him.

In a perfect world Pushpak would make it to top of any list of the greatest Indian films. Unfortunately filmic reputations are built around memorising songs and dialogues and Pushpak did not deliver on either count.

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]

[Link to video]

Thanks to ‘vivekforbes’, we get to see Kamal as we have never seen before! This footage compiled during Virumaandi, starts with a sarcastic dig at the politician who opposed the original name of ‘Sandiyar’ and moves onto show Kamal’s passion in direction, stunts and music. The source of the video is unknown.

[Via HAL]

Here’s a long, wonderful 2-part interview with Kamal done quite a while ago, by S Shiva Kumar. Shiva has been featured in multiple publications (including The Hindu. Times of India and Rediff.com), now has a blog and his admiration for Kamal comes through effortlessly. An earlier post on this blog provided delightful insights from Vishnuvardhan, the Kannada superstar, through the same journalist. We’ll have more from him in the future too.

Now, back to Kamal and the interview. From the focus on Hey Ram and direction, we can see that it was done around the turn of the millenium. Here are some highlights from a quote-collector’s delight:

I am not even rising above mediocrity. I am mediocre and have kept myself that way.

I keep trying because I’m a student of cinema and a film buff…I don’t care.

About this closet direction, no. Mine was a glass case. Everyone knew.

Even now, for me, the making of the film is more important. It doesn’t matter who gets the title. I can afford to say that because I have my face printed on celluloid.

I never wanted to be an actor. I love my crew. I want to be with them, not rise above them. Rising above them is easy. You become a tyrant, a genius or an eccentric. You rise above them and they give you a misnomer. They’ll call you a tyrant, a genius and vice versa.

Whenever I ask myself what stage of career I’m in right now, I don’t really know the answer. It’s very confusing.

I may not act at all. That’s what I tell people, but nobody takes me seriously. I might slip behind the camera. It would have happened if Hey! Ram had succeeded.

I used to be a common man and all that I’ve achieved is not real. It’s all piled on to me; it’s acquired.

My themes are very repetitive…Mine is a man’s suffering and his struggle to rise above it.

For the last 15 years, it’s my neck on the line every time. Nobody has the audacity to talk about personal losses, if at all there is any.

This dancing and prancing around and romancing heroines is on request. It comes absolutely from the audience. They want one dance and the request comes from someone in Silicon Valley

I expected from Hey! Ram whatever I expected from all my other films — success.

Even if you say I made Hey! Ram, it wouldn’t be completely right. It is not possible to do it alone. My cameraman, my art director and my costume department are equally important. I could sleep well at night because I had this crew….I don’t say this out of humility. I’m confident I would have made Hey! Ram without the Thirus and Sarikas, but that’s an arrogant way of looking at it. It would have moved away inch by inch from whatever little perfection we’ve achieved.

I felt it was high time someone at least felt sorry instead of licking their tongue like a Farex baby at the situation. That’s neither mamta (affection) nor sympathy.

It’s not chic to be a Gandhi fan. And it is clichéd to say Gandhi is a good man because it has been said a million times before. He is even on a damn rupee note. It is as boring as a non-detailed lesson. You are never going to get the moral of it till you get a detailed story.

…the debt is one’s own definition. Well, Rs 120 to Rs 150 million is a lot of money. I have to get it back and I am smiling. There’s no panic.

The only man I admire who transgressed is Spielberg. That must have been from (Francis Ford) Coppola, who must have been a great inspiration.

Especially Mani. I was astounded by him. I sort of vacillate sometimes. He never did. It’s probably that business management training. He’s very clear.

I am constantly in touch with Benegal because he’s my inspiration for Marudanayagam. He saw the script and his excitement was contagious. He thinks it is colossal and gave his suggestions. He’s a young man with a bald head. His spirit is great.

Govind and Manmohan Shetty, after Hey! Ram took a nosedive, had a small party, quietly and kept saying good things about the film. It was a touching gesture.

I recently saw a 25-year-old film. I was floored. It was shown on HBO and the film is Godfather. Absolutely classic…Performances do not have to be the latest when you’re looking at the greatest.

Move onto Shiva’s blog for the full interview.