Last week, Kamal was seen at the launch of the Indian edition of the Rolling Stone magazine in Mumbai. He was there along with his family to cheer Shruti, his daughter, who performed there. Check out the news and photos at Buzz18.com and MSN.

The sorrow is evident on his face in all the photos. Kamal participated in the homage function organized for Sujatha on Sunday, March 2.

Many of Kamal’s literary friends too can be seen in photos from Behindwoods. IndiaGlitz has photos and a video, featuring Kamal’s speech (with bad audio quality unfortunately).

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

[Click image to view larger version]

As expected, Kamal has sent out a press release paying homage to Sujatha. Here is the gist in English from The Hindu.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Sujatha (alias Rangarajan), the multi-faceted writer who contributed to many a Kamal movie is no more.

Among all the writers Kamal worked with, Sujatha was right at the top. He began his friendship with Kamal long before Vikram and it continued till date, upto Dasavatharam. Sujatha worked closely with Kamal through the years. He is said to have even customized the script-writing software in Tamil for Kamal.

While we await Kamal’s message, here are a few more samples of their association:

• One of their first meetings
• On Marudhanayagam
• Participation in functions together
  
• Involvement in Dasavatharam
• Defending Kamal on Dasavatharam story controversy

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

The Hridayaragam function happened on February 24, Sunday. Kamal was there and he mesmerised the audience with 2 songs — “Ninaivo oru paravai” from Sigappu Rojakkal and “Kiliye kili kili kiliye” from Rasaleela. Hope we get to see the video soon.

He also spoke in Malayalam at the musical event. However, it looks like they managed to collect only 75 lakhs, and not 100 lakhs as originally expected. Read reports from The Hindu, Sify.com, IndiaGlitz, KollywoodToday.com and OneIndia. IndiaGlitz carries a bevy of photos.

Earlier, Kamal attended the wedding of Professor Ku. Gnanasambandhan’s daughter, along with Gowthami. His participation was kept a secret, though it leaked out the previous night. This news was published, along with photos, in the Tamil daily, Dinamalar (the link for which is now outdated unfortunately). Kamal’s asssocation with the literary personality can be understood from earlier posts on this blog: Post 1 | Post 2.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Though not a full-blown interview, Kamal shares some thoughts presently in his mind to Times of India. The newspaper tries to sensationalize the piece by referring to his personal life and beliefs. Nevertheless, we’ll see what Kamal has to say, including doing a movie with Shruti.

“Marmayogi will be shot in Hindi as well,” Kamal says. “But I’m doing things at my own pace. I’m one of the few filmmakers in Chennai who takes every Sunday off.”

What would really excite him is a project with Shruti. “Of course, it would be interesting to work with my daughter. But it has to be an apt script. A great father-daughter story would be a perfect casting for us,” he says, hoping somebody will come up with such a script.

“…I am deeply hurt by what is happening around in the name of religion. I personally feel, whenever there is a crisis, God becomes a mere witness. I am happy with my decision,” he explains.

Read the whole piece.

On the death day of Mahatma Gandhi, here’s more from Kamal on him — an excellent full-fledged article on RadioSargam.com. When we read it now, it seems to be a good addition to Hey Ram — maybe, a preface if we imagine the movie to be a book. Here are some excerpts:

What inspires me most is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi — his attitude and approach to life. I have always felt that icons should not be idolised and stuffed with their halos and angels floating around them. It robs me of the hope that I could be like them. It is only humanising them that gives me hope in my life.

Gandhi is my hope, my friend. Do not rob my kith and kin away from me by making them messiahs of God. They are humans like me and fallible. I like to keep them on the human level. That gives me hope.

…he had the audacity and the honesty and the integrity to publicly accept and contradicts his deeds, criticise his mistakes, change track and say ‘I am sorry’ in public. I think that is what I admire by the gentleman.

…the Mahatma is not a specific post. It is a metaphysical word for a better person.

Yes, it is an easier and better view when I sat away from it. I could understand what was the problem with Godse and Nehruji. That gives me the equipoise, which they could not have had.

Go on, read the whole article.

I happened to see an interview of Kamal Haasan in a Malayalam channel when I was on holiday in Kerala recently. As usual, I was bowled over by his thought provoking views. I seem to be going very close to idolizing him!

I just wanted to put down two quotes from his interview as it struck me as very profound. So here goes.

1. To a question about religion (I didn’t hear the question fully as I just then switched on the TV), he said, “Would anyone ask a man if he is a man or a woman or what he did with his wife yesterday night? Religion is just as personal. No one should ask anyone else about it”. I thought this was a beautiful way of looking at religion and that if everyone thought of it this way, may be we will have more peace and harmony in our universe.
2. The host questioned him about whether he was afraid of aging. To which he answered, “No. Why would I? I look at life as a journey and death as a part of that journey; So, I can’t be scared of it. Every sentence has a full stop, otherwise the sentence will become boring. It’s the same with life.” I was so enthralled with this analogy, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, obviously the next thing was to blog about it.

I am not sure how this goes down with all of you, but because I caught myself thinking so much about it, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put it down for those of you who would want to reflect on it.

[Original post on My mazed interior - My Mind blog]

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]

Kamal’s close bond with Sivaji Ganesan and his family is well-known. The latter’s wife, Kamalammal, passed away a few days ago. Kamal had this to say about the lady who even had a name similar to his.

“I am grateful that she passed away after her husband expired, or the man could not have coped with her loss. They were such an intimate couple. I saw their love for each other grow beautifully over the years,” he said.

“She made sure that actors like us, who would not speak a word in front of Sivaji Ganesan, felt at ease. I played some of my films such as ‘Virumandi’ in her house and she gave me very honest, valuable feedback,” he said, adding, “She is the first lady in the history of Tamil culture.”

This was part of a report by The Hindu.